# My Rat Suddenly Wants to Bite My Lips?



## cephres (Sep 8, 2014)

Not *just* my lips either, he wants to put his face in my mouth!

So while this may seem comical, it came on out of nowhere last night. He walked up my chest, sniffed, then nibbled my lips, and suddenly pried them open! He even scratched my tongue, it was pretty gross. I thought it was a minor curiosity because of something I had eaten, but it happened again today and he is more aggressive, to the point where he has bitten and scratched my lips quite hard.

Has he just learned that my mouth is a source of yummy treats? How can I get him to stop? I can't even hold him right now because he instantly goes to force open my mouth haha... Advice is truly appreciated!


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Just keep removing him and saying NO. I think pretty much all of mine went through a stage where they wanted to do this but none do it anymore. Once he realizes there's nothing for him in there and you don't want him doing it he should stop. I typically just don't encourage my rats to be near my face as I've had everything thing from hands fishing down my ears to attempts at pulling out my eyelashes lol


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## ratsrdog35 (Dec 28, 2014)

Just squeek or eep when your rat tries to claw or bite or if it seems that hes about to.
To "squeek" purse your lips and breath in, to eep say "eep" in a high pitched tone.

Your rat will likely jump back and not try it again.
Squeeking means "ouch" in rat language.


Also, many rats like to clean teeth, it is called "rodentistry".


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## Maddie (Jan 13, 2014)

Ugh, my guys went through a phase of this and yeah they all try at some point. I just kept having to tell them "no", and I wouldn't bop them but lightly tap their nose.

My girls have managed to learn when I make kissy sounds they can give me a kiss, but I don't want them in my mouth. Lol the boys never got over it and were too interested in climbing into my mouth which wasn't cool. Yeah, keep reinforcing tht you don't want that an they will learn.


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## cephres (Sep 8, 2014)

Thank you all so much!! The "eep" noise has especially been helping.


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## erinsweeney (Nov 13, 2014)

I let mine groom out my mouth haha it feels good!


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

At one time or another all of our rats have gone through the dentistry phase, some get over it, other's will continue to preen the dead skin from your lips and poke their heads into your mouth to clean your teeth and gums all of their lives... our girl Cloud particularly enjoys rat dentistry and Fuzzy Rat preened my lips one last time less than an hour before she passed away, it seemed very important to her to make sure my lips were properly preened before she died... She was very sick, and not very gentle and it hurt, but I didn't stop her... 

Rats preen each other, it's an important bonding exercise, yes it might not be very sanitary, but I think they mean well...


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