# Does anyone elses rats only bite certain people?



## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

Because my rat, Pippin has a grudge against my mother for some reason. If my mum changes their water or food while I'm gone or sticks her hands in the cage, Pippin will bite her. She's drawn blood a couple times and it probably doesn't help that my mum laughs it off and keeps sticking her hands in. But if anyone else puts their hands in, she'll lick them. She's a very lovable rat to everyone exept my mum. But the thing is, she use to be lovable to her too. This biting has only been happening for the past 4-5 months. And it only happened after my dog started putting his nose up to the cage. Pippin would get really defensive and bite my dogs nose. She would even attack her cagemate, Merry if she got too close to my dog. So that made me asume shes mistaking my mums hand for my dog but I (and anyone else) can still put my hand up to her after I've rubbed them all over my dog and she just lick me. Maybe she just hates her lol.


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

Btw, Pippin is the rat in my icon. Look at her, shes so sweet. Well, except to my mum.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

Do you think maybe something accidentally happened between Pippen and your mum that may have scared her badly?


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

Not that I know of.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

I'm not trying to cast suspicion on your mom, but would she tell you if something happened? I would be terrified to tell someone if I inadvertently scared their pet!


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

And yes, your ratty is truly adorable. Anga is the rat in my icon. She has a COD about hoarding food.


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## Kuildeous (Dec 26, 2014)

My Penumbra would nip at my wife sometimes during play time. She never nipped me. We're not sure why it happened. Some theories were that Penumbra liked the sound of my wife squealing and would try to work it out of her. 

We've bopped her on the nose when she did that and also dragged her by her scruff like mommies did. I'm not certain that either one was effective or if time was the solution, but she hasn't bitten my wife in a long time. 

She never drew blood, though. Your situation sounds more extreme than mine.


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## dguizzy (Jun 9, 2014)

Maybe try having your mom use clean hands when dealing with the rats, if her hands smell like the dog, that's whats making me think your ratty would be biting her. Something to try out!


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

Does you Mom spend a lot of time with the dog? Rats have incredible sense of smell and if she hates the dog and your Mom smells like dog it seems reasonable it would upset her.

2 of my girls hate the bunny and if you pet the bunny and don't wash your hands before going into their cage they get into boxing position. No blood drawn, but they will box us till we go wash our hands.

Fizzly Bear is a sweetheart of a male that I have, but he's gotten hormonal now that he is older. People he doesn't know well, he'll literally launch himself at. I've never given him the chance, but he would draw blood I'm sure to people he doesn't know.


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## MinorRobot (Aug 13, 2014)

Ha! Claudia does this too! Bite my mom when she rat-sits. She bites anyone who watches her (I think it's a territory thing), but she especially seems to love terrorizing my mother. She literally chased my mom around the room last time I was gone!

Got not advice for why or how to make her stop- but I can share my solution (in case you need one). I have a two-story cage. I took a small weight (like the kind that come off of dumbbells), put it flat down on the second story with tied two pieces of wire to it, leading outside opposite ends of the cage with a metal hoop on each end (so that the rats can't pull them back into the cage). My mom can pull the wires to drag the weight over the entrance between the two levels, keeping her on one side while she cleans and puts fresh food/water in the other. It works really well! I happened to have the weight laying around, I'm sure you could use something else though.

And yes, she's super cute!


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## cirice (Nov 15, 2015)

All of my rats have HATED my mom, even though she likes them. They'll let her pet them, but always try biting her. They also do that with my grandma. They won't do it with my dad, grandpa, or me, however.


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## abratforarat (Jan 12, 2014)

Some rats just hate certain people! I've read about it. Someone on here has a rat that hates men. She IS adorable, by the way


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## sharkboy (Feb 19, 2016)

Maybe your mom smells like the dog? Rats have an extraordinary sense of smell. Could be it if your mom pets/feeds/plays with the dog a lot.


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## eaturbyfill (Aug 23, 2012)

I think it could be related to the dog as well. My rats have been loving of everyone, except for when a cat-owning friend came over. Two of the rats I had at the time were mortally terrified of her and leaped away to get back into their cage. They had never done anything like that before.


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## JustAGirlAndHerRats (Nov 12, 2015)

One of my girls, Reggie doesn't like girls that much. She won't bite them, or be mean but she won't cuddle up to them or relax with them either. It sort of sucks since she doesn't like me that much either...


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