Rat Forum - Rat Behavior

Help! I've got a biter.

AimeeLouLou — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:55:34 GMT

Hello - Right first ill give you a little background information!

I've had a few rats before so i'm not completely new to this, but i've come across a rat who has really made me rethink everything.
Pepper is around 18 months old. He and his brother came to me in a really bad state in January. His brother nearly died due to pepper stealing all his food so they had to be separated. Pepper was neutered not long after and seems to have calmed down now but unfortunately him and Salt can never go back together. So instead he has two little girlies coming down from Manchester for him!

Pepper is and always has been since i've had him a biter. He hated being touched when i first adopted him so much that he could bite through three layers of clothes if you did. However, we've kind of got over that issue! Using the spoon and baby food technique he now lets me stroke him and give him a little scratch which is brilliant! He actually sat on my lap for the first time last night.
However, if i pick him up he rips my hand apart. In a really aggressive way, not in a nip type way.

So i was wondering, what techniques are there that i could use to get him used to being picked up? Ive tried the spoon and yogurt trick, gardening gloves (Which he hates more) and i've got a bonding bag (But i dont think that would make much difference, or would it?)

Thank you for reading and any suggestions you may have!

Aimee

Nippy baby rat :(

tanya — Mon, 20 May 2013 02:56:16 GMT

I recently adopted three 6-week-old ratties, and while two of them are very sweet, the third one will nip my fingers sometimes - and I can't figure out why. Today he seemed to be biting harder than before, he broke skin (though just barely) and the bites are actually hurting me later though the previous ones did not. He is Dopsy, my smallest rat of the three, and although he actually squirms less when picked up and handled than his huge dominant brother Edwin (who seems to find being picked up an affront to his dignity, though is friendly and curious) and calms down getting pets in my lap like his cuddlebug middle brother Oswald, he chomps my hand during playtime and I just don't know what he's thinking when he does it.

This has been going on since I got them a week ago, but when being petted he isn't always aggressive (he was snuggling in my lap with no problem last night), and during free play time in the bathtub he isn't different from his brothers. The nips so far have all occured when I am handling him and his brothers in the cage. All week long I have been saying NO when he bites and then ignoring him for a bit before resuming play. I thought I was making progress; yesterday when I put my hand in their cage he didn't bite at all and actually came and groomed and licked along with his brothers, for the first time (usually during playtime he would mouth me a little, nip, and then get NO'd and ignored until the cycle repeated.) It was so wonderful! But this morning when I was patting and getting licks from Oswald, Dopsy lunged out of their igloo all of a sudden with no warning and chomped me hard, and managed to break the skin. During evening playtime I offered him my fingers hoping the morning was a fluke and he mouthed my fingers for a few seconds, then bit hard again. It was so discouraging.

Can't figure out why he'd do this...I don't think he has any reason to distrust humans due to his past, since I got him from a rescue where his foster mom handled him and his brothers regularly as they grew up. Anything I can do differently? I've switched to EEKing instead of no'ing but I can't think of anything else to change.

Tail wiggling!!!!

Voltage — Sun, 19 May 2013 20:38:34 GMT

I really need to stop making new threads. So I was playing with my little girl, Arya, on the bed earlier. She loved to run around and explore and she ducks in and out of the blankets and plushies on the bed and will hide behind the pillow and then run out to greet me or just check in with me. She is very hyper and very playful. And earlier while I was recording her running around she just stopped, stood still and stared at my hand and WIGGLED her tail like rapidly. She looked like she was ready to pounce. And then I moved and she bolted away and popped up on the other side of some plushies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icnhoSdepkU <--- here is the video. It happens at about 1:06

I've looked it up a lot but no one really seems to know what the tail wiggling means. I was wondering if anyone could tell what her mood is by the video. She seems to trust me despite only having her for a week and being from petsmart. She grooms my hand and happily jumps on me and even lets me pick her up.

Rats on my head

RattieLove* — Sun, 19 May 2013 20:04:49 GMT

Am I the only one who's rat apparently loves to climb on their head? Lol my girls like to sit on my shoulder or in my sleeve a lot as we don't really have a good free range area right now and Noelle just loves climbing up over my bun and onto my head! I have to put my hair up when I'm with them cause I have a lot of curly hair and they get tangled in it haha, and she uses my bun to haul herself up. As soon as I take her off she goes back up again. It's cute but I'm always so paranoid she's gonna relieve herself in my hair loll! She's on my head as we speak now XD anyone else have a rat that does this?

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Rat vs Cat Feud

RattieLove* — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:18:16 GMT

So in addition to my 2 pearl merle females, I have my gorgeous kitty Molly. So a few weeks after my rats settled in I safely held Molly in front of their cage and they sniffed eachother and then basically lost interest after a few seconds. Later, I safely held Noelle up to Molly while Molly was lounging around. This went fine as well. A few days ago, I held noelle up to Molly again and noelle (my rat) screeched at her! It w

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litter training

madisonsale — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:11:38 GMT

i think i've managed to litter train my girls ... so far so good at least. the problem is its only with poo's. how would you suggest i go about training the wee's? i trained the poo's by picking the stray poops up and putting them in the litter tray. i've tried doing similar with the wee (collecting the wet substrate and putting it in the litter) but it appears its just confused them.

i'm stumped :(

Bonding with a large group?

PandaBruja — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:58:47 GMT

How do you trust train and bond with your rats when you have several newbies?
As some of you may know, I recently aquired three new young rats and welcomed 7 babies a week ago. I plan on keeping 3 babies. The problem is
ive been so busy worrying about the babies, I haven't really spent time with the others Mama rat is super friendly but when I let her out to play I kinda leave her alone because she gets enough stress throughout the day by the babies. By the time the babies are weaned I will have 6 rats to bond with. I feel like its going to be overwhelming! Whats the best way to go about this? Id have to sit with them all day to get them each one on one time! ****, maybe I will :D

Naughty rat

Ratfinx — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:32:06 GMT

I walked out the room for five minutes came back and couldn't fine blue, then I noticed my bedding moving... The video explains it all
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nhKXkLCQ6O0

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My rat seems to be lonely and depressed

Voltage — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:19:49 GMT

Last Saturday I brought home two female rats. I picked out a lovely champagne husky dumbo rat and later named her Toast. My boyfriend picked out a brown hooded fancy rat and named her Arya. We bought a temporary cage til the huge one I ordered arrived. On Wednesday night Toast started having a head tilt and she was moving around very sluggishly. She was still eating and drinking, I think she had a couple seizures but I'm not sure if it was a seizure or her trying to get up and regain her balance. My boyfriends mom was POSITIVE that she had a stroke (they had a raccoon who died of a stroke and displayed similar symptoms) The next day we took her to petsmart so they could take her to the vet since she was still under warranty. They have been keeping me very updated and reassured me it was probably just an ear infection and not a stroke. I'm still waiting for a call from them to find out exactly what it was. I called earlier and they had just dropped her off at the vet and she is still alive and eating. Toast and Arya were very close and Arya comforted Toast through the night and the rest of the day til we took her to petsmart. They told us she wouldn't be able to come home for probably two weeks but I'd be able to call and check on her and visit her as often as I'd like until then. Unfortunately this petsmart is an hour away and while I'd gladly go every day, I don't think anyone will take me til she can be picked up. All their previous cagemates at this store had already been purchased so the guy who was helping us called the closest store with female rats. They happened to have one, tan hooded rat. So we went and bought her and brought her home. The new cage had arrived when we brought her home so we introduced Arya and the new rat which we named Peanut Butter in this cage. They get along great and were playing yesterday and last night. But today Arya seems kinda depressed. I think she misses Toast. I know they are very intelligent so I wonder if she thinks this new rat is supposed to replace Toast.
She has just been curled up in the corner of the very top shelf of the cage closest to mine and my boyfriend's bed. I think she was cold so I gave her some fluffy nesting material but she kinda pushed it to the side. Normally she liked to hide in the boxes, and yesterday her and Peanut Butter were all curled up together, Arya even slept on Peanut Butter at one point.

What can I do to cheer her up?
Toast won't be back til two weeks from now depending on the severity of whatever her condition is. And in the back of my mind I'm absolutely terrified that the vet will put her down without my consent since they had to refund me for her in order for her to get the vet care. So technically she does not belong to me right now. And that scares the crap out of me. But like I mentioned, they have been very informative and have been keeping me updated. I told them no matter what I want her back, even if she becomes a special needs rat or is handicapped in any way whatsoever. I am more than prepared to give her anything she needs upon return.

Territorial over Tent

Debra — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:08:24 GMT

Its me again.. lol.

Louise is slowly coming out of her shell. She doesn't panic when someone is in the same room as her cage and she even walked out of her cage all on her own yesterday.

But.

Of course there is a but.

Louise has a hanging tent that she hoards everything in. She nests in it with pieces of flannel, papertowels and bedding. And very rarely will she eat anything outside this tent.

And while she has never bitten me, I havent really pushed but I need to get my hand in there and clean some of that stuff out! When I approach with my hand she sort of lunges towards the entrance and goes into a statue.

I know if I did push the issue, she would bite. She got in this same position when I had to take her babies away and bit me. (They weren't in this tent though, they were on the bottom in a nest)

So I don't really know what to do to get her over this tent territorialness.

I have been thinking about taking it out for a day or two, putting it back, taking it out, and so forth. So its not something she can rely on.. if that makes any sense?

I have also thought of holding the tent with her inside it. Sort of like a bonding pouch.

I don't want to stress her out too much because my poor girl has had it pretty rough but I won't tolerate territorial aggression. Especially since I will be attempting to introduce her babies back to her in a couple weeks.

This tent is my biggest fear for that right now. Like I trust Louise will be okay with her babies but I just have this gut feeling that she would certainly give them a good nip over this tent.

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4 new rats

Agapi — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:48:15 GMT

I am picking up four new adopted rats tomorrow. We are very excited, We pretty much followed the introduction steps when I bought 2 young rats for my older rat and that all went well. My question is this is there anything I should do differently when it come to the integration time. Should I for example introduce the new rats one at a time into my little group. My plan was group activities following as before keeping them separate and quarantined. Then cages near each other, followed by periods of cage swapping in groups. Socialising separately as I'm not sure how much handling the new rats have had (10 month approx.) . At this point I thought I would put one of the new rats in with my group or put them all in the bath tub with my son (dry bath and fully clothed) that worked well last time. Is the face to face introduction best done one at a time and if so I assume the group I have coming will already have a Queen Rat. Should I introduce her first to my group or last. Does it matter will they just find their own pecking order. I'm really hoping this all goes well don't really want 2 cages :) ..Any advice would be welcome

dogs and rats (scared?)

Dayumie — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:24:26 GMT

I have a dog up at my fiances house and he barks all the time for a long period. I'm worried that my three girls will get very scared by the barking. They have been raised around the smell of cats but not dogs. They won't be near the dog but I'm just worried that they may get freaked out by the smell or the sound of him barking. He's only a little dog but I don't want my girls to be freaked out.

My rats are peeing on their chew blocks

Voltage — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:51:33 GMT

I bought these fruit flavored colorful wood blocks for my rats to chew on and instead of chewing on them they are peeing on them. Is there any reason why they are doing this and should I be removing the chew blocks from their cage?
Both rats are female.

running around??

cupcakezzz — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:26:00 GMT

so i have a rat and shes my first ever. should she be allowed to roam free? i have seen lots of threads about other peoples rats roaming around but i get worried shell get away or get hurt? and if i do let her roam what should i do to be sure the room is safe for her?

is it normal?

cupcakezzz — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:38:19 GMT

hey guys! i have a little girl named alice she is my first rat ever! i love her and ive had her for almost a year and she is really lazy she never runs on her wheel or anything is that normal? im worried she might be depressed or something. what should i do?