[ellismera]

Hi, Thanks for all the help so far it has been really beneficial. My rats have come out of their shell alot in the past two weeks and one especially is a little monkey . Now hes started ro come out more and explore he keeps sniffing all of me. However, recently hes found I wear fluffy socks and nibbles at them. However, recently this has moved to placing teeth on my hands and fingers. He never nips hard and never breaks the skin. Is this a habit I should break or not? I don't want to make him timid again, but I also want to keep him in hid place. Thanks

 

[Hedgian]

I had fuzzy socks too while having my nibbler out. He nibbled a bit on the socks before moving to the base of my earbuds and nibbling that. he was so presistent on nibbling it that when i blocked it with my hand he nibbled on me hand. So i would probably stop the behaviour

 

[new_rattie_mommy]

My rats bite my fuzzy socks hard...so hard lol they want to steal them as nesting material I think cuz 2 of my 3 do it and they are my more rambunctious ones. So watch out that the nipping of the socks may get harder and you may have to defend your feet lol. But I wouldn't be too worried about the fingers personally. Some people are very strict and say to nip any kind of biting in the butt right away but when I first got my boys they would test out my fingers, mistaking them for food when i would feed them treats. Then it stopped for a while. Then they started nibbling my fingers very gently every once and a while and still do that to this day, idk if it's out of curiosity or just for fun or what but it has never turned into an issue for me. You can judge on your own though whether you feel like the nibbling is becoming harder that it's going to become a problem then I would probably try to stop it. I've never personally been worried about it though.

 

[Kitterpuss]

My boys also have a sock fetish. I think a lot of rats do! It's not an aggressive thing - I think they don't quite understand socks and want to rid our feet of them! Sometimes they get too rough and I yelp and pull away my foot. My boys understand the word 'no' so if it does hurt I gently discourage them and they usually trundle off to create mischief elsewhere

 

[ellismera]

Thanks for the replies. I might leave it if you have never had any issues. I don't mind the sock pulling or biting. It was the hand nibbling that I was more concerned about. But he never bites hard and he is a really mischievous character!

 

[Jessiferatu]

Oh, August did this to me the other night out of the blue and I was shocked! He never bites, ever. But if I take the socks off, he grooms my feet. Lol. So I guess it's just socks! Most of my rats have nibbled at my fingers at one time or another, never any hard biting. It's probably curiosity and playfullness.

 

[Ratpax]

I am not asking this to be snarky, truly--just to jog some pondering...but, why do humans so often say that, about "keeping animals in their place"?

Where is his place, actually?

As your companion, or as your subject?

Just food for thought ;D

 

[cvieira]

I've never actually heard of rats that don't bite socks. They seem to be totally obsessed. I don't know how old your boy is, but young rats often explore with their mouths. If he isn't actually biting you hard enough to where it actually hurts you, I wouldn't worry. My girls always would nibble my fingers and stuff, and eventually just grew out of it. They haven't grown out of the chomping on my socked feet whenever they scurry by them. I just don't wear socks around them anymore

 

[sarasmithhh]

My rat has a sock fettish and she bites my toes hard! I usually just eek and she'll stop but if she doesn't I snap my fingers and say no. And if she really won't stop i put her back into her cage