Rescue rat test nips too hard!

I volunteer for a rescue and am fostering a rat for them. He is a very unsocialized, dominant male that's around one year to 1.5 years old. He came up to me and test nipped my finger. But hard. So hard my finger swelled up and bled.
It seems his issue is that he wasn't taught against test nipping that hard. He wasn't showing any dominant behaviour, he's the only rat here and he gave zero signs of aggression. I didn't even try to lift him or interact with him. He simply walked up to my finger and nipped.
My question is, how do I tease this behaviour out of him? How do I teach him that he needs to be more gentle?
Neutering isn't an option unfortunately, because it would make him an expensive rat to adopt out, which would reduce his ability to be adopted.
Any advice would be wonderful.

MissA said:

I volunteer for a rescue and am fostering a rat for them. He is a very unsocialized, dominant male that's around one year to 1.5 years old. He came up to me and test nipped my finger. But hard. So hard my finger swelled up and bled.
It seems his issue is that he wasn't taught against test nipping that hard. He wasn't showing any dominant behaviour, he's the only rat here and he gave zero signs of aggression. I didn't even try to lift him or interact with him. He simply walked up to my finger and nipped.
My question is, how do I tease this behaviour out of him? How do I teach him that he needs to be more gentle?
Neutering isn't an option unfortunately, because it would make him an expensive rat to adopt out, which would reduce his ability to be adopted.
Any advice would be wonderful.

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OK how old is your lad? So when he bit you, he broke the skin and it swelled up? As soon as they break the skin and there's real bleeding we call this a bite not a nip. Does he get agitated before hand, is his fur puffed up, does he dig or rub on anything while you have him out? Was he out of the cage or inside the cage when he did this?

As I said in the post, he's a rescue, so his exact age is unknown. He's most likely over a year old. He bit hard enough that it hurt, bled bad and swelled up.
I said nip initially because he didn't show any signs of aggression, and it seemed he was testing my finger but simply bit too hard.
When I touch him, he does puff up. He is a very dominant male. So, I refrained from touching/handling him, when I noticed him puffing up.
He was out of his cage when it occurred. I should add, I've only had him for 24 hours.

aww he sounds like maybe he was just stressed out, first day jitters and all.
I'd give him several days at least to settle in, first.

then you can try feeding him yummy things off a spoon, and work up to feeding them from your fingers or off the back of your hand
(I'm in the process of doing this with a very scared male that I'm fostering but he was neutered so he's not at all aggressive now, just scared and not used to people)

as you already know, if you see him puff up, don't approach him, you want to wait til he's calm.
How do you know that he's a dominant male, was he in with other males at some point? does he live alone now?


here's a site that has a lot of useful tips, I don't know that all of them work, but I've tried some of them with success

http://www.joinrats.com/

specifically this is the technique I tried http://www.joinrats.com/ModifyBehavior/Relationship/

The one thing that has worked from that site is this: I come into the room where my scared boy is (Nemo) when he relaxes just a tiny bit, I go away, which is what he wants me to do
I did this for weeks, til gradually he felt like he had some control of his situation, and he calmed down and eventually he'd take food from my hands

Today we are working on him licking food OFF my fingers, very scary for me but he's doing ok, he does try to grab my finger and run off with it though LOL

I got this boy in mid July I believe. He was in much worse shape than yours I think, since he would not even eat out in the open, he was always hiding and if I got too close, he'd freeze and almost look like he'd had a heart attack or something LOL
Poor guy

but my boy is neutered, is there any way the rescue would consider getting yours neutered? he'd be a lot easier to work with, and there's the potential to get him in with another more confident rat who can show him that people are ok.

My guy is now living with 4 females and it's made a big difference. he still needs a lot of work but I'm sure I never could have gotten him as far as he's come without the girls
They gave him the confidence to come out of hiding and explore. mostly, explore THEM at first LOL

Now he's got a bunch of ladies doting on him

I hope you can get some buddies for your boy. What's his name?

he does sound hormonal. they often will start with nipping that can very quickly become a frenzy of biting, by then they are huffing and puffing and biting and possibly chattering their teeth. Hopefully he just has no manners and needs reminders on them.

if he starts to nip, remove your hands or whatever he is nipping from him...do not hold him down, or push him away...this can set off a hormonal male and they will just keep coming at you. if he seems unhappy and jumpy about you touching his back or rump, just don't. This can set off a hormonal male. Make sure he doesn't crawl over your arm because they could start biting to dominate you...its fast and scary, and its best to just remove YOU from the situation. I often use my voice as a training aid and you'd be surprised how much rats will respond. they lean forward, mouth opening slowly, i say Uhuhuh..they stop, realize I have caught them and pull back. Of course this is more a cheeky male than a hormonal rage type.

Are you able to get us a video so we can see his body language and see where in the spectrum he is? Fear aggression, rude, cheeky or starting down the hormonal trail.

The rescue is unable to neuter him if he gets unhandleable?

listen to lilspaz, she's got a LOT more experience than me
:exactly:

Petunia said:

listen to lilspaz, she's got a LOT more experience than me
:exactly:

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I agree, and he sounds hormonal to me too. I had one just like that. He did go after my arm like it was his "Girlfriend" it hurts and it gets worse. Neutering was the fix and he was the sweetest rat with the most personality ever before and after the neuter, except for these moments of hormonal rage against my arm. Definitely do not touch his butt area and like she said watch for the signs and back away.

My arm also became my rat's girlfriend. I couldn't believe it, he just coming back and getting me again when I tried to move away from him. My hands were dripping blood and (months later) I still have deep scabs. I had never had boys before, so didn't recognize the rubbing behavior. He got neutered a week ago and I'm waiting to see how long it takes for him to stop rubbing his sides on things...

Last night, when I had him out he searched out my hands and tried to bite, but I moved myself in time, then he jumped onto my shoulder when I wasn't looking and bit my ear pretty hard, it bled. His behavior really does feel hormonal.
I've spoken with the rescue and we've agreed that neutering is the best thing for him. Thanks for your advice everyone.

MissA said:

Last night, when I had him out he searched out my hands and tried to bite, but I moved myself in time, then he jumped onto my shoulder when I wasn't looking and bit my ear pretty hard, it bled. His behavior really does feel hormonal.
I've spoken with the rescue and we've agreed that neutering is the best thing for him. Thanks for your advice everyone.

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Neutering him will be best and then start over again with trust training.