Clark - Neuter Drama Appears Over

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

dspch911

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
7,963
Location
Chicago, IL
We have Clark out right now and he seems to be fine with daddy, but he keeps coming over to me and not being so nice. I think he's trying to hump my arms and while doing this he is latching on to them and tugging with his teeth. I started "eeking" and in the beginning he let go, but now the more I eek the harder he tugs and latches on. I cannot say he is biting, but it does hurt. I think my touching his butt seems to have triggered it...

We kept him away from me for awhile and he was just over by me again and was just fine. I think Clark man is going for a neuter .... he just lost his out time privileges by nipping at daddy.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh boy...time to save up for a neuter.
For now, absolutely do not allow him to hump you or even put his teeth on you, even if it's gentle. When he's about to do this. Wrap his body with your hand and gently squeeze. Similar to the thunder shirt in dogs, this will help the rat feel more comfortable.
 
Oh boy...time to save up for a neuter.
For now, absolutely do not allow him to hump you or even put his teeth on you, even if it's gentle. When he's about to do this. Wrap his body with your hand and gently squeeze. Similar to the thunder shirt in dogs, this will help the rat feel more comfortable.


So he's scared of something all of a sudden? Could it be that daddy had the other rats out on the couch earlier and usually Clark is the first one out when the couch cover has been washed of smells? Bad idea to start intros huh?

EDIT: I should mention daddy with playing with him just prior to this by poking at this butt/back and he was getting all fluffed up.
 
Last edited:
Any chance you had the smell of your other boys on you at the time? I have several adolescent boys who are generally nice to me, but if I've been handling one of my other boy groups they will sometimes act a bit aggressively towards my arms/hands/anything that smells of the other boys. I now wash my hands and change my shirt in between groups.
 
The butt and the back is a major trigger point for most aggressive boys. I like to use that spot to test boys. If they react to that being touched usually they have a hormone issues. We can touch remy on the head. The second we touch his sides or back he gets grumpy. If he gets puffy at that other smells on the couch then he is probably a grumpy butt.
 
Any chance you had the smell of your other boys on you at the time? I have several adolescent boys who are generally nice to me, but if I've been handling one of my other boy groups they will sometimes act a bit aggressively towards my arms/hands/anything that smells of the other boys. I now wash my hands and change my shirt in between groups.

The butt and the back is a major trigger point for most aggressive boys. I like to use that spot to test boys. If they react to that being touched usually they have a hormone issues. We can touch remy on the head. The second we touch his sides or back he gets grumpy. If he gets puffy at that other smells on the couch then he is probably a grumpy butt.


Its possible I had some smells on me, but daddy definitely did and he didn't try to hump him, but daddy definitely had him worked up from the butt thing he was doing. I have noticed that he has been getting irritated faster and getting more puffy when he does this than when we first got him. I have mentioned it to the hubby since Clark spins around like he's going to bite him, but never does. Snip snip in his future. Off with the gonads
guillotine.gif
 
Clark is learning what time out means..... Daddy thought just putting him back into his cage when he grabbed/tugged/latched on was acceptable, but I didn't think that taught him why he was being put back. So, now when he thinks he can grab skin and pull on it or nip harder than he should he gets 10 minutes of time out. I feel this will teach him his behavior is not acceptable and after his first 10 minutes he did not come back to my arms... he did a little tugging on daddy's, but saying no stopped him... We do give him a few chances on his own to stop first before the time out.
 
Clark had his first rib bones today (maybe second, but I don't think so). He said YUMMY!!!! :banana: Only two time outs so far today, but he keeps stealing my notebook and loose paper and taking it over to daddy!!
 
He got me last night and broke skin, but I'm not classifying it as an actual "bite" (more like a paper cut) he thinks my arms are girl rats and are hump able and he latches on with his teeth and hold on with all four paws - only he is really latching on now!! He got daddy a couple time to with nips, but I think he just doesn't have proper "play social skills" since he never really had any time with another rat to learn them. He seems to be just fine for the first hour he is out and about, but after that he gets possessed. He is next up on the neuter list after Tucker's hernia repair unless something else comes up first. He just gets time outs until then.

Hope I don't get rat bite fever :rofl5:
 
LOL! I should be long dead of rat bite fever! You should see the number of scratches I can show off everyday... and now with nippy Carmela, I did get my fair share of bites!
 
Creeper got me again yesterday - did a pretty good job too. I had just finished tell the hubby he was starting to get in his "mood" when my arm starts looking like a mate. He latched on and of course the hubby spazs which freaks out Clark so he grips harder with teeth and nails. I have no idea when the hubby will learn to stop spazing out and the rat will let go - he always makes it worse for me. The scratches are worse than the bite. So if I count the scratch and bite marks for the past 2 days I have a 25 chances of rat bite fever - and I'm predicting I'll be just fine cause I washed them out really good and applied neosporin.....
 
LoL - gotta train that man of yours. After all, only one of them is up for a neuter, right?

Yes, at this moment he is the only one! Tucker is getting hernia surgery next week and Kona's lump on his back is getting HUGE, but we're still holding out since everytime we remove some more grow back, but this is by far is biggest, but it doesn't seem to bother him. I'm hoping for an abscess, but that has never been the case for him.
 
Pretty soon, you should be able to predict the bite and prevent it. Each time the rat gets a bite in, it's reinforcing to him so we really need to stop the bite from happening in the first place.
Your poor body parts. :(
 
Pretty soon, you should be able to predict the bite and prevent it. Each time the rat gets a bite in, it's reinforcing to him so we really need to stop the bite from happening in the first place.
Your poor body parts. :(

I knew it was coming - I saw the turn in his demeanor and he had already started with the smaller grab and tugs, but was stopping when I said no. Like I said, I had just told the hubby he was getting in his mood - meaning we needed to end his play time, but we didn't end it in time. He came towards my arm and the hubby startled him from behind and he clamped onto my forearm. He hit a vein too cause I bruised immediately! It seems like his cut off time is at an hour.
 
I have two boys who are similar. It's like Jo said - you'll learn to see bites before they happen. I hope Clark's neuter day gets here soon, for the sake of your poor fingers.
 
Back
Top