2 of my rats are obsessed with hands

[littlematchstick]

ok these are 2 scenerios in 1 post so bare with me here.

One of my rats, Luna, seems obsessed with my hands--in a bad way.I must state--she has never outright bit me..but she definatley has issues with my hands. She has given me warning nips when I try and pick her up. And she also has this new obsession with shoving my hands out of the cage. if I stick them between the bars she will shove them out with ALL of her might, and she is a lot stronger then I expected! she has always hated being touched, but the hand shoving thing is a fairly new thing with her. As background info, she came from a rat lab on my college campus in the psych department. I'm unsure if she went through any testing but she was seperated from her mom fairly young and was housed alone. Although she was handled everyday as part of the testing procedures. I'm sure this has at least something to do with it, but I was curious if anyone had any other ideas?

my 2nd question is. I have another rat, Jerry, who has pretty much the opposite issue. If I stick my hands in teh cage he claws frantically at them trying to pull them into the cage and he will latch on with his teeth and pull as hard as he can to get them inside. He will also push the other two out of the way and squeak at them if they get in his way. But it is like a frantic clawing and grabbing and pulling. He never breaks the skin or is being aggressive really, he just wants to pull my hands in for some reason. This is a fairly new thing (within the last few days) he is about 8 months old. And I have washed my hands (incase it was food/smell related) but no matter what I do..he just seems to go nuts about it. Any ideas?

 

[jorats]

Both those behaviours are common, natural and silly rat quirks. For Luna, is she living on her own or does she have buddies? It looks to me she's trying to protect her home. For her, I would do extra socializing, mainly holding her to show her that nothing bad is going to happen.
For Jerry, try giving him napkin tissues through the bars, he's probably going to enjoy that game. He's just grabby and wants everything. He might out grow that.
But for both and all your rats, I would avoid putting my fingers through the bars especially if you find it's stressing them one way or another. Best to avoid stress and work more on socializing. Even just opening the door and standing there talking to them is extra socializing.

 

[littlematchstick]

Both those behaviours are common, natural and silly rat quirks. For Luna, is she living on her own or does she have buddies? It looks to me she's trying to protect her home. For her, I would do extra socializing, mainly holding her to show her that nothing bad is going to happen.
For Jerry, try giving him napkin tissues through the bars, he's probably going to enjoy that game. He's just grabby and wants everything. He might out grow that.
But for both and all your rats, I would avoid putting my fingers through the bars especially if you find it's stressing them one way or another. Best to avoid stress and work more on socializing. Even just opening the door and standing there talking to them is extra socializing.

Luna lives with 2 other girls and they get along wonderfully. She has gotten better with me handling her over the last year or so that I've had her. When I first got her she was INCREDIBLY fearful. She would just poop and pee if I even LOOKED like I was going to move in her direction. But I've worked with her quite a bit, I can usually pick her up and she'll sit on my shoulder and hang out, and she will crawl on me and whatnot. Just sometimes she still freaks out and gives me warning nips. This whole pushing thing was new though. I've just never seen it til recently and was wondering if it was something to worry about. I will definatley always continue to work with her and hold her and work on trust. I will also avoid putting my fingers in the cage, I never really thought about it stressing her out, so I will definatley not do that anymore with her.

As for Jerry, I will definatley try out the napkin idea,I do think he would enjoy it. I was just a little concerned because it was a new behavior and it wasn't gradual--he just started getting all frantic and stuff. Usually if I put my fingers in there..he would just groom them and stuff..but not the last few days!

Thanks for the info and Ideas Jo!

 

[jorats]

If the rats are the same with their buddies, then I chalk it up to their silliness. It's when they change with their buddies that I worry.

 

[Leala]

I agree with Jo.

One of my rats has this strange quirk. He will sometimes chew at the cage bars like he's trying to get out so I try and take him out and he runs away to chew somewhere else.. Then I will stick my finger in where he's chewing, he will gently take my finger in his mouth and push it as far to one side as he can then go back to his chewing.

All rats have silly little personality quirks

 

[littlematchstick]

I agree with Jo.

One of my rats has this strange quirk. He will sometimes chew at the cage bars like he's trying to get out so I try and take him out and he runs away to chew somewhere else.. Then I will stick my finger in where he's chewing, he will gently take my finger in his mouth and push it as far to one side as he can then go back to his chewing.

All rats have silly little personality quirks

Oh I have cage bar chewers too! All my rats are weirdos..lol..I was just more concerned since it was a NEW behavior and they seemed to already be established in their quirks previously. I guess they just decided to add more weirdness to the list...yay for me! haha