Controlling playful biting

[Weaselsue]

I think I made a a mistake when interacting with my girl and it’s become a danger to me, and made it difficult to interact with her. She likes to play rough, and bites us hard when she does. The other girls don’t seem to have any issue with her, and she is gentler with my wife, who just uses the soft nonono when she gets close to skin. I was hoping I could get her to be gentle when she plays with me and I have bare skin, but that I could still get her a chance to play rough by using a cut glove or other strong barrier. Any advice? The one article I read online said to use mint flavored lotion because they don’t like it, but my girls absolutely love eating my mint plants. Any suggestions? Or do I just have to stop playing with her like that? I’m afraid she’ll get bored and play rougher with the other girls again, and I know they don’t want that.

 

[TheFatRatGirl]

I think the dislike of mint is an old wive's tale for deterring wild rats. Mine love it too, and apparently rats will often deliberately groom it into their fur to act as a parasite repellent.

As for the biting, I would say to check her body language closely. If she's puffing up at all or coming to you side-on rather than straight-on then it may well be a warning bite rather than playful nipping. I've suffered this before when misreading a playful rat's cues and going too far with the tackles and tickling.

If she's very bouncy and is doing none of the above, then I would try a sharp 'tsst' or high pitched squeak when she bites too hard. She might not mean to hurt you, rats tend to play pretty rough because they're so resilient.

 

[jorats]

I think at this point, it's best if you stop playing rough with her. Her nipping could actually escalate to a real bite. You could use a cat toy, a feather on a stick to get her to run after it for more vigorous exercise.

 

[Weaselsue]

Yea, I’m sure it is playful. She likes to sneak up on me and nip. And it’s definitely turned into real bites on me already. We’ve done some tug of war and such, but she always wants to sneak in some hand nips. Or toe nips, or whatever. I can hand feed her, but if she gets bored with what I am offering, she’ll go for fingers instead. It’s been a couple days with just more gentle play, and she’s already tried to play rough with one of the other girls again. They had begun letting her groom them, and before they had been stand-off ish with her, I’m pretty sure it’s because of the biting.

When we first introduced our two little groups, the old girls put so much mint on one had a green stripe on her back.

 

[Weaselsue]

I’d like to mention, it’s slowly progressed into too rough, and she is a sweetheart otherwise. When another girl was sick she would bring her treats that she liked instead of stashing them. She will climb on my lap to ask for treats, too. We don’t pick her up if she doesn’t want it, and she has plenty of space to run around and climb. One room is fully ratproofed, there’s very little compulsory cage time.

 

[jorats]

Some rats are like that. They are nippers and they just play rough. I've had plenty like that. When my guys would start to play to rough, I would remove myself for the play area for about 10 minutes and then come back. I always offered treats when the play was good and soft. They are still sweet loving rats, just unique in their play behaviour.

 

[Weaselsue]

ok, thanks for that. I was wondering if something was wrong with her or if I had done something wrong. She is a diva in a couple of ways.