Ratties are biting

Shop with us on Ebay
Advertise with us
Fins us on Amazon
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.
N

Nancy

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Messages
21
Location
Fresno, CA
My two female rats are about 11 months old and we have had them both since they were about a month old? They have become wonderful pets with 2 very different personalities. One of them pees on us all the time and is nervous, but friendly and sweet. The other one is very curious and playful and full of adventure and energy. Both have started to bite us, not hard, but it is enough to startle you and hurt a bit. Especially my toes when I am wearing socks. What is causing them to bite so much? It doesn't seem like an angry or frightened bite, it's more exploratory, like they are tasting everything. Could they be missing something in their diet?
 
Mine always bite when I have socks on too. I think they just don't want them on your feet. Maybe they're playing?
 
They are also biting my sweat pants, and my shirts... mostly my clothes not my skin. They do tend to bite my husbands fingers, but he has rough calloused hands, maybe that's why. They bite my rings and finger nails too. Seems like tasting, testing or play.
 
Fingernails and rings I find pretty common. Sometimes they'll 'clean' under your fingernails for you. Mine were always rough with mine though.
Maybe your clothes smell interesting. I played tug-o-war with one of my rats with the sleeve of my hoodie.

They're probably just testing anything that smells weird.
 
Oh boy, you've got a couple of nippers. I think the best way to deal with them is to remove yourself when they nip or place them back in the cage when they nip for about 10 minutes and take them out again. But when I have nippers, I usually let them be, I try to keep an eye on them so I can move quicker than they do. lol Be careful of your face, eyes and ears. Those are fun nipping spots.
 
I did a little online research and I think they are grooming me. So I put my head down and pulled my ponytail out. One of the girls groomed my hair for about 5 minutes. She was fascinated by it. The other one licked and nibbled my fingers. It seemed that's what they wanted to do. They were gentle. It was really weird. Lol.
 
Yup, they are treating you as Giant Odd Rat. Most of mine have played with and groomed my ponytail and beard when I had one.
 
jorats said:
But grooming doesn't hurt. If it hurts, it's a nip. Grooming is more like a gentle scrape.
Click to expand...

Although I do have a couple that are kind of rough. They have never drawn blood or anything. One just gets a little excitable when it comes to my eyes, and for the other it's my nose. ;)
 
Do you guys let your ratties run around free inside the house?? I was letting the girls out for play time but they chewed through the lining under the couch and crawled up inside it. 😡 So now I only let them out in one of my spare rooms where's there's nothing important that they can destroy. Bad girls! Any ideas on how to get them not to chew stuff?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top