Biting rats

Question
I adopted 2 female rats a month ago. I was told they were 8 months old, though one of them seems to be a bit younger than that. When I first got them they were quite sociable and would happily run around. I make sure they are handled everyday and get enough human interaction. Over the last couple of weeks they have started to randomly bite me and my housemate when they are out of the cage. It started off with it being only occassionally but now its starting to happen alot more often. We've tried telling them no and putting them straight back in the cage after but this hasn't helped.

Answer
Hi Rachel

Rats are smart, yes, but they have certain limitations when it comes to their ability to learn and obey. It has alot to do with negative and positive outcome when they do respond. In other words, if they associate a word, phrase or reaction in a positive way, they respond, but if it has a negative impact, they dont respond because they dont understand. They are programmed to learn by the positive-reward theory.

What you need to do is read my webpage on training shy or biting rats.
Your on the right track by putting them back in the cage when they bite, but you need to reward them when they DONT bite as well so they have something to compare their behavior to. Hope this makes sense. I think my web page will explain it better for you though.  

Also, when they bite, what is happening? Are they simply coming up to you and biting you or do they bite when you pick them up?   Have you changed the area that they play? Do they have a safe area for play time that is equipped especially for them?  

Rats that did not bite before but are biting now usually have a reason for it. Changes that scare them, for starters. An addition to someone new, even a new pet will bring a new scent that the rats have to yet learn about.  Rats that bite have a reason. Maybe a reason we dont understand, but never the less, they have a reason.  Hopefully we can figure it out. Usually its not to hard to do and you will be writing me back in a few weeks telling me that they no longer bite. At least that is my goal.   Please let me know about the few things I asked you and also be sure to go over the trust training and reward system on my web page.  I rescued a wild baby rat years back that had the nick name of JAWS, CHOMPS, KILLER, you name it!  She was around 11 weeks old but she bit me with all she had *and yes it hurt like a blankity blank......LOL!!**  
Determined to "fix" her, wild rat or not, I was going to turn this little demon baby rat into a sweet little girl that learned some rattie manners.  After about a week of constant teaching, she finally caught on and realized when she would bite me the fun in her play area was over, but when she would be polite and not bite, she would get a nice yummy treat that she only was allowed to have during training, which made her appreciate it even more.

Anyhow, here is the URL for my critter city site.  Please get back to me soon and we will get busy working with  them!

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/trainingshyorbitingrats.htm


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