my sisters rat attack

Question
my sister inherited a pet rat from a friend who had it in a small cage where he still lives she rarely played with him and would hit the cage or him if he bit her thinking she was food. now that my sister has him she is perfectly nice to the rat but dosent take him out as much as i think he should be. i recently took it apon myself to help take care of him i would let him cral on me have him on my shoulder we were getting allong great i was going to end up being his new owner i was thrilled untill one day like many times before i had him out on my bed so he could run freely. i would litely pet him and give him a little tickle and out of the blew i thought he was playing with me wuntil he brutally scratched up my arm then bit me and twisted his head and made me bleed i thought it was a one time thing but he did it three times so he is now back with my sister instead of the great life he could have had with me so now im getting my own rats but i am still confused as to why he is acting like that! i thought i had a little buddy!! what is the deal

Answer

Hi Jocelyn, thanks for writing!


Awwww...one thing about these rats is that they need  you to go down to their level and put yourself in their shoes, so to speak.
Pity him. Not yourself or the bites you have. I dont mean to sound harsh and if that is my tone, I am sorry. Its impossible to convey an actual "attitude" or tone on the net so we tend to perceive what we want to and if you think I sound harsh, I sound harsh, so I will tell you now I say this with a gentle tone and I do understand why you returned him and why you feared him but I will also tell you his side of the story: go to bat for the little guy. ;)

He has had a bad life. Do you blame him?  And now he is once again in for a big disappointment because he had you and all of a sudden, due to his bad life of being hit (that is total abuse and people go to jail for hitting animals)he bit you a few times and he is back at his old life again or semi old life of being ignored. When you dont socialize an animal that is born to be wild, they will be shy and do this kind of thing. This rat doesnt trust people and he needs to have someone learn how to handle him rather than give up on him if he doesnt act right. Again, I know why you fear him, because heck, rat bites hurt like a..a....son of a gun:) I have had plenty. I lost count. I have a scar or  twenty from rats mostly gained during medical procedures that they were not happy about, even just trying to medicate them. I even lost feeling in my left index finger and thumb because I was STOOOOOPID enough (there goes that big red line telling me I spelled stupid wrong...LOL) to break up a fight between a 2.5 pound angry buck and his two terrified brothers. Grayson didnt even know nor did he care that it was my hand reacing in for him and CHOMP! CHOMP! blood everywhere. The pain was so bad I cried. My feelings were hurt that he would do that to me but putting myself back on the professional level I realized it ws my mistake, not his.
Rats are literally blind. Really they have terrible eyesite. CHeck out my website and after reading up on training biting and shy rats, go to the regular page on health care ands scroll down to the section on vision. You will be shocked to see how bad they CANT see. Its haze. Pure cloudy vision. With a red or pink eyed rat its even worse. SO they learn by their whiskers and by vibration and by smell. So if you have a new rat that has not yet become aware of his surroundings and he is shy and antisocial and even scared, he will bite if he feels threatened.  
Sometimes they bite as part of communication which is annoying but they dont mean it to be aggressive. My one eyed boy, Santana, will bite my earlobe when he wants me to scratch him. He will get on my shoulder (If I am laying down on the floor or sitting) and bite my earlobe just a nibble but it hurts. Never draws blood but he did yank my little diamond stud out once and we lost it. It wasnt uber expensive for the pair but still....I wasnt happy. What if they were $5000 diamonds? It would still be MY FAULT and not the rats. Its never the animals fault.

Always keep that in mind no matter what kind of animal it is. Its never their fault. THey didnt breed on their own, they didnt ask to be inbred or neglected to the point they did not learn to accept humans. They have to be litter trained or they wont know to use a litter box. Etc...etc... so this helps you to understand and even accept poor behavior from all animals. Its not their fault, its the fault of humans, period.




You could have had a buddy. He just needs worked with.
check this link to my site out so you can read up on how to work with these kind of rats. You will have people banging on your door to help them train an antisocial rat! lol!

 Just feel bad for him and that will change the way you look at him 100%.

Here are the links to my site, starting with the link to the page on trust training biting and scared rats.  the other links on on the side menu to the right of the website. Let me know what you think!

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


Hope this helps!~!