why is my pet Rats biting me

Question
i've just bought a 3rd pet rat she very young about 7 weeks have her in her own cage at the min...but every time i put my hand in to let her smell it she just runs over and bites me hard and not in a playful way she just runs over and bites and it hurts lol

Answer
Hi Darren

Oh my favorite subject! Biters!!  yee haw!! :P

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Thats pretty simple to see she is scared of you and wants you to be scared of her too.  DONT GIVE IN!  Dont let her see any negative energy at all from you, even if the little booger hurts. I rescued a demon wild girl once and when I say wild I mean wild hybrid, not wild acting. SHe was a typical wild rat straight from someones garage.  She hated me and was so scared of me and she wanted me to back off so she would attack me even when I would  reach in to get her food  dish.  It tok me about a week of working with her but in the end she turned out to be the best rat ever. She never did like the domestic rats though and lived alone her nearly 4 years of life but we were best buds till she left me last July 2007 and I STILL get teared up talking about my Holly girl.

So now what you need to do is put yourself in her place for starters.
She is scared of you, she is in a new area she doesnt recognize and was probably not socialized the right way by the breeder. Everything is new to her including you.  For starters, dont reach in for her for now and check out my web page on trust training biting rats/shy rats.  A biting rat is not a mean rat, its simply a shy scared rat and righfully so. We have been trying to wipe rats off the face of the earth for centuries now so its no wonder they dont trust us!

Here is the URL to my page. Please read it and also check out the GETTING STARTED page so you can also get an idea on constructing a safe play area for all of the rats too.

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

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



When your done, please let me know if you have any more questions and I will gladly help! Good luck and keep me posted.  Remember, dont let her know your scared. Dont put on gloves, dont act leary of her...just sweet talk, talk smooth and monotone and dont try to pick her up till you read my info.