Olive the biting rat!

Question
Hi Sandra,

Please can you help my husband and I! We bought two female rats from a reputable local pet shop 12 days ago. They are now both approx 15 weeks old. My husband has had rats before and adored them. We now have Olive and Harry. When we bought them we were told that Olive had been the shyer of the two. This was true when we brought them home, but day by day and after many hours they are both becoming more and more friendly. We had their huge cage in our sitting room to start with so they could get used to us, and from here Harry came out of the cage and ran around on the table. We have since moved them upstairs to their own room!! Every morning Olive is the first one to greet us at the cage and runs madly round the cage in excitement. Each evening we let them out of the cage and they have the run of the room for about 1.5 hours! Again Olive is the first to the door to be let out. We have their toys in the room and they love running around. Harry will now run all over us, doesn't mind being handled and loves to explore. However Olive bites, and quite hard, drawing blood on many occasions. It's not just fingers either. She has bitten feet, ankles, tummies. Anything at all is bitten. She doesn't really seem afraid and will climb on us,although she is very jumpy all the time and darts around at the slightest movement. We have taken to putting her back into her cage when she bites, but it often takes us a while to catch her and I am afraid that by that time she does not know what she is being punished for. She does seem subdued when she goes back in. It's such a shame because tonight she climbed up me when I was standing up, walked onto my hands to be placed back on the floor and promptly bit me. She was not threatened at all and had climbed of her own free will! We have taken to wearing gloves with her and long sleeve shirts! I take my gloves off when I handle Harry. Tonight my husband has managed to pick her up when she has bitten has told her off whilst still gently holding her and then has let her go when she has calmed. After doing this on a couple of accassions, for a short while she has seemed to be less skittish and allowed him to stoke and touch her more, but soon after became jumpy again and bit my finger! Can you help us please!!

Answer
"We have taken to putting her back into her cage when she bites, but it often takes us a while to catch her and I am afraid that by that time she does not know what she is being punished for."

***************************

Hi there!

First of all I wanted to let you know that no matter how long the time frame is, she will never know what she is being punished for. Rats do not have this kind of thought process.
Yes they are smart, but they do not understand right from wrong. They only understand plesant and unpleasant.
They understand negative energy and positive energy.
They feel secure and also feel insecure. You have not had them that long and at first things went well, but she started to get used to you but something made her feel insecure. When you dont trust her, she can tell and that makes her not trust you either. Instead of punishment, rats understand reward and exchange much better.  Please check out how to train biting or shy rats on my site. Here is the URL:

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