my new rat keeps niping me.

Question
hi, i bought a young female rat about 2 weeks ago from the pet shop and shes about 3-4 months old. she is quite lively and seems to have fitted in fine with my other rat of about the same age (bought at different times) i feed them on rat nuggets and a variety of fresh foods and hand feed them treats on a daily basis usually after i have them out playing with them, but it seems now every time i go near the cage she tries to bite me and it is almost imposible to hold her as she continues nipping, but as yet has not drawn blood.
do you know what might be the cause of this?

yours sincerely

Scott  

Answer
Hi Scott

Your little girl doesnt trust you yet and she is telling you to back off especially while she is safe in her own territory which would be her cage.

You need to trust train her. For starters, stop reaching in for her to get her.  She will need to come out on her own. I have loads of experience dealing with biters, from aggressive wild rats to scared lab rats that spent their first year of life poked and probed and hated people after that, as I cant say I blame them.
Anyhow, since this seems to be a huge topic for people when they write me here, I just put all the info on how to trust train a biting rat on my website.  Please read it and let me know what you think. Also check out the page GETTING STARTED for ideas on what to make your rat to use for a safety area during trust training and play time.


Here is the URL about training biting and scared rats:

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


Good luck!