HELP!!!!!

Question
QUESTION: so... i got my rat, mr. poo-head, at petsmart a few months ago. the people that sold him to me said that they were handled everyday. i do have to say that 2 days after i brought him home i tend to disagree. i went to talk him out of the cage, he needed a bath and his cage needed to be cleaned... mind you i picked him up everyday i had him... and he bite me. i was really shocked because most animals that were "handled" everyday don't bite. as time went on, he'd bite harder, then now it's to the point where he's drawing blood. i don't want to give him away, or have him put down... i need to know if there's anything i can do to make him stop?????? he means soooo much to me... i want to be able to hold him without pulling back a bloody finger. thanks, karrame

ANSWER: Hi Karrame

You do not need to put him down because he bites you. He should not be punished for his bad behavior because there are factors that made him this way. For starters, does he live alone? Often, lone rats will be more of a biter for reasons unknown. He sounds as if he was not socialized properly just as you suspected or he would come to you right away and not bite.

You can trust train him but this takes patience and you need to be prepared for more biting. For starters, when he bites you, is it when you reach in the cage for him to pick him up or does he run up and just bite you when your hand is not near him?

Tell me more about when he bites you and how you approach him. This will help me set up a personalized trust training routine that is tailored just for his personality and I can figure out what is going wrong between you and the rat. I have trained many biters, from lab rats that were very mean and aggressive due to always being poked and probed in the labs to biting wild rats and had success with all of them, but each case is different so if I know more about him first I can help figure him out and what he may think. I also studied animal behavior with a focus on rodents so I can tell more about what a rat is thinking. He sees you as a threat, that is obvious, and he doesn't trust you, so we need to know what provokes him to feel that way about you or humans in general.  After I know this, we can go ahead and trust train him.

If all else fails...you can always neuter him but I am pretty sure you wont have to go that route if we get this resolved soon.

How old is he?
What kind of diet is he fed?
Does he have places in his cage to hide such as igloos and hammocks and little plastic houses etc??
Where do you keep his cage?


Thanks so much for writing. Don't worry...we will get him on the right track soon enough!



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for taking your time to help me out. i love him alot. but anyways. he's about 7 months old. i feed him Kaytee's supreme gerbil/hamster food, because regular rat food is hard to find. he has a plastic igloo in his cage that sits on a dresser next to my bed. he normally bites when i go to clean his cage or give him a bath. i can put my hand in there to pet him, and him not bite but as soon as i try to pick him up, he bites. when i pick him up i normally put my hand around his back, and if he gets jumpy, under his tummy. once more i thank you for you time look forward to your response. PLEASE let me know if i'm doing anything wrong.
Karrame

Answer
First of all, you have to change his food.  If you think about it....he is a rat, not a hamster or gerbil and they have different nutritional requirements like protein.  Rats cannot have high protein or it will ruin their kidneys.  Do you ever see mazuri rodent blocks at the pet store?

Also, you can make your own so easily and its so much better for them. Check out my website to read about it. It involves using unsweetened breakfast cereals, dry oatmeal flakes and even low protein dog foods too. You can feed him peas and carrots from the can (rinse after opening) I give it to them daily and they love them!! He needs quality animal protein such as chicken at least three times per week. This also helps with aggressive tendencies if they are lacking certain vitamins or minerals.
Much better for your rat and may even change his attitude alot too since chances are his food is making him gassy and uncomfortable but cranky.

Here is how to trust train him and he will stop being so nasty but it may take time.

For starters, you need to have an area for him to play in when he comes out of the cage. He is big enough you can buy a fence from the pet store that is about 3  to 4 feet tall. Connect it from one side of his cage to another. Set up some toys for him such as some cardboard boxes with holes cut for windows and also you can give him light weight balls like a ping pong ball...he will need things to play with.
He needs to burn off energy but he also needs to establish a trust bond with you. He wants you to let him make his own decision and this is why he resents you picking him up.  What you also need is a treat...cheerios, rice chex cereal....whatever....but have it ONLY during trust training and don't use it any other time.  
What to do is allow him to come out of the cage on his own. Once out pet him but do NOT pick him up. After a while if he doesn't bite you while petting him, give him a treat.  If he bites you, put him back in the cage and don't take him out for an hour or more. Try again. Same scenario each time..if he doesn't bite, reward him. If he does, back in the cage he goes.  See, he will enjoy his time out of the cage playing with his own play things, and rats love to explore. Put a deep box full of rolled up socks and ripped tee shirts and let him explore the box. He will love digging in the pile of rags etc...and he will love climbing inside his cardboard castle etc... and when you disrupt his time out of the cage for biting, he will soon realize   the negative aspect of this and the positive aspect. He will soon realize that by getting the reward, he also gets to play too along with a tasty treat, but if he bites you and he hears you say OUCH and he gets put back in the cage without the treat, he will start to realize what he is doing wrong and he will eventually stop. Again, do not try to pick him up. Let him come to you. He will start climbing on you and trusting you.

Rats learn by repetition and this is a prime example.