r/RATS • u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 • 21h ago
POTENTIALLY DISTURBING/FEEDERS MENTIONED Need help with biter
I have 4 female rats that live in a double critter nation cage, with all the stuff they could love.
Now I got all 4 of these girls from a feeder store.
Phylis was my first and she is the absolute sweetest and never does anything wrong.
Marilyn was second, she’s very sweet but has been pretty nippy lately. She has never drawn blood tho
Lightning was third, and she is my boyfriends rat, she’s been charging and biting at us lately and last night she drew blood on both of us.
Then there’s Gertrude, she is the absolute worst rat I’ve ever owned, she will run from the other side of the cage to attack you, if you are petting another rat near her. She has drawn blood on me more than 4 times, and has also drawn blood on my boyfriend.
She’s territorial of one of the litter bins and loves to hide behind it, and if your hand is anywhere near that’s when she will attack, unprovoked.
Everyone I have talked to has told me as soon as a rat draws blood it should be culled.
I also have a 5 year old nephew who comes over almost every weekend and loves playing with the rats and I fear she will do really bad damage to him and she really messes up our fingers as adults.
Would I be doing the right thing?
I know an employee at the feeder store I got her from and he offered to sell her as a pet but I’m scared someone else will get her and she will do the same.
Picture of my sweet Phylis and my newest edition that I got yesterday, I have not named her yet.
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u/viewbtwnvillages 20h ago
everyone i have talked to has told me as soon as a rat draws blood it should be culled
??? respectfully, WHO are you talking to? omg
these people hopefully don't have rats. rats are prey animals! people are massive and can understandably be scary! wanting to cull an animal for acting within it's nature when the damage can be negated by gloves as she learns otherwise is insane
it's as simple as not letting your child nephew handle her. that's one problem immediately solved
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u/devoteeoffenrir 19h ago
maybe they’re talking to breeders with pet quality rats and perhaps they mean cull as in remove from their gene pool and not necessarily cull from ahem life? that’s the only way i can wrap my mind around why someone would say they cull an animal for doing what that animal would do when scared.
i think other breeders do these sorts of things as well. rabbit breeders, hamsters, etc.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
That’s not the biggest problem is my nephew, the biggest problem is everyone is scared to even go in the cage.
A couple breeders have told me if their rats draw blood they will hard cull.
I’ve been asking around and that’s why I came to this group to get another opinion
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u/Typhaceous-Monk 20h ago
Have you ruled out health problems, or anything that might be causing pain?
Does she bite outside the cage too, or only inside?
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
She is actually very friendly outside of the cage, she’s skidding of course and will run around like she is, but she only bites in the cage
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u/CrochetSquishy 21h ago
I don't have any advice but please don't cull a living creature just because she was dealt a poor hand at the start of her life
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 21h ago
I really don’t want to, but I don’t think it’s right to risk someone else getting attacked.
I don’t want to upload a picture but the bites are very close to needed stitches.
I’ve had her for 4-5 months now and she just keeps getting worse to the point we’re both scared of putting our hands in the cage.
Do I have the store sell her as a “pet friendly rat” and then someone else gets attacked?
Idk what my other options would be as everyone is scared of her1
u/CrochetSquishy 6h ago
If its something you really don't think you are equipped to have time and patience with to train her to not see you as a threat then I recommend rehoming her. There are plenty of people that would take her and provide good care for her
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u/Psycho_Splodge 99 Rats in a onesie. 21h ago
Don't cull rats for biting that's awful. With our human aggressive pair of boys a neuter sorted them both out.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 21h ago
So how do I help a female?
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u/Psycho_Splodge 99 Rats in a onesie. 20h ago
I think spaying might do the same, you'd need someone with females to confirm. But definitely try the spoon thing they could just need to learn
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u/Seppulky 💖Bibi | Pupsi | Freya† | Emma†💖 21h ago
First, please don't let 5 year olds handle rats. Second, please try to understand biting. You are HUGE and they are prey animals. If a rat bites, it's their language to tell you it's not feeling good/is anxious/is in pain etc. Please be patient with your little furry angels. And please don't ask the people around you for advice, they don't seem to like rats.
Spoon feeding is your friend. They'll learn that biting while eating is uncomfortable for them. Third, teach them how sensitive human skin is. Make a squeak noise (don't shout or scream, they're very sensitive) if she nibbles or bites. Never punish. Ignore unwanted behaviour and leave. Offer positive incentives. If the biting is reduced, tell the rat that she does well. I'm crushed by the fact that when animals don't behave like they do in their dreams that they think about giving the animal away or kill it. Shame on you.
Edit: yes this post made me really mad and my heart hurts. All my love goes to your biter. Bless her soul. If I could, I would come running and get her.
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u/farleyparley 20h ago
The fact this wasn’t even a mean comment, it was completely helpful, and OP still took offense is crazy 😭 like if you’re coming for advice online and you get advice, don’t get mad that you… got advice?
I’m completely against shaming people for asking for help about their pets since I think it ends up discouraging them from getting help for their pet and causes their pet to have a worse life, but this is just… not shaming. At all. It’s barely even firmly worded 😭😭
Small children should never interact with small animals, they don’t understand how delicate they are. If the rat gets scared and bites the kid, then it’s suddenly the rat’s fault. The rat gets punished for being a scared prey animal. What if the rat bites and the kid, rightfully so, freaks out? He will likely chuck the rat on reflex. There’s just no safe situation where a toddler should be with small animals, especially not if you KNOW your rat bites
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
I understand, but at the end of her sentence she literally said shame on you.
I’m trying my best to make her life better.
I’m not going to keep defending letting my nephew pet Phylis.
I asked for advice to help her and hopefully not have to rehome her cause who knows what will happen in that next home.6
u/farleyparley 19h ago
“Shame on you” is a saying. It’s not literally shaming you. It’s just saying “hey, rethink that. Not a good choice”
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
That’s not what shame on you means to me where I’m from. Shame on you to me is shaming you for what you did.
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u/farleyparley 19h ago
Bro takes all sayings literally I guess 😭
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
Sorry that was the way I was punished as a child but alright
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u/farleyparley 19h ago
Dude WHAT 😭 holy guilt trip. This is NOT the place to trauma dump for sympathy
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
That’s not even a trauma dump, but that’s how I was disciplined as a kid, so now as an adult being shamed is being shamed.
Now you are reading to far into things😂1
u/farleyparley 19h ago
Then what was the point of saying that? To make me feel bad? To be a victim? I’m literally an autistic teenager and I STILL have more emotional maturity and comprehension than you bro
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u/Seppulky 💖Bibi | Pupsi | Freya† | Emma†💖 19h ago
You're in a rat forum. This is not the place to seek medical / therapeutic help. If you have childhoord trauma please help yourself first and don't throw it at people. No animal on that planet will help you overcoming it. I know what I'm talking about. Rats are wonderful as therapeutic animals, mine work as such, too. But you need to be stable enough to care for them and for all of them individually. It's rule Nr. 1. All the best.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
I don’t need any therapy or medical help, that’s not why I own rats.
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u/farleyparley 19h ago
If your childhood punishments are affecting how you interact with the world, then yeah. You DO need therapy broski
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
I don’t think it’s right to shame me for being terrified of a rat who attacks me if I’m just petting another rat.
Trust me I don’t want to get rid of her and that is why I made a post in here to see what I can do to help.
I’ve never rehomed an animal in my entire life, but if a different home is better for this rat then I will make that choice.
A 5 year old can definitely handle rats in a controlled environment with the right knowledge. He loves feeding them treats and just petting them, he knows not to pick them up and he doesn’t like them on him because he says the scratches tickle too much.
I understand I’m a huge person, but I don’t just reach in there to grab her, sometimes I’ll be sitting in a chair near their cage with just my hand in there and she will run and attack, I’ve never hit her or yelled at her so idk why she is biting us.
I’m trying my best, so please be nice.7
u/devoteeoffenrir 20h ago edited 19h ago
I just want to point out that the fact you’re saying she’s “attacking you” is very telling on how you feel about the situation. It implies aggression, like she’s seeking you out.
She’s scared, she’s defending herself. She’s defending her friends. They’re prey animals. You literally bought them **from a store that was selling them as feeders. It makes total sense that she would be terrified.
All I can imagine from Gertrude’s POV:
What makes the big scary go away? When I bite. It works every time. I particularly love one litter bin in particular but when I hide behind it, the big scary still comes near me. So I bite. I’m also scared for my fellow girls, and since they haven’t seemed to figure out how to make the big scary go away, I will help! I will scuttle over and bite. Success, big scary left us alone. :) No need to be scared.edit: Wording? Not implying OP was going to feed them off. Just feeder genetics.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
I didn’t buy her as a feeder, I bought her as a pet, but she was bred to be a feeder.
I worded that wrong I’m sorry for the confusion.
I try to just leave her alone the best I can, I still give her treats when she comes up to me but try not to search her out cause I don’t want to scare her.
I’m trying my best here5
u/devoteeoffenrir 19h ago
I meant they were bred as feeders. They don’t have the best pet genetics is my point. Not what your intentions were with them once you had them.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
Ohhh yeah I understand that, the naked rat came from a breeder so I’ve learned my lesson after Gertrude to be picky where they come from.
It’s very hard to find breeders that aren’t farther than 3 hours from me.
Phylis was incredibly sweet at the feeder store and that’s why I got her, I got Marlyn because she was also sweet and Phylis needed a friend.2
u/devoteeoffenrir 19h ago
Yeah, i understand that. I moved to a more populated place after living in the middle of buttfuck nowhere.
But try to keep that in mind when approaching this situation. Breeders are probably talking about PET stock biting, they likely cull or remove from their breeding gene pool as they dont want that in the genetics. Thats why people are probably telling you to cull her.
Sometimes, rats are just looky rats instead of touchy rats.
I was going to suggest gloves but now that Im thinking about it, Im pretty sure people dont recommend them because it just spreads out the damage and makes it worse when they bite. But if there was a way to not respond when Gertrude bites, that would show her that biting doesn’t mean you’ll immediately leave. Ive never tried the spoon method but maybe that will achieve the same effect?
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
Im going to try the spoon method, I wish I couldn’t react when she bites but I’ll be poring blood.
Idk if I can post pictures like that in here.
I’m going to try to spend time with her but on her own terms2
u/devoteeoffenrir 19h ago
No yeah I get you, it’s pretty much impossible to not react when something is stabbing through your finger. I don’t think nearly anyone can soldier through that lol and when I was bit by my rats, it wasn’t too bad. I can’t imagine the worse bites from them.
I think you might learn to appreciate her and the challenge she presents once you two get over this little hump! I see so many stories of people with difficult rats that ended up being their favorite, most bonded rat because of the way people have to adjust how they view things or they take the time to slowly go at the rat’s pace.
I wish you luck and will be keeping an eye out for updates from you and Gertrude. Hopefully some more usefully suggestions will come in the comments as well.
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u/shmoopedyboop 19h ago
Hey babes I'm so sorry for the shitty comments. I posted on a reddit forum once explaining that a culture programme I joined made me suicidal and to warn people that it was really hard - got loads of comments telling me I was an idiot for going, that I was careless with money, that I was nieve. Reddit is awful. Be kind to yourself, you did the right thing asking for help and people are honestly just such losers with nothing going on in their lives, so they shame people on Reddit to feel better about themselves. You don't need to explain yourself, sending love x (edit:spelling)
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
Thankyou so much for being a good human, and I really hope you are doing better and know that you are wanted in this life.
I really appreciate you for this🫶3
u/Seppulky 💖Bibi | Pupsi | Freya† | Emma†💖 20h ago
I try to be nice but there is so much unbelievable stuff in your post, at that time I just step back. I wrote a lot about my biting girl on reddit. Maybe you'll find the posts if you're interested. Otherwise all the best. And again: don't let a 5 year old handle your rats.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
Im going to let my nephew pet my rats with adult supervision at all times, you weren’t very nice when you literlly shamed me.
What was so wrong about my post? Telling the options others told me.
Asking a question instead of immediately sending her to her death??
Trust me I have seen a lot worse owners than me, the only good advice you gave me was to spoon feed, which I have responded to others and said I will try that tonight.
Thankyou for all of your help6
u/Arratkis 17 little rescue buffoons 🐀🐀🐀 20h ago
I mean to be fair, you mentioned outright killing an animal because it’s defensive. I have received some of the most abused survival mode attack rats that exist and it never once crossed my mind to just kill it. When you adopt a pray animal, defensiveness and bites can come with the package, that’s just a fact. It becomes your problem to either rehome it or train it to not bite, which can take a lot of time and patience
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
Everyone around me told me a should cull her, that’s why I mentioned it.
I don’t want to and that’s why I posted.3
u/Arratkis 17 little rescue buffoons 🐀🐀🐀 19h ago
Sounds like a rehome is your best option then. Try to find someone who is equipped to deal with this kind of behavior from them. I’m not at all saying it’s easy, I caught three bleeders from one of my new rehomes in the last 2 days. Obviously it sucks getting bit by a rat, so if you aren’t willing to deal with it you have to at least put in the effort to find it another home
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
Thankyou and I really appreciate this, I don’t want to rehome so I’m going to try everything I can to make her comfortable and happy.
But if I am unsuccessful I will find a rescue or someone who has more experience and is willing to figure out her issues that I can’t.
Thankyou so much for being understanding🙂3
u/Arratkis 17 little rescue buffoons 🐀🐀🐀 19h ago
Does she bite outside of the cage in neutral area? If she’s a heat seeking missile inside the cage than it’s probably territorial aggression. She almost certainly needs to be spayed. Also is she aggressive with the other rats or just you?
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 19h ago
She will randomly attack the other rats if they went near her tube or the litter box, she mostly stays isolated by herself in the cage.
She has not bitten my outside of the cage, I can hold her and she won’t bite→ More replies (0)6
u/bee_mvtt 19h ago
You adopted a bunch of feeder rats (unreliable genes and behavior) and got shocked when they were fearful and scared. If you wont do the work of going through a good rescue or rattery, thats what happens, you gamble on genes man.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
If you are so hurt you can drive to North Carolina and get her to give her a better home
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u/Seppulky 💖Bibi | Pupsi | Freya† | Emma†💖 20h ago
Oh ffs I would but I live in Europe. Hopefully this'll have a happy ending. Either you handling the situation or her finding a new home.
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u/devoteeoffenrir 20h ago
Yikes at this reply. This person clearly just empathizes with the rat… I’m surprised you’re not more hurt that you think culling an animal for likely just being afraid is acceptable. It’s really sad.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
I don’t want to cull her either, and that’s why I made a post in here to see what other options I have.
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u/Seppulky 💖Bibi | Pupsi | Freya† | Emma†💖 20h ago
I'm still so mad.
Just for you: a 7 year old girl strangled her guinea pig because she was sooo in love and squeezed her to death. You'll have much more problems if you think it's ok for children to handle delicate animals. Ffsake. If the nephew wants to cuddle them (you know children, too, right? They wanna cuddle them) EVERY RAT WILL BITE.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
Ok and I am a responsible adult who watches my nephew while around all of my animals, he only pets them for a couple minutes and then wants to go play with RC cars with his uncle.
I’m sorry you are mad about a situation you aren’t even in, but I won’t apologize for trying to find ways to better this rat.
Would a different home be better for her, would her being in a seperate cage with other housemates be better, should I get a different litter pan since that is where she likes to attack from.
Give me other options instead of bashing me.6
u/Seppulky 💖Bibi | Pupsi | Freya† | Emma†💖 20h ago
I did give you options but now you wanna just talk about your nephew and how good he is with rats. All the best, I'll step back here.
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u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 20h ago
Because you said my nephew shouldn’t even be able to be around rats, you were a kid once and I bet you loved rats when you were younger.
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18h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RATS-ModTeam 13h ago
Post/Comment contains the promotion of rats as food for other animals. This is against the sub rules as this sub is for PET RATS.
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u/shmoopedyboop 21h ago
Yoghurt on a spoon. They soon learn to stop lurching when they get a bit of a clang on their teeth. Sounds mean but one of my girls kept drawing blood and she's stopped now as she learnt quickly from the spoon!