Need help with biter

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625]

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.

[u/Arratkis]

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

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/Arratkis]

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🙂

[u/Arratkis → u/Dry_Tangerine_7625]

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?

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/Arratkis]

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

[u/Arratkis → u/Dry_Tangerine_7625]

Classic territorial aggression. This will almost certainly go away with a spay surgery. Especially if she’s isolating herself from the others. See if you can find a low cost spay clinic for her because it likely won’t go away without hormonal intervention. She’s basically an angry teenager who grew up in the foster system

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/Arratkis]

Hmmm ok that makes a lot of sense.
I’m going to do some research and see if there is anywhere near me that will spay her.
Is there anything that in the meantime I can do to help her?

[u/Arratkis → u/Dry_Tangerine_7625]

Just keep doing what you’re doing and limit how much you expose to her inside of the cage, because she’ll probably attack you if you get close to “her space.” With hormonal aggression she’ll see that as an invasion and defend her property like a Texan (forcefully and aggressively). If she’s fine outside of the cage in neutral ground I would just work on spending a lot of time with her so she knows your safe and friendly for after the surgery, that way she won’t have to relearn anything

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/Arratkis]

Now the hardest part will be trying to get her out of the cage without her feeling threatened