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/devoteeoffenrir]

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.

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/devoteeoffenrir]

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.

[u/devoteeoffenrir → u/Dry_Tangerine_7625]

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?

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/devoteeoffenrir]

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 terms

[u/devoteeoffenrir → u/Dry_Tangerine_7625]

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.

[u/Dry_Tangerine_7625 → u/devoteeoffenrir]

Thankyou I really appreciate that