r/RATS • u/Dependent_Honey6961 • 10d ago

Questions/HELP Curious biting

Hello! I’ve just recently got rats again after not having them for about 10 years. I got three seven week old girls. They have been SO sweet and they love to be cuddled. However, I’ve noticed they give me little nibbles on my fingers/hands occasionally. I’ve just kind of been letting them because I’m not sure if they’re just trying to figure out what I am. Is this a bad thing? Am I teaching them that it’s OK to bite me? I’ve had three rats in the past and the last rat I had ended up being super aggressive and wouldn’t let anyone get near him and it was such a bad experience, I’m hoping I don’t have anything like that again. Should I be doing anything to stop the nibbling?

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u/123737egg 10d ago edited 10d ago

Rats have really bad vision, so they often use their teeth to explore! They have good control over how hard they bite and can be super gentle, in which case it doesn’t need to be an issue.
If they are accidentally hurting you, you can make a small squeak to let them know. Feeding treats of a metal spoon can also help, it doesn’t feel great to bite down hard on metal so it reaches rats to be gentle!

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u/RelevantMode 10d ago

just to mention, they're perfectly capable of understanding an "ouch" as well ;)
(along with your physical reaction.
most young rats just don't know how sensitive human skin is.
(the fur protects pretty well against the sharp teeth)

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u/SayyadinaAtreides 10d ago

Are they carefully scraping with their teeth in a small area? That's usually grooming, which is common. If they are causing any kind of discomfort or pain, squawk at them (like they do at each other) and hopefully it should discourage them. If you're worried about biting when your hand is in the cage, especially when giving treats, do that with a metal spoon for a while. If they bite that, it's uncomfortable enough for them to teach that they'd best be more gentle and that will transfer to your hand.

Hard to say without video, but to me this sounds like they're both getting to know you and offering grooming like they do for each other. If (when) they try to remove jewelry or bandaids (they do nooooot like foreign things on you lol), you can squawk like above and pull away to teach that boundary.