nippy girl, didn't used to be

[Petunia]

Paige, my very big PEW girl, has never been fond of being held but she's tolerated it better in the past than she does now

Now she will nip me if I even stroke her. in fact now she will nip at me any time she comes across a part of me, if I"m laying on the floor with them, she'll come over and nip my hand, then go down and nip my butt and then my feet, and come back around the other side and work her way up...... :roll: :lol:

she has always used her teeth to "taste test" just about everything but this nippiness is not good... not the nipping of the momma! no

Unfortunately the first couple of times she did it, I laughed- it didn't hurt and it just cracked me up that she'd decided to nip at me this way.


any ideas on why she's doing this now, and ways to get her to stop? (I know, it won't help if I laugh when she does it :lol: )

 

[lilspaz68]

Have you tried the standard "eeek" and see how she reacts?

 

[ratmando]

Hi there, I just saw a posting about someone with a nippy girl rat, and as soon as the intact boy rats were removed from the house, she stopped biting. The post is called Nippy girl rat, or something like that. Do you have any intact males that might be causing her to do this?

 

[crumbilina]

The way I got my girls to stop nippng me was by touching their nose after they nipped me. They would stare for a couple seconds and then go back to sniffing, then do it again and get their nose touched again.
Make sure its not hard though! Just a light touch of course.

I have no idea why it worked but it has worked on my girls (or rather, the ones who needed the training)
So now when they nip, which they sometimes do depending on if there is food scent, I touch their nose and then they know and dont do it a second time. I don't know why, but it works.

ETA: That is IF you feel confident enough that she won't bite you when you touch her nose.

 

[Petunia]

Have you tried the standard "eeek" and see how she reacts?

I've never been able to do a convincing "eeek"

it gets stuck in my throat somehow :roll: :giggle:

 

[Petunia]

Hi there, I just saw a posting about someone with a nippy girl rat, and as soon as the intact boy rats were removed from the house, she stopped biting. The post is called Nippy girl rat, or something like that. Do you have any intact males that might be causing her to do this?

nope no boys at all!

 

[Petunia]

The way I got my girls to stop nippng me was by touching their nose after they nipped me. They would stare for a couple seconds and then go back to sniffing, then do it again and get their nose touched again.
Make sure its not hard though! Just a light touch of course.

I have no idea why it worked but it has worked on my girls (or rather, the ones who needed the training)
So now when they nip, which they sometimes do depending on if there is food scent, I touch their nose and then they know and dont do it a second time. I don't know why, but it works.

ETA: That is IF you feel confident enough that she won't bite you when you touch her nose.

hmm I think I'll give that a try.
I was just playing with them and two other girls decided to nip me! Paige's daughter Evie and shock of all shockers, my sweet Brenna!
I must smell really good or something!! :lol:

I was just eating some boiled carrots.......

a couple of them came right up to my face and seemed to be smelling my breath!! :laugh4:


I could just imagine them whispering amongst themselves: ooh, she's got carrots on her breath, let's nip her and see if she'll give us some!


silly silly girls

well I was able to pick Paige up without her nipping this time but I think it was only because I was faster than she was, for once LOL

I'll see what the touch on the nose does.
she clearly does NOT want to bite me, if she did, she just would, she's that kind of girl LOL

it's funny, well odd, I mean, that she's decided to communicate with me this way. I actually think she's decided she wants to have more of a relationship with me, and she just doesn't know how to go about it.

or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.....
:giggle:

 

[jorats]

I've never actually tried to stop the behaviour, I would just move away or say no to them. Sometimes I would pull them off and place them in another part of the play room hoping to distract them. But I like the touch the nose idea, if anything, it might be a redirect. Touch the nose and they get a good whiff of a something which they need to figure out what it is. I like that.

 

[Dahlas]

I have actually used the time out cage.....I would say NO....fairly firmly and move my rat away....if that didn't work the next time I would say NO and place in the time out cage......Worked so well for my little girl Piper who used to love to nip my toes. I would try the nose touching if I ever get another nipper.

 

[mamarat]

I've had rats nip me out of the blue and realized I was using a new body lotion, wild raspberry. Went back to my Vaseline cream. lol The nipping stopped.

 

[Petunia]

oh wait, yesterday I didn't just smell like carrots, I smelled like a cat- Sheldon my grandkitty is back for awhile (or longer)

hmm, maybe that's it.


but Paige has always been a little nippy, she's just more so now.
she's a nip and run, she doesn't hang around afterward and she's hard to catch so putting her in time out would be next to impossible, I have a hard enough time getting her back in the cage at the end of play time!

I"m not even sure I could touch her nose, she's so fast, I really should learn to eeep! effectively but it never comes out well and then I end up laughing at myself for sounding so pathetic, and I think that sends the wrong message :giggle:
cuz of course the girls don't know what I"m laughing about


I think the next time I'll see if she'll let me scoop her up in a towel and hold her for a bit, I still have this feeling that she's trying to tell me something, that she sees the others climbing on me and having fun and she wants to be a part of that,
but doesn't know how to go about it, or how to get over her fears.

maybe hold her in a towel or fleece and hold her next to me and see what she does.......

I'll let you know how it goes. should be interesting.......