Rat acting diffrent.

Miya_Moo_Chu · Mar 22, 2008

"SWEET ABBY"
when I picked up abby from the pet store she looked at me threw the glass, and I fell in love with those 13.99$ dumbo ears... I just loved her.
When she was in the car, she slept on my shoulder, and nipped my ear, here and there. Kinda hurt.
"MEAN PART OF THE ABBY"
WHEN, I put her in the cage, she started to act agressive twords the other ones, such as, biting there ears, pulling on them, scratching moo's belly, and Fighting ruff[but what do i know? lol] And being just plain mean, So, I put them all on the couch and she started to calm down, and was relaxed, and well met with the other rats.
"NOW"
She[abby] keeps biting and nipping at my fingers like i'm some sort of toy, ONLY when she's in the cage...
when she's out she loves to lick me, and prance all around me, and all sorts of stuff.
Could I be doing something wrong? For her to bite me? Im so uncertain.
Well thank you!

user 78 · Mar 22, 2008

If you're sure you don't have food [or the smell of food] or anything on your hands, then she sounds like she could be moderately cage aggressive. Some rats just are.

You can make sure she always knows that you're at the cage, no fast movements towards her, and let her know you're going to pick her up or something. If she chases your hand and nips you while you're doing something in the cage, eep at her and push your hand towards her. If she learns that you'll go away when she nips you, it will undoubtedly get much worse.

When you put her into the cage, did you do a proper introduction? Putting their cages near each other, cage swaps, neutral territory meetings? If you did, she may have been trying to establish her role as alpha. If you didn't, then she was still trying to establish a place, but you're very lucky there wasn't a worse fight.

Moon · Mar 22, 2008

Never throw a new rat into an existing habitat. The habitat the BELONGS to your current girls. At the very LEAST it should be scrubbed down and rearranged before hand, but most rats need some proper intros done.

Fidget · Mar 23, 2008

Some rats just are cage-aggressive. I think they might be afraid of someone taking a home they are so happy in? I had a lone boy Kiwi that was absolute mush with me but I respected his wishes (self-preservationally after a couple bleeds) not to put my fingers in his cage. In time he did come to accept that even.

Miya_Moo_Chu · Mar 23, 2008

I scrubbed it CLEAN, before anyone was in there, and abby came in.
And now i'm scrubbing it again, I'm going to try to do the thing that Javakittie has told me, i've never done that before, but she's not MEAN to the other rats.. nobody's mean in my cage, she was just angry with me, and your right Javakittie, I think that I did have some mashed potatoes on me or something. lol

Moon · Mar 23, 2008

Hopefully with some work from you her nipping will subside... Emma has almost removed my fingertips for want of wet food before, so maybe it was a food thing.. I know how that is, LOL!