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Jennifer 17 years, 3 months ago.
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I have two male rats whom I purchased at a pet shop about five months ago, and they were the sweetest little things up until a few weeks ago, when one of them suddenly and viciously mauled my hand.
They are un-neutered, would neutering one or both of them help smooth out the aggression towards people? He gets along fine with his cagemate, but any time I get close he puffs up and attacks the cage bars trying to get at me. It breaks my heart, because I love my babies! Please help!
Make sure you are NOT feeding them any kind of meat. Even dried canned worms or frozen or anything like that. That will make them aggresive. Also you can try taking him out on the floor with some thick gloves. He will be a little nervous of the situation and keep running back to you for protection. This may help.
Good luck!I did buy a pair of thick hunting gloves, and I have been trying to get them used to the gloves so they aren’t scared. The only time he seems to get aggressive now is if I try to pick him up or coax him out of the cage.
I don’t feed them any meat, just seeds, rat blocks, fruits, veggies, and whole grain bread.
getting them both fixed would help with the aggression. it sounds as if he hit puberty
He could just be an ill-tempered rat. A lot of pet stores don’t have reliably healthy animals. Only a handful actually know anything about what they have. Feeding meat to a rat and it causing aggression is a myth. My rats get a chicken bone w/ meat on it every now and then. Just make sure whatever meat you give is cooked. Also, if routine handling doesn’t do the job, then neutering might work, but he could just be biting out of fear, not aggression. A lot of the time you can’t tell how a rat will be until it becomes an adult. Be aware of rats sold as feeders too. Those generally have poor genetics and bad temeraments to go along with them. Good luck with your boys!:)
Actually it’s not a myth, feeding rats raw meat will make a handful of rats vicious all depending on how long you had them, where they came from, how they lived before you had them, and their personality. In studies they have found that if a rat is kept in a cage with little food they will turn on the babies and eat them. Then when you have them as pets EVEN if they are being fed everyday they will turn vicious on you and other animals in cage. Do to the fact that the meat will make them in hunter mood again and they will try to eat as much as they can as quick as they can. Chasing all others away. Once they have that taste for meat they will want more and be prepared not to share so then when you go to bring them something they may turn vicious even if it’s not meat.
Meat is a very healthy source of protein for your rats and I do reccomend feeding it to them DEPENDING on their behavior. But if you have a vicious rat and can’t figure out why that may be the reason!
Here’s a pic of mine and my fiance’s from ’01Click on any picture to see full size:
I’ve never heard of anything like that. I’ve always fed my rats meat with their meals, about 1-3 times a week. But I’ve always had well mannered rats, so that could be it too. Mine has never bitten me. Although they do get a little excited in anticipation of being fed stuff other than their usual food. And rats are VERY greedy when they have something they like a lot. Also, it is normal for a rat to eat their young if they are starved. It’s not b/c of aggression or b/c of meat, it’s survival. I currently have 15 rats, 8 males and 7 females, all dumbos:)…and they are ALL loving pets regardless of what they get to munch on.
cute rats, by the way!
Thanks! Your’s are very pretty too, well atleast the two i can see, lol 8] Well my rats have never done anything like that either. I always would give them lean meat as a snack and sometimes leftover table scraps. Then when we moved my fiance’s rats into our house I would give them some also. His one got really mean when it was feeding time and would try and bite me. None of our rats have ever bitten us and they loved to come out and play. We contacted our vet and that is what he explained to me. We reserched it online and found many different things saying this and that. A few months later my fiance (a cop) pulled over this "rat specialist" and they actually got talking about it and he said it isn’t common but he has dealt with rats like that and after a week to two weeks off meat rats returned to their normal temperments. But his rat has never bitten us again and never had meat again although mine continued to get their’s. His four were in a separate cage then my two, however at play time or tv time they were always loose together.
I guess I learned something new today! Here is a better pic of the two in my profile pic. These two are my husband’s favorite.
Click on any picture to see full size:
awww wow they are soo cute!! Is that one have grey in color? I love your lil rats they look really sweet!!
wear gloves and take them out for an hour each day.soon they will be kind again
Thanks! The one on the right is Violet, a blue. And the other one is Mighty Mouse( my husband named him!)
Thanks for the advice from anyone. I do have a pair of thick gloves I have been handling them with, though since only the one is aggressive I haven’t had to use them with the other. He was sitting on my shoulders all morning as I went through my routine! I managed to get my aggressive rat from the cage yesterday by baiting him out with a sunflower seed and simply closing the cage door and he immediately went to me for comfort. I handled him with the gloves for a good hour, just petting him and talking softly, but he was still acting a little peculiar when I put him back.
I know they came from a good breeder because I scoured over 10 different shops trying to find rats that I could tell had been hand raised and not just mass-bred for profit. They are brothers from the same littler, which made it all the more peculiar that only one was agressive.
He has a vet appointment on monday with a vet experienced with rats, so I will get her second opinion. I am not eager to have another $230 doctor’s office visit because he decides to take a chunk out of my hand. Though I am willing to do anything I can to help them. 🙂
If one is aggressive and the other is not, it could just be high testosterone levels. Some males get that way. He is probably the dominant one. I couldn’t tell unless I was there. Hope the vet solves your problem!
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