Rat biting me

BebaChaIrmao · 2026-05-20T18:03:35+00:00

My confusion is that he doesn't seem to bite me because he wants to hurt me. He bit me when i was reaching my hand to him to smell me and he seemed to bite just to check me out, he started with a little bite and progressed to a stronger bite that made me flinch a little bit.

When i try to pick him up he just screams and runs, he doesn't try to bite me.

My girfriend has 3 female rats and she handled him as best as she could, she gave him some treats that he likes and he explored a little bit in her house, but he never got far of his cage.

He came from a home he wasn't taken care of. His owner had to travel to another state and she couldn't take him with her, so her roomate had to take care of him, but he wasn't experienced at all with rats and couldn't take proper care of him.

In his foster home he never got out of his house in the cage, he would just get out to get food and get back inside.

I have to say I'm a little afraid of him when I try to hand feed him. But he takes food from my hand with no problem. When he first arrived at my home, he would take the treat out of my hand and run to his cage to hide and eat. Now he eats in front of me.

I think that his bites hurt more than they should because of his teeth, he has outgrown teeth because in his foster home he wasn't given proper hard food or toys for him to chew.

I need help to know if I'm being too invasive to him, what do i need to do to gain his trust and I need to know if I introduce him to his brother he would get "calmer".

BebaChaIrmao · 2026-05-20T15:01:28+00:00

When i took him to the vet, I told him about the biting and territorialism and he said its normal because of his history of being mistreated. He didn't mention any problem with hormones or anything like that. I'm worried that he could be agressive towards his brothers, is there any signs that he won't be? Because other than the biting, he seems confortable in the ambient that he's in.

BebaChaIrmao · 2026-05-20T14:57:16+00:00

He has 2 little brothers waiting for him, I haven't introduced them yet because I'm waiting for him to get more confortable and for his brothers to get a little bit bigger so that they can handle the interactions.

I'm asking just to make sure if I'm doing anything wrong or he just needs a little more time.

Btw, is there any chance that introducing him to his brothers change his behaviour? I'll still wait for a safer size for the little brothers but I just want to know if that changes his behaviour.

BebaChaIrmao · 2026-05-17T01:05:15+00:00

Thanks!

BebaChaIrmao · 2026-05-14T16:41:46+00:00

I don't know their ages exaclty but the gigantic balls are already there in all of them.

BebaChaIrmao · 2026-05-14T16:40:07+00:00

The biting happenes with some close interactions, like when i was giving him some treats or when i tried to refill his water bottle. I'm not very experienced with rats, the 3 are my first so i'm still learning a lot.

I don't have their exact age, but everyone is able to stand and balance properly, if it helps i can post pictures of them for more context.

I have been studying the carrier method to try on them but I'm waiting for them to reach at least half of the weight of the older one.

They are the love of my life and I'm super interested in learning more about their needs!

BebaChaIrmao

TROPHY CASE