Bloody hell! I have vampire rats!

[OrmRenewed]

New rescue rats are so nervous . Rarely come out of their beds when we are in the room. If you try to pick them up they bite really hard - well one does anyway. Last night one of them bit my thumb to the bone - felt it crunch! They are OK once you have them but the picking up bit seems to make them very stressed. The one with red eyes is worse - I guess that is because she doesn't see as well so gets more easily alarmed.

DC love them lots atm but are chary of picking them up. So am I after last night. But I know that only lost of handling will make them calm down near us. I guess this is the reason they weren't wanted by their last owners. Hoping the a bigger cage, better diet and lots of attention will help. But does anyone have tips to speed the process up - my hands look as if I've been fighting a small tiger

I have hardly heard of any rats being biters, poor things!

Have you tried not picking them up for now and just offering treats from your hand etc? Also, take out any beds/places they can hide and just leave some bedding in the cage. Keeping them in a smaller cage/one that is easy to get them out of at first can help too.

Some rats just never like being picked up though. I have one who hates it and squeeeks every time, despite being handled several times a day from a few days old. She has never bitten me though.

A really good way is to sit with the cage door open and offer them yoghurt on a spoon.

They will love the yoghurt and it will teach tham they you = good things, but there is no biting. You can then progress to offering them it on your fingers.

Once out they will like sitting in the hood of a hoody or a big pocket or a dressing gown sleeve and being carried around, rats only really feel fear for around 20 minutes so after that they will realx and probably go to sleep, again this is to do with teaching them that you are the source of good times.

I would very much recomend both the forum and the articles of fancyrats.co.uk as being brilliant sources of information.

Good luck with them, they make the most brilliant pets

We do offer treats. One way is to give them something particularly yummy like a grape and once they have their chops round it, pick them up. Mouths too full of food to bite But not ideal.

I guess we will just have to leave it for a while and be patient.

It does make you wonder what sort of lives they had to be so scared.

Thanks wildthings. I agree they make wonderful pets. This is our third lot and wouldn't be without them now - although I did say never again when our last girls got sick .

I will try fancyrats.

Have to confess to being very nervous around the one that bit me It's still quite painful today. Atm we are just leaving them in their cage, opening the door and letting them come out if they choose (with us in the room), putting our hands in the cage so they can sniff and nibble and climb over them, but not attempts to catch them. And obviously feeding them treats by hand.