Do you own a rat? If so, this blog post may be for you. Rats are adorable creatures that any owner should love unconditionally. The problem is when they bite.
How To Avoid Rat Bite – 13 Tips
Biting can be just as much fun for them as it is frustrating to humans. If left unchecked, it could lead to more severe problems in the future. The following article will offer some tips on how to avoid rat bites.
1. Avoid Handling Your Rat By Its Tail
It will hurt your rat when you hold him by his tail, but still, it happens. The rat will struggle and try to get itself free, which might lead to a snap or scratch of the teeth on your hand. If one of these passes through your skin, it might transfer some diseases into your body.
Rat bites, especially the ones on the tail, might get infected. If you don’t feel well or get feverish after a rat bite, it’s important to contact your doctor for treatment.
2. Don’t Touch Your Rat’s Face
Rats don’t like when you touch their faces or put your fingers in his mouth (if he opens it). Rats are very expressive, so if your rat is rubbing his face or licks a lot, you should know that he wants to get left alone.
They can get frightened, stressed and decide to defend themselves by biting. It’s not a good idea to pet your rat on its face.
If you don’t want to hurt his feelings and will continue trying to touch him, then most probably you’ll get bitten. Try not to do it at all.
3. Avoid Squeezing Your Rat
Squeezing can hurt your rat very badly. It might get frightened and quickly scratch you to free itself from the firm grip on its body.
Or it might not be able to get loose anymore but decide to defend itself by biting you instead of getting squeezed further.
Don’t squeeze him ever; you don’t want him to feel that pain.
4. Be Careful When The Rat Is Eating Or Chewing
If you don’t want to disturb him, don’t touch your rat when he has something in his mouth and wants to eat it.
He might get frightened and decide to defend himself by biting you. Or he might drop his food and lose it because he doesn’t want to share, so try to avoid this as well.
5. Avoid Staring At It When You Enter The Room
If you don’t want to get bitten by your rat, it is very important not to startle them when entering a room. They might be sitting somewhere and jumping up when they see a new person in the room.
This can lead to a defensive behavior of your rat if he doesn’t know that this new person means no harm. So unless your rat knows that this person is a friend, it might get frightened and show its teeth.
6. Give Your Rat Enough Space To Explore
Make sure you don’t keep your rat in a small cage with nothing to do or confine him to one room. You should give it enough space to run around and play.
You will increase the risk of getting bitten by your rat if he is bound and feels like you won’t let it out or that it can’t explore around.
Rats hate when they feel trapped, so this might lead to defensive behavior. Keep him in a large, roomy cage where he can feel safe and develop his personality.
7. Don’t Let Your Kids Scare Or Bother The Rats
If you don’t want your children to get bitten by a rat, make sure they learn not to scare the rats when running around the room or shouting.
They might think it’s fun and jump around in front of their cage, making all sorts of weird noises. So don’t bully him; let him feel safe.
Small Children trigger him to attack by weird things. If you’re hanging out with your rat, don’t let children bother him either. Rats are very protective towards their owners, so he might feel like he has to protect you and show his teeth to the child.
8. Be Careful With Noise And Abrupt Movements
If you don’t want to stress your rat out, make sure that there isn’t any echoing noise in the room where he is. Also, any sudden movements can scare your rat.
Rats get stressed if they hear echoes and get startled by something moving near them. So remove these things, and he will feel safe and comfortable, which in return lowers the risk of getting bitten by your rat.
9. Don’t Move The Cage When It’s Inside – Unless Necessary
If you don’t want to get bitten by your rat, it is very important not to move his cage while he’s inside. They might be sleeping when you decide to disturb their sleep by moving the cage somewhere else in the room.
If you have no choice but to move his cage, move it gently.
Otherwise, put him in something that will allow him to adjust to a new environment before he actually has to explore it.
10. Feed Your Rat From A Safe Distance
If you don’t want your rat to get stressed at any time, make sure you never offer them food from your hands. When he is eating out of the palm, it means your hand is close to his mouth, which might scare him.
And if he gets startled while it’s mealtime, he might decide to show his teeth as a way of defense.
Make sure you feed your rat from a different location or at least make sure there’s enough distance between your hand and its mouth.
11. Teach The Rat How To Behave Around Humans
If you want to get rid of the risk of getting bitten by your rat, you must teach them how to behave around humans. This way, they will understand when someone means no harm and when to show their teeth to defend themselves.
Make sure you spend time with your rat and play with him to teach him what he should and shouldn’t do in front of others.
12. Play With Your Rat – Make Him Feel Safe
If you want to lessen the risk of bites from your rat, make sure you play with him every once in a while.
Rats will feel less defensive and more relaxed if they know that you are not predators.
So play with your pet from time to time, so he knows that you love him and don’t mean to harm him.
13. Avoid Being Too Close To Their Babies
If you want to get rid of the risk of getting bitten by your rat, make sure you don’t go very close to their child.
Rats are quite protective animals they feel like someone is threatening their children if someone goes too close to them. So whenever you are around their baby, make sure there’s enough distance between you two.
Rats are territorial animals and feel like you’re invading their space if you’re too close to them.
Conclusion
Rat bites are not very dangerous, but they hurt and can get you infected easily. So if you don’t want your rat’s bite to cause some severe problems in the future, avoid things that provoke rat bites.
As you can see, many things can provoke your rat to bite you. Try to avoid these things and make sure he doesn’t feel stressed or threatened by anything.
Please do share in a comment if you have any experience with a rat bite.
Leave a Reply