Arrgghh! I'm so angry!!

[laydeerodentzz]

Arrgghh, I'm soooo angry!
Okay, I went on a Large animal care and handling course yesterday at Shuttleworth college. It went great, I held a piglet which I managed to stop squealing... somehow LOL, however, he did poo all down me, but I was dressed for the occation so I didn't mind LOL
I washed and groomed pigs, observed the sheep and met the goats, walked the pigs, groomed a horse and fed her and we went to see the cattle, but we couldn't get close to them because they wouldn't let us.
At the end we had an extra half hour, so we were told that we could go to the small animal centre, care and handling, which is the one I originally signed up to do, but all the spaces were taken and I decided I could do the large animal instead.
Well, to the point... I asked in the small animal part if I was allowd to hold one of their rats. They showed me their rats, they had some gorgeous colours- siamese, cinnamon (SP?), hairless, hooded and more! However, when I asked to hold one they told me that their rats were unpredictable and it wasn't a good idea! Well, I've never seen any rats more aggressive! I was only talking to one of the rats and he jumped up at the cage bars trying to bite me! Every single rat they had apart from one hairless, tryed to bite and it's soo strange having my 4 so sweet and friendly, you know, climbing in my mouth, giving me kisses, and than seeing them rats! arrgghh, I'm sooo angry now, I can't beleive it! They had so many animals there that clearly wern't looked after properly, but the rats stood out most to me and now I'm finding it hard to get that image out of my head! I should have done something!

[pinkie1205]

Are you sure they were lunging at you? They probably just wanted to get out of the cage!

Also if they were over crowded then I'm sure they were on the more grumpy side.

[luvboyrats]

They probably could still be socialized. More than likely they've been ignored and placed in overly crowded habitats their entire lives.

[Vanilla_Rat]

I say the reason they acted like that is because they were overcrowded and not well socialized with people.If they are not handling them - then they don't know what they are missing!


However I have seen rats that rarely get handled and they don't bite or are not aggressive.They are just skittish.So it is odd that ALL of those rats would show aggression...unless they are being physically abused or something.


I have taken in rats that barely got any attention/handling and they were still friendly,just skittish.And with some work/attention came around.

[laydeerodentzz]

yeah, I know what your all saying, but it was really weird. I wanted to offer to do someork with them and try to get them socialized, but unfortuatly I didn't. They were not all as aggressive as the first, bt he did definatly jump at the cage trying to bite..as if he was scared or something. The others I think might have bitten because they have not had any human contact, I know a lot of them sniffed first so thats a sign. sorry for the late reply, I've been on holiday for a week & when I tryed posting a thread to say I won't be around I kept on getting problems.

[laydeerodentzz]

yeah, I know what your all saying, but it was really weird. I wanted to offer to do someork with them and try to get them socialized, but unfortuatly I didn't. They were not all as aggressive as the first, bt he did definatly jump at the cage trying to bite..as if he was scared or something. The others I think might have bitten because they have not had any human contact, I know a lot of them sniffed first so thats a sign. sorry for the late reply, I've been on holiday for a week & when I tryed posting a thread to say I won't be around I kept on getting problems and I couldn't post