biteing rat

[Bat]

My little brother has gone away for six weeks

I am looking after his rat
it has started biteing me, not to actually hurt, but enough that I feel uncomfortable aorund it.

Simon has been gone long enough that the rat will eb aware somethigns up, and possibly be missing him.

I have just spent an hour in my little brothers room where the rat can run around on the floor.

Is there anything I can do to stop him biteing, and is it likely to be related to simon beign away, or might it be more liekly that I had hands smellign of food the other day when I had him out of the cage? or would it be something else?

[Christy]

If your hands smell of food at all they will often think it is food as rats do not see very well. I would suggest washing your hands really well before handling the rat and coming at him slowly so he knows you are there and you don't startle him. He probably is missing your brother, especially if he is a lone rat.

[diggy415]

I raise rats and mine test to see if what im offering is food, i don't give them a chance to bite, meaning i don't offer my hand near their mouth, I just pick them up and be with them, if i let mine run in aroom and they nibble my toes, if i scoot them away they come back and do it again **OH RATS** lol if they keep it up i tap them on the nose and tell them no.

[Bat]

Thank-you
he's got a lot better now, there was no nibbling at all last night

[RondaNC]

Just a suggestion but Rats become better with owners and visitors alike if they have one of thier own living with them.Your brother really needs to have a companion for his little rat.Rats are real cheap like 5.00 to 7.00 dollars and you could make the rat more happy and im sure your brother would be happy to find another furry friend when he returned.
Just make sure they are of the same sex,so you dont have babies or fighting.You will see a huge diffrence.Rats get bored and lonely and when they dont have another rat to play with ,and they react better to humans when they are in pairs.Imagine being stuck in a cage and your human companion only droped in once in awile or even twice a day isnt much in a 24 hour time.Youd be very lonely and bored out your mind,Rats are night owls,thats when they are most active and im sure most people are asleep by then.Its really cruel to keep only one rat.
I hope you will look into this and maybe get in touch with your brother and see if he is okay with it,it could be alot of fun to watch and everyone would benifit in the long run. I ahve included some web sites so if you would like to look up any imformation on introducing a new friend or basic care or things that happen when an owner leaves or any concerns,it has loads of imformation about Rats. Good luck with your little visitor and truley think about buying him a friend..

http://www.ratfanclub.org/