Turning biters into lovers...

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Originally Posted by Gooseman

I've found a little "love potion #9" goes a long way...

http://static.flickr.com/121/280204351_e1c6175218_o.jpg

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I'm bringing this to Daytona with me whahahahahahahaahahahah

And thank you everyone!!!! Great suggestions...yeah its the adults I am nervous about being the hairless ones were just weaned when I got each of them...it's hard because I so miss there little rat kisses and clicking teeth...those were hands down the best pets I have had as far as responding to me goes etc...I've have to post a picture of S&M and little Sara...they were great rats.


Thank you again everyone!!! Once weaned I will start working on the one...after being chased down and bitten twice by the one I am over her LOL. She is to large to feed to anyone (as is the father) but they make good babies *shrugs* and how thank you again!

Now I have to get my booty to Home Depot...happy mothers day to me were building a rat rack today LOL.

Unfortunately , some of my most tame mother rats, raised from birth, are still pretty aggressive in defense of their young. They're fine once they are away from the cage.

I try to keep future breeders from the less aggressive mothers but it's not always possible.

When I'm looking at future breeders, especially females, I look at their mother's litter sizes, ease of birthing, ability to raise the entire litter to weaning stage and temperment of both the parents. Defense of a litter isn't a particular problem for me, I rather expect it, so I don't judge my females soley on that as a temperment issue - though of course I prefer females that don't mind me messing with them at any time. I also tend to disregard any nips during feeding as again this seems a fairly normal thing to me for an animal to get over-excited when fed. As long as the rat is normally easy to handle and does not go out of it's way to nail me, then I consider it has a stable temperment.

I like to get them when their eyes are newly opened; just select the rat that you want to invest the time into, and start casually picking it up for a few seconds at a time; petting, etc. They are really inquisitive at this stage, and seem to not have learned fear yet (this is just how it's seemed to me in the years I have been doing this.) Once they reach that "crazy" hopper stage, it seems pretty tough to start at that time.