SonOfA--

Just got the worst rat bite of my life. I wish Id taken pictures before the bleeding stopped lol. I made the mistake of trying to take a 3week old baby from mom WHILE she was nursing it. Ivve gotten nipped before but she hung on midair and pregnant for a good 6-7 mississippi's. Never had one this deep either. I cant even bent my finger halfway(got got me RIGHT on the middle line)

Anybody else have some terrible bite stories to help me feel more competenant? = p

About 2 yrs ago one of my breeder boys was in the process of dying, I did not know this and was trying to feed him some wet bread, he latched onto my finger, then died.:O It was only after he passed that I was able to pry his mouth off my finger.. it hurt a ton, it almost got infected.

Yeah, momma rats can be VERY protective of their young, but you can usually lure them away with food if you need to steal her babies.:8:

Nothing that bad, but I did have a new male rat, that I was starting to socalize bite my finger, right by the finger nail. I even heard the skin break.

wow. that one was a doozy.

Yeah, my maternity tank is only 10 gallons, so there isnt a ton of space to lure haha. I think im gonna start removing her and putting her in a bin while I grab them. I have yet to be bit by a baby though. Im pretty pumped about that at least.

Yikes, yeah momma rats are the worst. Putting her in a separate bin is a good way to go - especially as the babies get older the momma rats usually seem pretty relieved to get that bit of time to themselves, lol.

My worst bite was definitely one of my old, hand-raised boys. H was a bit over 2 years old and I'd had him out to play and cuddle for a while. After being out for (apparently) longer than he was happy with I went and gave him a kiss... and he nearly pierced my upper lip >_< Thankfully I have a good "fix first, freak later" response and was able to pry him off and get him back in the cage pretty quickly. Still amazed it didn't scar XD

hahahah that's why I don't kiss rats. Not the only reason.. but a good reason.

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Originally Posted by decensored

hahahah that's why I don't kiss rats. Not the only reason.. but a good reason.

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lol, I definitely don't anymore! He was one of the only ones I ever did that to, the little daredevil from my very first litter. I certainly learned my lesson after that though XD

I've had a few rodent bites. Worst was from a pair of absolutely feral soft furs that I had a few years back. I bled pretty heavily into the sink for several minutes, and got pretty bad bruising from it too. Yes, rodent bites hurt worse than any other bite I've experienced.

Oh I HATE rat bites! I've only been bitten a few times but the worst was long ago..

Sometime around 1996 I had gotten a huge rat for my albino burm. Back then feeding live was all most people knew. I learned my lesson fast! This angry giant rat started twisting the moment I tailed it. I didn't even have the cage door open yet so my idiot self quickly put it on the floor to prevent breaking its tail off. In one motion I put it down, put my other hand over it with my hand behind its head, and it twisted its neck and chomped down!

The top incisors just grazed down the side of my finger but the bottom pair of teeth went straight in the underside of that finger. Straight to the bone! I still have a little scar there that is quite visible.

Needless to say, I was not feeling badly about feeding that rat off.

That sounds awful. I don't raise a lot of rats anymore, but I've produced thousands of them in the past and never had a single bite. Aggression in rats IS hereditary, so always feed off any rat that shows even a hint of aggression.

Ugh! I -hate- rodent bites, whether it's rabbits, rats, or mice. Whenever people start asking about the snakes and the "Do they bite?" part, I'm always happy to list everything I've been bitten/scratched by that hurts 10x worse and does significantly more damage, rats/rabbits being at the top of that list (followed by cat that wants to play/isn't happy with you and shreds your forearms in the grab-n-kick method)

Previous to this one id only ever had one other real bite, and it really want that bad. A little bruising and sensetivity. Nothing too terrible. Its been a little bit now since ive gotten this bite and it STILL hurts XD.

Whats unfortunate is that this is that rats 3rd litter for me. I kept most of her female babies because she usually had large litters and had never been aggressive to me before. Now I know for a fact that all but one of my next generation females came from her, so breeding that little bit of aggression may take a little while. Hopefully it wont really be a problem though. The father is an absolute sweetheart, and the male that will replace him has a different mother who is also very sweet, so we'll have to see how it plays out.

She's definitely getting fed to my burm though = / She's retired after this litter anyway. Might as well keep her frozen till little laila gets big enough for her.

Rats are the worst part of having a snake. Those little suckers creep me out.

rat bites are terrible, especially the ones that hang out while you're shouting or trying to get your hand out.

I've had one female bite me twice (different days). First one was my fault, as it was my first litter, and she got me good. The second time I was filling the food, and she literally jumped out, and flew at my hand. Got me by the nail of pinky. That bled for a long time. Took awhile to heal.

She hasn't bit me again, and her daughter looks exactly like her, so I forget who was who...

We use to breed rats for all the snakes we kept and for the most part we never had any issues. But every now and then we would come across an extremely mean and violent rat. We would quickly terminate any rats that showed these behaviors. One time when I was switching some rats to a different cage I had my hand on the top of the tank while I leaned down to grab rat after rat. And out of no where a rat latches onto the side of my hand. I dare not repeat the words that came out of my mouth but it hurt! I finally got the bugger off and tossed him into the cage. I still have a scar on my hand to this day. It seriously put me off rats for a while. haha.

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Originally Posted by Rocialhabit

We use to breed rats for all the snakes we kept and for the most part we never had any issues. But every now and then we would come across an extremely mean and violent rat. We would quickly terminate any rats that showed these behaviors. One time when I was switching some rats to a different cage I had my hand on the top of the tank while I leaned down to grab rat after rat. And out of no where a rat latches onto the side of my hand. I dare not repeat the words that came out of my mouth but it hurt! I finally got the bugger off and tossed him into the cage. I still have a scar on my hand to this day. It seriously put me off rats for a while. haha.

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into the C02 for you!!

One of my first females got me earlier this year. She walked from the back of her tub to the front calmly and chomped down on my poor thumb. She'll also attack the water dripper if I move it from one slot to another. Last litter was almost 3 months ago, so she won't be here much longer.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...i/DSC00019.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...83816846_n.jpg

I am SOOOO lucky I've never been bitten... most animals with those huge incisors (rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, prairie dogs) I won't touch because I'm scared of being bitten, and I take a ton of time to make sure my rats are handleable, which I know is impossible for most busy reptile keepers who have rats solely for food. My momma rats at least tolerate me messing with their litters while nursing, some simply leave the nest, others give me lots of kisses. :)

Hope your finger is ok! If it's really bad you might want to see a doctor to make sure there is no permanent nerve damage or mobility issues..

The very first rat I had was pregnant when I bought her from the pet store. I had intended to just have a pet, but when she had her babies, I convinced my parents to let me breed them for our snake.

She was very nice the first couple weeks I had her, but as soon as she had her babies, she turned into a demon! She would actually lunge after me, and I was never able to handle her other than a quick grab of her tail to move her quickly to a box while I would clean her cage, then dump her out again when i was done. I'm sure at some point she actually bit me, but I don't remember, so it couldn't have been that bad. She stayed evil the rest of her life, which was a couple years because I wouldn't feed her to my snake.

She was also responsible for taking a bite out of my previous cat's ear! At the time it happened, she lived in a wire cage on top of my dresser, and my cat walked by her cage. I guess the tip of her ear was just close enough, and all I heard was a yowl and saw my cat leap away and run out the door. Luckily it wasn't deep enough to hit the large vein that goes around the edge of the ear, but there was still a decent amount of blood. My cat never got on top of my dresser again!

EESH! I thought mine was bad! One of my pet hairless males bit my index finger knuckle once - bled for a good 10 minutes, got infected and i had a chunk of skin fall out. now its a big shiny scar.

lol. Im glad im not the only one with a bad experience XD. Its definitely infected despite the mass amounts of hand sanitizer ive beeen putting on it, but its not that terrible. Just a really senesetive swollen red spot where the lower teeth went in. Literally as soon as my younger females start producing she's gone though. My agouti female whose had two litters now doesnt even care if I touch her babies. I might just clean house and start over with her last litter. I mean Id have a shortage for a little while, but I can buy some rats I guess.

I am definitely expecting a scar though. Frankly, Ill be dissapointed if i DONT get one haha. Its funny though. Now im finding myself afraid of ANY of my rats haha. Every time I pick one up now im careful about positioning, and try to get them under the arms so they can really move their neck and shoulders much. I dont use snake hooks much, but I wish they had a version of them just for rats XDD

In my experience with my breeding rats I've learned to never tail them.. Every time I clean the tubs I scoop each rat out and put it into the large holding tub without ever grabbing its tail. They seem more likely to show aggression if they are fearful. They learn that it is a fearful experience on cleaning day and they are held by their tails which is uncomfortable and scary.

I also try to handle every baby once in awhile so they don't fear me. It seems to work pretty good. I haven't had an aggressive rat in my colonies in about a year or more. The few that were, which were always Siamese for some reason, were fed off or put down to be frozen for later.

The two worst bites I ever had were both by pet male rats, I'm always careful around my mommas because I know they can be protective of their young.
One was a sick rat, he ended up dieing soon after the bite. I had him out on my shoulder getting ready to go to the vet with him, and I guess he wanted to go back to him cage. He latched onto my ear lobe, I heard the skin break. He just hung on, grinding his teeth. He had to hang on for a few minutes before letting go. My mom called the vet to see if they had any ideas how to get him off, they said soak a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and put it under his nose. By the time she got everything ready he had let go.
The other rat was still settling in and I stupidly went to grab him out of his hide box. He bit my finger through the nail. I pulled my hand away and blood sprayed the wall and closet door. That one hurt.

Oh yeah! I've only had one bite and she never bit me again after that. If she would have she would have been gone. I don't like being bit and I don't want biters in my colony!!!

Here's my bite, she almost got all the way through my fingernail and pretty deep on the other side of my finger. I did the same thing, tried to take babies from a nursing momma
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...a/rats/008.jpg

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

In my experience with my breeding rats I've learned to never tail them.. Every time I clean the tubs I scoop each rat out and put it into the large holding tub without ever grabbing its tail. They seem more likely to show aggression if they are fearful. They learn that it is a fearful experience on cleaning day and they are held by their tails which is uncomfortable and scary.

I also try to handle every baby once in awhile so they don't fear me. It seems to work pretty good. I haven't had an aggressive rat in my colonies in about a year or more. The few that were, which were always Siamese for some reason, were fed off or put down to be frozen for later.

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Yeah, for some reason Siamese are prone to behavioral problems. Rat breeders say it is because they were so wildly popular when they first appeared that a lot of irresponsible inbreeding occurred.