Hello folks,
I'm not breeding rats for snake food, but did buy a trio of males to try out as "pets" (I want to know how bad the odor is before considering raising them for my snakes). I've had them for close to a week now and two of the three are very young, about the size of adult mice, with the third being larger (about twice as big).

One of them, the smallest, has been "mouthy" a few times (his first reaction to my hands is to "test" with his teeth). i thought I'd made progress with him, but tonight when I was trying to hold him (this was a new activity for him), he bit me... not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to hurt (like he was saying "put me down now!"). The other two have mouthed softly a few times but not on a regular basis like this guy and have never bitten hard.

I plan on giving him another week to see if he calms down before deciding on what I'll do, but I wanted to get everyone's opinion because you guys have raised a lot of rats and have a better handle on telling one with bad temperament from one that is showing normal behavior. I don't relish the thought of killing the little guy, but if he's most likely going to grow up to be a biting adult rat, I don't want to deal with that either.

If you have any advice, etc, I'd be glad to hear it because I have absolutely no experience with rats and I don't want to make a decision I'll regret due to my inexperience.

Thanks for your time and help!
Artgecko