Quote Originally Posted by MrLang View Post
Rat question but I'll piggy back here.

I have to clean my rat tubs tonight. The babies are 10-14 days old. I put my hand in the other day and one of the moms lunged at me and bit me pretty bad. I jerked my hand back and she was latched on so hard it ended up flinging her out of the tub, then I had to chase her around the room to get her back.

Any tips on avoiding this aggression? I wasn't even close to the babies... is this pretty normal or should I consider her less tame and not worry about my other females?
Sometimes a female will get startled and react instinctively, there is a difference between an aggressive rat and a rat that bites you that one day. We tend to cull anything that exhibits a very strong an consistent unwanted behavior. For example; the last rat we culled was way too athletic, fast and nervous. The first incident she leaped right out of a large holding bin in one stride, by the time we were able to catch her she had chewed up one of the water lines. We let that incident slide but next cleaning day she did the same thing, that time we weren't as lenient. My point is, make sure that you are culling for a noted behavior and not a one time thing, especially if she is a good mother with many clutches left in her. Just my 2 cents.