My 7 year old son has 2 rats, they are coming up to a year old. We got them from a breeder. I've recently just lost my last rat Spike at the age of 2 1/2 and have had pet rats since I was a teenager.

Last night my son was playing with one of his rats, he's been amazing with them, cleans them out, cuddles them and they are incredibly tame. One rat ran up his arm as normal, jumped and bit his eyelid. There was blood everywhere and as he couldn't open his eye, we called 999. Luckily it wasn't too serious, it hasn't punctured his eyelid, there was just a lot of blood! We were warned by the paramedic that 2mm further down and it could have been a lot more serious. I have never been so scared in my life!

The rat has bitten fingers before but I just put that down to feeling a little anxious with human hands in his territory and not his fault. Last night though, DS did nothing wrong, waited for the rat to come to him, didn't move too suddenly or anything, we have no idea what made him turn. The other rat is totally placid.

My husband has ordered that both rats are re-homed now. I've called the breeder and left a message asking if she can take them back, should she do this? If she won't, how do I go about finding an experienced home, I obviously need to let the new owner know he's a biter. DS is gutted, he loves rats, but I know he'd never go near the biter again and that isn't fair on either the rat or DS.
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Sorry to hear about your problem, it must be heartbreaking for your son.

I used to keep rats for a while but found that I didn't have the time to handle and fuss them as much as they deserved, so I re-homed mine too.

I joined a great rat forum/community at that time, and a girl came from the other side of Wales for my two boys, and another more local girl took my little girl.

Maybe you could try posting for advice or getting a re-homer too, I don't think your breeder would want to take them back after a year, but of course there is that chance.
The forum is :

http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/community/

Good luck anyhow.

I have had pet rats before and you know as well as I do that they should never bite. I would say that the rat should be destroyed, never mind being re-homed.

We have rats, and both of ours are totally placid and gentle.

I think for the rat to have bitten like that, without being seriously threatened, there must be a BIG problem. It was my understanding from all the reading I've done, and all the other rat owners I've spoken to, is that a rat will never bite unless its under extreme pressure of fear/pain and only as a last resort.

That said, I'm sure someone will disagree with me, this is DS after all!

I really hope the breeder is helpful - what a shame that you have to rehome them both, after all its only the one rat that has been aggressive, and it sounds like both you and your son really love them. I'm sorry anyway and I hope you find a solution.

For crying out loud they are rats. Get rid of the damned things. Do you have any idea of the diseases these things carry?

Their urine causes Weils disease that can kill If you want to expose yourself to that fine but to expose a child to it!!!

Get rid of them.

I dont know anything about rats but just wanted to say I love the term "rat people"!

Eughhhhhhhhhhhhhh shudders. I was rat neutral until my son took up fishing and the bailliff warned us about putting anything in his mouth without thoroughly cleaning is hands first because the rats urine and fleas carry 14 different infections some which can kill the chld or adult.

One man fell in the fishery and cut his back on the way letting the fishing water with rats urine into his open wound, he was advised to go straight to hospital because of the risk of infection.

Why anyone would let a child have one as a pet baffles me totally.

Admittedly I am not a rat person, I am a child person.

The incubation is 7-10 days so I hope the OP is taking whatever advice the hospital has given out.

Bleurgh!

I cant abide rats. My daughter's friend keeps telling me how clever and affectionate they are but things with long tails just give me the heebies. Love hamsters, hate gerbils and mice. I know it's silly but I can actually feel my skin crawl just thinking about it.

Having said that I dont remember her saying that one has ever bitten her while hamsters can be holy terrors.

Pet rats do not carry Weils, do not carry disease and should not carry fleas. They are as safe as any other pet rodent.

Go on the pet forum on preloved. There are plenty of rat people there who might be able to help you out.

Research it. You'll find this information is readily available.

I was neutral so far as rats were concerned until my son starting fishing and a fishing bailliff had a chat with me, to warn me of the importance of not putting line into mouths or having unprotected cuts in the water. Since then I've looked into it and talked to other fishermen and other bailliffs.

Rats and children don't mix at all. If adults want to take the risk then fine, it's up to them.

My personal opinion based on those discussions, research into the causes of deaths in the WW1 trenches (for other reasons) and research as a result of being warned by different bailliffs is that they are diseased ridden creatures and any benefit to a child having one are far far outweighed by the risk.

Not of attack, though this can happen, but more to do with disease.

OK.

Research

So, you are more at risk of Weils from DOGS than pet rats!!!

Have you had the rats for a year or are they relatively new to your household? From experience I can say rats never bite if handled regular and given loads of attention. If they are not given this regular attention from the age of five or six weeks the Rat can become shy and aggressive and this is hard to break once it starts.

Also with the rat coming from breeder they generally don’t care about the traits of the rat so may have breed a rat with this shy and aggressive trait.

I’ve never had a serious bite from my rats thought I have 2 rats that were left in stock at a pet shop I used to work at for over a year and they were never handled (I took these rats them on my second day of working their) they will never get used to being handled (they no longer bite but they do squeak) but they love being in their hammock and being stroked (they will lick your hand then)

You might not like that type of relationship with your rats and would prefer to hold and bond with your rats that way, but since I have 7 rats in total so having that type of relationship with those two is fine.

I agree with Stressmonkey.

The risk of infectious diseases from domesticated pet rats is very small indeed.

Rats get SUCH a bad rap. When we got ours, a family member suggested we called them Bew and Bonic - as in bubonic plague

Fancy rats are very different to wild rats in terms of disease, unless kept in contact with wild rats who can of course infect them, as wild rats can infect humans.

Well handled, tame, pet rats in general very rarely bite without very good cause BUT as with other species (including humans), you do occasionally get an individual that is unusually aggressive to people, and so who will not be a suitable and trustworthy pet.

I wish uneducated rat haters would just stay out of threads instead of attempting to spread their paranoia further with their ridiculous fearmongering.
Seriously, how stupid do you need to be to think that animals would be sold and kept widely as pets all around the world if they were rife with plague and fleas. Pet rats and wild rats are hugely different in all ways, including the fact that the various diseases associated with wild rats are about as likely to be found on a guinea pig as they are on a pet rat. Go learn your facts before you come in here spouting about 'research' and crap, The Vixen, or preferably stay out as you're clearly prejudiced.

I had a pair, one of which was perfectly friendly, the other started all right but ended up a total psycho. I think there may have been something physically wrong as the nasty one died a year before the nice one. If one of your rats is turning psycho then maybe it's time for a trip to the vet.

Blimey, I didn't think this would spark such a debate! Domestic rats are perfectly safe to keep and you are in probably more danger from a dog or a cat!

I have found someone EXPERIENCED with aggressive rats to take them.

And to the poster who asked if I was following the advice the hospital gave me, my son didn't need hospital treatment, but the paramedics came and his eye was cleaned up immediately. He doesn't need a tetanus as he is up to date with all his jabs, so of course I am following the advice given, what sort of person do you think I am??

I love my animals, but I love my children more obviously, which is why we are taking the decision to re-home our much loved pets.

timewarpbunny,

Glad to hear you've got someone to take them and more importantly someone whose experienced.

I've got a female whose what I term a nipper/biter so your not alone and while fingers don't tend to bleed, eyelids,ears and other parts do tend to.

Hopefully you can find something to fill the gap for both your son & yourself because for all the bad press and idiot postings they still are great pets.

Thank you Mitchec1!

They are wonderful and DS had trained them really well, I'm beginning to wonder if aggressive rattie has a neurological disorder causing him to behave this way I really hope not.

They do get such a bad press and it isn't fair, I've adored all my rats, they're like mini dogs!

ALl of the advice I've read says that when a rat bites, scratches a human, particularly a child (higher incidents of children getting infected at schools for one of the diseases) then child is at risk of being infected by the rat whether pet or wild.

More risk from wild ones but certainly a risk from pets too,

You say you knew you had a biter and has a history of biting fingers, now it's done some facial damage.

If you had a dog and it bit a child's fingers would you have kept it to give the dog a second chance? I wouldn't and certainly wouldn't for a rat.

I'm glad for your child's sake that you've rehomed them.

If I had a dog that had nibbled fingers then I would look at the circumstances behind it. I would look at whether the dog had felt threatened or such. I wouldn't automatically blame the animal. If the dog had bitten the fingers of someone tormenting it then I wouldn't blame the dog. The same with the rat. The only time the rat had bitten fingers is when some idiot had put it's fingers through the bars, which as any rat keeper will tell you is a no no, they think it's food. Oh and by the way I do have a dog and many cats.

These are the only circumstances this rat had bitten under before. The rats behaviour was completely out of character and I have taken the appropriate action.

I take it you have no pets and are perfect in every way!

why bother coming into a thread on a topic that you obviously know nothing about. Pet rats are 'fancy rats' totally different from the rats you'll find down by the river, so you obviously haven't done your 'research' very well have you? I get the feeling you just try and stir up trouble best you can.

Op- I'm glad you've rehomed them, as others have said its rare for a serious bite from a pet rat, I've discovered in my time in pet shops and now at uni that hamsters are far more likely to bite, but obviously its down to the individual animal.

Probably a bit late now, but had you considered taking it to the vets? a non-agressive animal of any sort, but particularly rodents and small animals, that suddenly becomes agressive may be suffering from injury or illness - as prey animals they tend not to show outward signs of injury (as they are pretty much asking to be eaten if they limp etc!) so it could be that he'd hurt himself and your son accidently touched the sensitive area?

PLEASE don't let it put you off rats, they are lovely pets as I'm sure you know.

The OP didn't say the rat nibbled, she said he bit. Nice try though. She said "The rat has bitten fingers before but I just put that down to feeling a little anxious with human hands in his territory and not his fault."

If you have a child or adult for that matter that is making the rat think they have to attack then you have chosen the wrong pet for a child to be looking after.

A pet of any kind has to have its needs understood by the owners. If the child is too young to understand, (as the OP first suggested because in her opinion it wasn't the rats fault) that it might be the child scaring the rat, then you get rid of the damned rat or look after it yourself until the child understands the dangers.

I am a pet lover but it makes me mad when I see the complete love of an animal overtaking any kind of common sense.

It has already bitten the child according to the OP, then either keep rat and child apart until child gets the rats needs or get rid of the rat.

She has now made the right decision, I'd have either separated child and rat after the first one bite definately two bites. Better late than never.