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How to stop a mouse from biting?
Just to make it clear, it is ME she is biting, not her sisters.
I am positive that it's biting not just my mistaking her nails for teeth or something; I saw it happen and I know the difference between the feelings.
I don't think its aggression- this is the friendliest mouse; I've held her a few times and she'll take food from my hand. (Doesn't sound like much, but she's a pet store mouse who we've had for a week.) However, when she sees my hand, she runs up and starts trying to bite the ends of my fingers.
I've tried moving my hand to remind her I'm alive, I always wash my hands first, but she seems obsessed with it. The only thing I can think of is that she wants to eat my nail polish (I don't normally wear it, and I don't think she bit before I put it on). Either way, it needs to stop; she could poison herself if she eats nail polish, and biting isn't okay.
Neither of the other two mice do it, but one of them let me touch her back once, and the other took a seed once and won't let me anywhere near her. They both sniff my finger normally, though, and one will go right up to it and sniff it (just for a second) without trying to bite.
Oh, and its not a hard bite, no blood or anything, but I've never actually let her finish the bite. When I feel teeth, I move my finger away to show her I won't let her do it, but she isn't discouraged. I do feed her food from my hands/ fingers, but when I put a treat on my palm she went right for it instead of going for my fingers.
She's walked into my hand once or twice, and a few times I've sort of shepherded her into my hand. I always put her back down when she asks (she starts head-butting my fingers to find a way out).
How do I let her know (without scaring her) that biting me isn't okay?
It's an aquarium, and I've tried moving my fingers to let her know I don't like it. It doesn't help, she just keeps trying even while I'm moving them.
It's getting in the way of all our interaction- I can't play with her if all it is is her biting and me dodging. I let her sniff me whenever I spend time with them; they're all still in the taming stage. I don't expect her to be tame, but the biting needs to stop.
She's not mean; as I said before she's the friendliest of the mice. She doesn't attack me, she just sort of... bites (or nibbles, I'd have to sit there and let her do it to find out). It's also only my fingers where the nail is, so I think it might be the nail polish. Is that likely?
She's not tame, so I'd really rather not do anything to scare her. We don't take them out of the cage (we hold them above the cage) because they're very fast and don't feel so safe in our hands yet. Since she's not out of the cage, putting her back in won't really help. :)
I check my questions very rarely, so I probably didn't notice... was it important?
Sorry, that's NOT what I meant at all! I meant was it something important enough that you wanted to tell it to me again, or was it something that I'm sad to have missed, but I can let it go. And by "rarely check" I mean once a day. So if that happened between checks, I'd have missed it.
And she can explore my hand, that I don't mind. The things I want to stop are:
1) Actual biting rather than nibbling (from the hardness of the bite before I move my finger out of her mouth- not out of the cage, just out of her mouth- I'd say that she's trying to bite me, or more likely, eat my nail polish.)
2) Her eating nail polish- that can't be at all good for her.
I don't mind being nibbled (gently- there is a line, which she's crossed once or twice). Anything that doesn't bleed, as long as its not obviously aggression (she lunges at me every time I go near the cage and tries to bite the wall or something like that), is a nibble in my opinion (howe
1 Answer
- DancerLv 58 years agoFavorite Answer
This is usual. They have terrible eyesight. If you are sticking your fingers through the cage bars and they do not know your smell they will often assume it's food youre offering them and they'll try to take it away. Some even think this if your hand is in the cage. It's simply because she doesn't know your smell by heart. She isn't trying to hurt you. If she starts to try to eat your fingers just move them and sometimes slighty SLIGHTLY SLIGHTLY boop her on the nose with them. You usually aren't supposed to discipline mice, but it works. ONLY do that if you spend a long time interacting with them and the biting is getting in the way of that. I have had 5 mice and 3 of them would think my boyfriends fingers were food, the others got used to his smell from interacting a lot. That's the key, just walk around with them and get them completely used to your smell.
- lovemiceLv 78 years ago
A mouse is like a rat in that she knows exactly how much pressure she is using with her teeth. If she intends to harm you, she will. Since your mouse is not drawing blood, her purpose is for biting is for a reason other than to cause harm. These can include to explore/inspect, to groom, to "manicure" (such as to remove dead skin/hangnail), to eat, to play, to get her human's attention, to carry/move/position items, to shred/gnaw things, to defend and as a tool/utensil. JoinRats, although obviously a rat site, discusses why a rodent may use her teeth at the following link:
http://www.joinrats.com/EarningtheTrustofPetRats/R...
I agree with the person that said discipline is NOT a good idea; however, I would not bop her on the nose, but would instead tell her, "No" in a firm voice along with blowing a gentle puff of air on her head when she bites. Mice dislike this immensely, and she will in time associate it with it occurring only when she is biting. If she continues to bite after you blow on her, put her back into her cage and try again in a few minutes and/or later. Be prepared to repeat this process again and again because a mouse can be like a toddler by stubbornly continuing to do what she wants, but eventually she will learn that if she wants to stay out of the cage to play, she needs to stop the unacceptable behavior.
Not sure if you even noticed that an answer of mine disappeared to one of your Qs. I intended to add information, but in my haste I clicked "delete" instead of "edit" and then "yes" instead of "no" -duh. (Y!A would not let me un-delete or put back my original response.)
ADDENDUM: Physical contact will scare her (and/or hurt her). Gently blowing on her whilst saying, "No," will merely annoy her and get the point across.
Yes, the nail polish could be one reason she is nibbling your finger. Since she did not have a lot of socializing from the breeder, she is not used to humans let alone your hand, and she is attempting to figure it and you out to see if you are friend or foe so to speak. She can do this by exploring your hand which most people do not have a problem with if the mouse is not hurting them because it allows the mouse to begin to feel comfortable around humans. As for holding them a few seconds above the cage, this is not really conducive to bonding anytime soon. Free range time in a mouse-proofed area is a more effective way to socialize and bond with mice because they need to interact with you for extended periods of time, and having them in an open area with you where they can crawl near and on you will go far in gaining their trust and bonding.
As for whether the answer I accidentally deleted being important, I spend a lot of time with my answers so I would hope what I write has value to the person who asks the Q since my objective is to help. If you rarely check your Qs, though, then my answers are obviously of no help since they are not read; therefore, of no importance to you. Thank you for letting me know.