we have pet rats in our front room, they are very friendly and have never been a problem untill today, all the children are warned not to put their fingers in the cage just in case and babys are kept a very close eye on when they go near their cage, the rats dont ususaly bite and break the skin when fingers are near they just gently nip to see if your tasty then once they realise your not food they stop and just sniff. today the 5yrold put her fingers in after the umpteenth time of me telling her and her brother to leave them alone and next thing she says my fingers bleeding, I cant decide if they bit her or scratched her or if she pulled away quickly and scratched her fingeher on the bars as it looks more like a scratch than a bite but she says they bit her, I cleaned her up and mum was fine about it, theyve only been here a week and a half and are still learning boundries!
Anyway it has now made me nervous of having them down here when the children are around, in the 6 months we have had them this is the first person they have bitten and she is old enough to listen to me when I say dont put your fingers in so part of me thinks its just her tough luck and why should i change my whole house and animals about just because she couldnt listen, then the 2nd part says theres always that doubt that the littlys could get chomped although again, they are brilliant at leaving them alone so why should i change things.
we do have a 2nd cage which could go upstairs and the rats could go in it for the 2 hours these particular children are here but again why should I change things. the boy is 8yrs old so old enough to understand but he also has ADHD and his listening skills arent great nor can he be trusted in a room on his own
arrgh do i put them upstairs or carry on as normal