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Old 11-15-2005, 11:35 PM   #4
DaemoNox
Dont handle them roughly or restrain them (unless nessicary most often for health reasons). When you do that your giving them that negitive experiance of being handled and if anything is going to make their temprement when being handled even worse. What you do need to do though is be consistant and gentle. I wouldnt wear gloves (although I have heard that by wearing latex gloves you can help stop the habit of biting because they taste terrible), but you could get a snake hook to use to lift it out of the enclosure. When holding them try not to grab them, go from under them and lift as it may help reduce the amount of bites. Also remember that they just spent 12 hours in a dark contianer that was probably thrown around a bit; I've had a snake refuse to eat for a month after being shipped (a retic nontheless, if anyone knows about their monsterous appitites), so it can easily cause them to revert back to their instictual behavior untill they feel safe. Just take it gentle and make it consistant, they should do fine. What kind of white sided rats did you get? It could quite possible be white sided Texes rats, which would explain a lot about their behavior.