my rat, charlotte, bit me!

[mousie]

I have two rats, shirley and charlotte. they live in a nice big cage with lots of toys and and are handled daily by me. well, today I reached in the cage to make sure charlotte was ok as she wasn't coming out of the back corner of her cage. as I had my hand about 5-6 inches away from her I talked calmly and showed her a treat to coax her, and then she jumped up and bit me hard ! She hasn't bitten me for like 7-8 months (she bit when I first got her) and I was so surprised! she really broke the skin pretty bad but I washed it out a few times with antibacterial stuff. I'm trying to think of reasons for why she bit me, and the only one I can come up with is that we are rat-sitting 3 female rats, but they are in completely different parts of the house and I always wash my hands after handling them so my rats won't get sick and so my rats won't be able to tell they're here. So, does anybody have any reasons for me why she bit me and can anybody give me some tips so I can prevent this? Thanks!

[TamanduaGirl]

She wasn't feeling well and you were messing with her. She doesn't have any other way to tell you get lost, not today.

[mousie]

yeah, I guess you're right. right now she's just being her normal, happy self and I just held her. I usually just open the door and they run over, but today she was unhappy I guess. one thing I find curious though is that I took a shower and put a different set of pajamas on and didn't even go near the rats I'm rat-sitting and then she was happy, and was doing her favorite thing, cleaning my ears! :D I really try to respect them as much as I can and after forming a strong bond with them I just found it strange that she bit me, but I guess it's not like she can look at me and say "I don't feel well, so please go away for a bit" but she can bite me and that definately let me know to go! sorry for the long post but I just love these girls and love learning about them :)

[buttercup132]

Maybe you or something scared her, or maybe you smelled like food on your hands. Rats can't see well so she could have easily mistaken your hand for food especially if you had a treat in it.