Well I have two rats

a young-un, Loki who is a little over six weeks old, white with red eyes and Zeus (who we're not sure we're keeping after adopting him yesterday) whos the same color but a jumbo and 1-1/2 yrs old

Aww, I like rats, they have so much personality. They are not as creepy as people make them out to be! How come you might not keep him if you just got him?

When my boyfriend got the baby out. . . and he tried to bite him, missed and got me instead. I can't use my left hand right now. lol but he was so sweet before that, so we're trying to give him another chance

That's too bad. Hopefully it works out, but you sure can't have a biter that's for sure. That had to hurt if you can't use your hand now! OUCH!

He got the second joint on my index finger, but it's swollen so bad I can't bend it, and he had to have got a nerve because the tip has been numb since he got me. and it aches all the way down to my wrist.

Wow, that is not good. If your having feeling loss it probably is a nerve. You might want to get that checked if it doesn't get better. I'm sorry, what a bummer!

I am kind of curious to see how your bite is doing too! I hope your feeling better now!

Thanks everyone for the concern. It's doing much better most of the swelling has gone down and it not so bruised I can actually bend it a little now!

Hi I'm a pet rat owner too. I've had rats for over 7 years and currently have 6 boy ratties of different colors & coat types. Their names are Edsel, Barackah, Huck, Hector, Herman, and Dude. Huck & Herman can be seen in my avatar pic.
As far as rats biting gord, they can do it for a number of reasons. Mine have bitten me occasionally (including last week when I tried to take a treat from Edsel, so I deserved it), but it your ratty is doing it continously there are some methods that you can use that may break him of the habit. I'm no expert at this
but some of the suggestions are not to feed your rat with your fingers, to make sure your hands are clean of all food scent, to approach your rat slowly so not to surprise him, and if he does bite you, squeak loudly and also if he has some food, don't try to take it away from him! I belong to a Yahoo group based here in MN called Midwest Mischief (MM) for rat owners and there are a lot of experienced & helpful people on it. MM also has several get togethers throughout the year in the Twin Cities area. The next one is coming up August 1st. If you want anymore details about MM, just let me know!