is bitter apple bad for rats?

[liza]

Hi!
2.5 weeks ago, I got those four teenage female rats. They are eating my bedroom furniture. They seem to like walnut, I like my furniture too, but I would like to keep it! They are nuts about it. The bedroom is the only room, I can let them run free as long as they want to. I want them to be able to run and play, if they just didn't eat my furniture!
Would it help to spray bitter apple on the parts they like to chew? Or is it harmful? The alternative is wrapping my firniture into aluminum foil and that just doesn't get along with my fashion style right now...
Thanks for any advice!
My nerves are already to pieces....
Liza

[Nimue]

I'm sorry I can't remember the source, but I have heard it is okay to use.   Make sure you spray it before they come into the room, though, because it makes a mist that hurts to breathe, so give it a little time to settle.  

Unfortunately, I still have one hard-headed rat that bitter apple doesn't seem to phase.  

[pawnman]

Just curious, could you spray other things (say, cayenne pepper, or something along those lines)?  I know it kept my dog from chewing things, but I'm not sure if it would be good for rats.

[stodda29]

My girl used to have a habit of chasing her tail, catching it, and grooming the end of it.  She'd do this for hours at a time if left to her own devices, and the end of her tail started to get a little reddened and raw from all the grooming.

I didn't spray--I tried just dipping her tail in the bottle of bitter apple, once a day, to see what good it would do.  Results were equivocal at best.  She didn't lick it more often with the bitter apple, but she also didn't stop completely.

I've heard of other animals (horses, dogs, etc) actually developing a taste for the stuff; guess you'd find that out soon enough...  

[Heather]

Just curious, could you spray other things (say, cayenne pepper, or something along those lines)?

Never, EVER use hot pepper deterrants for rats. If the rats get enough of it, it will kill them. My grandpa used to put out only a few cayenne pepper seeds and kill a garage full of mice with it. It's so hot and since they cannot vomit, I think it just burns their insides up. That and the fact that rats and mice are so small, and dogs are bigger, they can get a taste and it not really harm them.

[liza]

Hot pepper?? No thank you. I'd rather live without furniture and sleep on a bed that crashed down (their newest thing is to chew on those bedlegs now...). My in-laws used to put tabasco on my husband's tongue when he was a small disobendient kid. That is already cruel enough. I'm already scared that bitter apple could harm them! I still didn't put it on there, unless I hear the total ok from somebody here...

[DragonTamer]

I tried bitter apple spray before.... my rats at the time kept licking it up!!!  they actually LIKED the taste of it! so....  I've never used it again (which stinks because now Powder, my wall-chewer, needs to be stopped.. lol)

[Suebee]

Yep... some rats actually LIKE the taste... which makes it completely useless... LOL!

[liza]

Oh great! As I know my stinkers, they will like it too. I will try later on today and I will tell you the result... Our dog hates that stuff...

[kuronezumisama]

I never tried the sour apple spray, but I know at least one of my rats loved sour foods. He once stole a lemon shock tart from me and darted under the couch before I could catch the little bRat lol he ate all of it though...

[Heather]

I'd be willing to sell this Fooey bitter spray to anyone willing to try it. Doesn't work on my rats. They lick it off even though it tastes so horribly bitter it makes me gag! LOL!