Hey everyone, I'm new here and desperately need advice. I feel like a total failure as a rat owner, to the point that I feel like I shouldn't even have gotten them, it's really upsetting I am doing my best but nothing is working.
I got two girl rats four months ago, my first rats ever. I was told how social and fun to train they are, I read books and watched youtube videos and read forums on how to socialize, bond with, and train rats before I even brought them home. It all sounded really straight forward, feed them treats and let them sniff your hands for a few days and then you'll be able to scoop them up and start training them. Yeah right... Fast forward to now and I STILL can't even catch them to take them out of their cage for play time. I can brush my hand on them as they run away from me, that's pretty much as close as it comes to picking them up. Everyone says "they'll remember that it means play time and they'll start to enjoy it" ... but they don't. The times I have tried to scoop them up (which my cage makes nearly impossible in the first place because of the position of all the platforms that are attached inside it and the TINY door) they just run around and they squeal and then squiggle out of my hand if I do manage to get them at all. I stopped trying at all because it obviously was only going to make things worse.
I hate that they are in their cage so much, when I got them I wanted them to be able to sit on my shoulders and in a pouch and have adventures with me. But as of right now, their free time consists of me opening the door to their cage and waiting for them to climb out on their own, and then me sitting there hoping that they eventually climb back into the cage cause I can't catch them to put them back in. Which makes having them out really stressful for me, because I have absolutely no control. And the stress is now worse because one of them has started jumping on top of the cardboard wall of the home made play pen and nearly escaping. I've had to grab her by the tail twice now and just barely got her before she got away.
Things seem pretty hopeless for us right now and I've tried everything that the books and youtube people have said to bond with them in their cage and nothing is working. I can stick my hand in the cage and they take treats off of it but they've made no connection between that and being picked up.
Sorry I know this post makes me sound like a real Debbie downer, I just am so sad and frustrated and I feel like their quality of life is not as good as it could be because I am doing something wrong. Any advice about what to do would be so much appreciated.
I got two girl rats four months ago, my first rats ever. I was told how social and fun to train they are, I read books and watched youtube videos and read forums on how to socialize, bond with, and train rats before I even brought them home. It all sounded really straight forward, feed them treats and let them sniff your hands for a few days and then you'll be able to scoop them up and start training them. Yeah right... Fast forward to now and I STILL can't even catch them to take them out of their cage for play time. I can brush my hand on them as they run away from me, that's pretty much as close as it comes to picking them up. Everyone says "they'll remember that it means play time and they'll start to enjoy it" ... but they don't. The times I have tried to scoop them up (which my cage makes nearly impossible in the first place because of the position of all the platforms that are attached inside it and the TINY door) they just run around and they squeal and then squiggle out of my hand if I do manage to get them at all. I stopped trying at all because it obviously was only going to make things worse.
I hate that they are in their cage so much, when I got them I wanted them to be able to sit on my shoulders and in a pouch and have adventures with me. But as of right now, their free time consists of me opening the door to their cage and waiting for them to climb out on their own, and then me sitting there hoping that they eventually climb back into the cage cause I can't catch them to put them back in. Which makes having them out really stressful for me, because I have absolutely no control. And the stress is now worse because one of them has started jumping on top of the cardboard wall of the home made play pen and nearly escaping. I've had to grab her by the tail twice now and just barely got her before she got away.
Things seem pretty hopeless for us right now and I've tried everything that the books and youtube people have said to bond with them in their cage and nothing is working. I can stick my hand in the cage and they take treats off of it but they've made no connection between that and being picked up.
Sorry I know this post makes me sound like a real Debbie downer, I just am so sad and frustrated and I feel like their quality of life is not as good as it could be because I am doing something wrong. Any advice about what to do would be so much appreciated.