Growing Up

[SugarAndSpice]

Sugar and Spice are almost 3 months old! Time flies!
We're still working on allowing us to hold them. It just seems like it's taking forever. They still reside very close to us. We do put our hands in their habitat. We usually put a few favorite treats in the palms of our hands. They will take the treats and come back for more. When they are out in free range, I'm their jungle gym. I can touch and pet them while they are on my shoulders. Spice will get on my hand to come down off of my shoulders. We're going to do free range time twice a day and increase the time they are out as well. Does anyone else have any other suggestions?
We are seeing more rattie type of behavior. They still aren't really chewing a whole lot. They will chew applewood sticks and their lava ledge. Could they just not be chewers? We've never had rats that didn't chew.
They bring us such joy!

 

[Coffee Babies]

Your rats will chew when they need to so don't worry about it. It sounds like your doing great with the trust training.

 

[Dena]

They are young still, so don't worry too much about the behaviors you mentioned. It usually seems that the little ones (under about 8 months), have SO MUCH TO DO, and so much to explore, and some don't seem as interested in being held or petted much. Girls seem to have energy longer than boys as well. Just keep up with play time and trust training, and you will notice as they get older that they will accept it more (most of the time). But keep in mind that some rats never like to be held, some are naturally just shy as well. And as far as chewing, you may never really see all that they chew. For some, bruxing may be how they mostly grind their teeth down, and they may not need to chew as much. Others are just simply "destructive". LOL