Miley's gotten worse!

[shade]

Well as i've told everyone before, we started out with our 2 boys then we got a girl (cocoa) and then we got her a friend (miley). Miley was a bit more skiddish than cocoa but she'd tolerate people holding her and seemed very curious (she was about 4/5 weeks old). However now she is 3 1/2 months old and she's gotten worse. All she does is hide but when your hand's in the cage she seems curious and will follow your hand around. But once you pick her up she panics. She'll act calm for a bit and then try and bolt away as fast as she can and when you grab her she squeeks like she's scared. I tried holding her for a long time to calm her down but it didn't work all she wanted to do was get away. What should I do to show her that she doesn't need to be afraid of people. She's the only rat I own that doesn't like to be held.

see how calm she used to be?

 

[jorats]

I've noticed rats go through stages, when young, they are happy, when reaching around 3 months, they become more cautious and then it goes back to normal by 12 months. But Some rats will continue to be skittish all their lives, it's just who they are. You can try more one on one, for longer periods of time.

 

[mamarat]

Try picking her up and putting her right back down. When she's comfortable with that, keep her in your hands a little bit longer each time. She'll get used to your hand not keeping her confined for a long time and eventually will remain in your hands. This has worked for some of my rats.

 

[shade]

last night I was holding her for a while but she wouldn't calm down so I set her on my shoulder and stood in the middle of the room where nothing was in her reach and crossed my arms. I let her get used to me on her own instead of trying to pet her over and over. she was nervous at first but seemed to get used to being on my shoulder. Then I grabbed cocoa who loves to be held and she somewhat helped miley calm down because she loves to be on your shoulder. when I put miley back she wasn't too afraid of me. I hope she gets out of this cautious mode in time.

I went to the recycling bin yesterday and found some huge cardboard boxes to make an out time box out of. When I sit down the box is higher than my head. I'm going to try using that with miley too and see if it works. thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[jorats]

That was great Shade, good thinking.