NurseHallauer
New Member
Hey all, this is my first post on your forum. To give a little background about myself, I have had rats before but not for the past 6 years or so. My husband and I decided to get two recently. All of the rats I had had before were females and very quick to warm up to me, be social, beg for attention from their cage... Well, this time we got two boys and they're very different. Mind you they are from a pet store (couldn't find any local breeders), but so were all of the females I ever had....one was even a "feeder rat" and she was the biggest ham ever. We've had our boys for 3 weeks now. Mind you we didn't get off on the best note when, the first thing we did upon coming home, was give them a bath...but being stuck in an aquarium with 5 other rats and LOTS of poo, they smelled really bad, and I didn't want my husband (who is new to rats) to be turned off to them on day 1. They "survived" their bath and we have spent 30-60 minutes with them on the couch with us everyday without a whole lot of progress. They will come up to the side of the cage because I started giving them a little treat when I'd walk by, to stop them from running away. They will run around on the couch while we sit there and will climb on us, but are distrustful when we go to pick them up. If I sit with them next to their cage, they will run right back in. The girls I had before would do anything to get out of their cage because they wanted to be with me and be social. The boys are social together, they'll wrestle and run around. I'm glad they feel safe in their habitat, but it's kind of disappointing that it's taking so much longer for them to trust US. Other than the bath, they've only received positive feedback from us. We are holding off on any real training/correction (i.e. litter box) until they trust us.
We let them run all around us, on and in our clothes. They like taking rides in hubby's hoodie. =) Is it natural/expected that boys will be slow to warm up to people? Any suggestions to help speed up the process?
Thanks!
NurseHallauer
We let them run all around us, on and in our clothes. They like taking rides in hubby's hoodie. =) Is it natural/expected that boys will be slow to warm up to people? Any suggestions to help speed up the process?
Thanks!
NurseHallauer