I've owned many rats over the years, so this feels stupid to ask...
I got 2 new baby rats (around 4mo??) off of someone 3 days ago and they havent been handled well. I'm in a completely new house and my rats are in a different room to before, it's much bigger so I'm struggling as to what to do when the time comes to free roam them. Should I buy a pen and let them leave when I'm able to hold them? I feel like I've forgotten everything I did to get my 2 older rats to the point that they're at - they don't hide in my room, they dont chew anything, I can take them around my whole house and they are well behaved and also they just are comfortable with taking food off of me, picking them up, cuddles and everything.
I think the babies seeing how comfortable my 2 older girls are makes them a little more calm about me giving food and things like that, but I'm wondering what things I can do to help them feel comfortable being held? I've given them yoghurt off of a spoon, then my fingers, and it worked a little bit.
The cage is on the floor since it's so tall, which means I get scared when a new rat comes on the ramp as they could easily jump off and I lose them.
Any advice is helpful, I've only ever adopted older rats so this is something new for me!
I got 2 new baby rats (around 4mo??) off of someone 3 days ago and they havent been handled well. I'm in a completely new house and my rats are in a different room to before, it's much bigger so I'm struggling as to what to do when the time comes to free roam them. Should I buy a pen and let them leave when I'm able to hold them? I feel like I've forgotten everything I did to get my 2 older rats to the point that they're at - they don't hide in my room, they dont chew anything, I can take them around my whole house and they are well behaved and also they just are comfortable with taking food off of me, picking them up, cuddles and everything.
I think the babies seeing how comfortable my 2 older girls are makes them a little more calm about me giving food and things like that, but I'm wondering what things I can do to help them feel comfortable being held? I've given them yoghurt off of a spoon, then my fingers, and it worked a little bit.
The cage is on the floor since it's so tall, which means I get scared when a new rat comes on the ramp as they could easily jump off and I lose them.
Any advice is helpful, I've only ever adopted older rats so this is something new for me!
