Time passes and still skittish

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Jack's_Girl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
88
Okay, I think I have been quite patient, and although my furbabies are getting less skittish, they do not like to be handled... and barely put up with it.
They will eat out of my hand, but still many many things scare them.
*sigh* help?
 
Have you tried the down the shirt trick?
I put on a sweatshirt over a tshirt and I throw all my scared babies down there. I keep them with me a couple of hours at a time, a few times a day. After a few times of this, the girls will come running to you. They will bond to your smell and relate it to comfy cozy place.
 
How are you picking them up and trying to handle them? What are they doing when you pick them up?
 
The shirt thing is a no-fail thing for me. Also just taking my laptop to my bed and setting the rat down on my lap where he/she could hide or explore at their own will really seemed to help.
 
I love the bonding pouch for getting them used to you. Dearpie makes a great one that goes around your neck and comes down mid chest. I just toss the rattie in there and when they want to be brave and come out they can, and when they feel scared they have a safe place to dive in. Also when they peek out they are looking at your face. I just put them in there at night while watching tv and ignore them until they decide to approach me on their own terms :)


Now if it were so easy to get them to like being picked up.....
 
Tried the sweatshirt trick and it seems to be the only thing somewhat working... except for the hand-feeding of cheerios. (The boys love cheerios).
They like to crawl into my sweater once out and cuddle up in my armpits... (it's gross and cute at the same time) and poke their heads out the hole for my neck... but... it's like they never want to leave their cage.
 
My girls LOVE their cage. They also LOVE sitting in my bra :roll: Recently they learned to love playing on the shelf above my bed. So, their tastes will grow and change :lol:
 
I think they are already shirt divers... sorta. When I take them out they run at high speed to the clevage. My room mates think this is hysterical, but they're not the ones covered in rattie-scratches!
 
It seems like my rats like my skin and will work to wedge themselves between the tightest area of fabric and my bare skin.
Actually, the two of them (Oogie and Zero) have started to brux while in my shirt... not sure if this is enjoyment or fear- I wish they had a way to tell me. :lol:
 
Jack's_Girl said:
Okay, I think I have been quite patient, and although my furbabies are getting less skittish, they do not like to be handled... and barely put up with it.
They will eat out of my hand, but still many many things scare them.
*sigh* help?
Click to expand...

You need to take their characters into consideration. My little man, Ben, has been with me since February and still, pretty much, hates to be picked up. He will come to me on his own terms and climb all over me but panic often sets in when I pick him up.

My mother identifies with Ben. She suffers terribly from vertigo and believes that Ben does the same.

It is possible that your little ones may have suffered some emotional damage during their stint as lab rats. Rats tend to bond with one or two people and if they were subject to handling and testing by a slew of students then they may, very well, be weary of who they can trust and whether or not you could be taking them out for some kind of test.

I may be wrong but it is worth taking into account. Little psyches are fragile and need a ton of understanding. I let Ben do what he wants and only pick him up when it is absolutely necessary. I then, usually, give him something yummy to eat as a kind of reward for having been brave. :love6:

Your babies will get used to you. Love and respect them for who and what they are and you will have a good time of it. If they are wedging themselves into your shirt then you have already made significant progress. Crawling on you indicates that it is not you that they are afraid of. Hang in there. All little life forms have their idiocyncrasies... heck... so do all BIG life forms!!! :D :rose:
 
These babies are not lab rats. :) They came from an oopsie litter.
Jack (the lab rat) loves to be handled, and I am one of the few people who see him. (There's my prof, the vet, and the animal facility worker who feeds him on the weekend).
He loves to go into the operant chamber and press the lever. He's a lucky lab rat as the worst thing that has ever happened to him (or ever will in the lab) is he is on a diet.
 
Jack's_Girl said:
These babies are not lab rats. :) They came from an oopsie litter.
Jack (the lab rat) loves to be handled, and I am one of the few people who see him. (There's my prof, the vet, and the animal facility worker who feeds him on the weekend).
He loves to go into the operant chamber and press the lever. He's a lucky lab rat as the worst thing that has ever happened to him (or ever will in the lab) is he is on a diet.
Click to expand...

OOOOOOOOOPS... sorry, my bad...LOL :laugh4:

an oopsie litter? Impossible. There can be no oops in anything which brings warm, little, fuzzballs to the planet. :heart:

Did anyone ever see that old Star Trek episode called "The Trouble with Tribbles"? :love6:
 
Have you done the next step of lying/sitting on a big couch/chair with a blanket over your lap ? Put skitty rats under blanket. You take away one of their fears (being exposed to a prey animal is almost certain death). Then they can get to know you under the blanket, in their own time. I have never had this one fail yet. :) And it will save your skin :thumbup:

Was this ooops litter handled and socialized when they were tiny? If not you basically have regular petstore babies. :roll:
 
Yup, they were socialized at least a bit when they were ickle little fuzzy-wuzzy fuzzballs. :)
Apparently Mama-Rat was quite friendly and always let people pick up and handle her babies.
I will try the couch/bed and blanket trick now!
 
Jack's_Girl said:
Yup, they were socialized at least a bit when they were ickle little fuzzy-wuzzy fuzzballs. :)
Apparently Mama-Rat was quite friendly and always let people pick up and handle her babies.
I will try the couch/bed and blanket trick now!
Click to expand...

any luck??????????????????????????????????????????????
 

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