Me again! Rogan and Rebel are settled in their new cage. ive had them around 48 hours now and have tried handling them for the first time today (wanted to ease them in to settling and stuff before trying to handle them etc)

It was a nightmare. Rogan came out first and instantly shot off under the sofa. Took me 20 minutes to catch the little scamp! I didn't even attempt getting Rebel out as he's been quite tough to catch from his cage anyway. I've been trying to approach them from their level, not from above, talking softly to them while i do so but they are a nightmare. Happy to sniff my hand whenever i put it in the cage near them but any more than that and they freak.

As Rebel was hand raised and all the breeders litter were handled from birth etc i expected to be able to pick them up relatively easily to handle them and get them used to me.

Any tips for easing them in and teaching them that im safe etc would be much appreciated.

Hi Tom,

You know, there is another new person on this forum from the Netherlands named Rom1993 and she has new baby rats too. Guess what? She was asking the same questions about how to ease her new rats into getting used to her, how to proceed with trust issues and so forth, so if you read her posts, you will see tons of advice she got from the people on the forum.



Rogan and Rebel have only been in their new home for a very short time and just having your hand in their house for them to sniff and talking to them gently is a great first start. You probably just tried to handle them and take them out too quickly, as they need some time to adjust to all of their new surroundings, their new cage and all the sounds and smells of their new environment. They just need to learn not to be scared and that you are their trusted person that they can feel safe with. So don't worry about rushing things and let them get used to having your hand in their house, offering some treats and so forth and take it nice and slow.




You will learn a lot from the posts I mentioned from Rom1993's questions with her new babies, Panda and Dobby.

Here's a direct link to Rom's socialization thread with all of our responses.

http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f16/a...ion-62005.html

You are probably going through the human/rat equivalent of 'intros' where they are learning to accept you specifically into their world. Rats are notoriously xenophobic, so while they may know their former human, you're still new. It should go faster for you than Rom, since your boys understand that people hands are not evil inherently, it's just you specifically they don't know yet. Let us know if the info on the thread link works for you or what doesn't work.

Thanks for the responses guys i've had a look at Rom's thread and am going to try a few new approaches. I've had an old hoody in their cage for almost 24 hours now and am leaving it in there til it is nice and smelly! I plan on taking them up to the bathroom which is easy for me to rat proof and sitting in there with them running free for an hour or so and seeing how they behave.

At the moment they are happy to come up and sniff my hand when i put it in the cage near them and they let me stroke them without running off, the aren't big fans of being picked up yet but have gotten slightly better at handling it since i brought them home. I need to keep trying different treats until i find something that they really love.