I got her on saturday and shes been in her cage since then. I'm trying to get her out at the moment but she keep hiding in the corner or under her bedding. She keeps poking her head out then hiding again.
Why is she so scared? What can i do to make her less nervous?
Thanks.
Well you'd be scared too if you were taken from your home and put in a cage by yourself in a new environment!
If she's from a pet store that's normal. She probably has had very little human interaction and is probably unsocialized. You're gonna need ALOT of time and patience for her to get used to you.
A nice way of trying to socialize your rat is a method called "trust training" mentioned by Debbie Ducommun in her book "the Complete Guide to Rat Training." It involves getting a spoon and some soft food such as yogurt, baby food, or mashed bananas, and offering the rat the special soft food on a spoon inside her cage. Its essential for the food to be soft and mushy so that the rat cannot just grab it off of the spoon and run away with it. Also since it is on a spoon, if the rat gets scared and decides to bite, it will bite the spoon and not your finger. Rats have a tendency to be suspicious of new foods, and since unsocialized rats from the pet store probably have not had much of a chance to try a variety of food, she may not go for the food at first. In which case you can leave some of he food by her food bowl for her to try it at her leisure, and then after shes tasted some of it, you can try with the spoon again. If she still doesn't eat it, try another food until you find one she likes. In severe cases, in which the rat still refuses to eat the special food from the spoon, you may have to reduce the amount of her regular food so that she will be hungrier than usual.
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Once you get her to be able to eat the food comfortably from your spoon inside her cage, have her come closer to the door to get it.
Then have her come to the door. Then have her get up on top of the door. Then have her climb out of the cage to get to the food. Once she's done this reliably make her come out of the cage and climb on your knee , arm, or hand before allowing her to eat. Finally when all of this has been accomplished dont let her eat the food until she allows you to pick her up.
When the rat allows you to pick her up, hold her and pet her while remaining relaxed, that means she trusts you. The best time to have training sessions is when your rate is alert and a bit hungry, so the evening would be a good bet.
Good luck.
If she was from a petshop then thats normal. I got my rats tamaki and hikaru from a petshop. They spent the first week hiding from me. Get her a buddy, she will feel less scared. I recently bought 4 4 week old rats from a breeder. They are all outgoing, and none of them hide from me or cower when i go to take them out the cage. Bailey is the first one to the door to greet me. He will run up my arm and start licking my ear
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
here is a vid of my new rats getting to know my older rats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trbGjKEqH ...
shes just come into a completely different environment and is really scared!! the best way to bond with rats is to play with them, let them sleep inside your jumper, and hand feed them. hand feed her small bits of bread soaked in milk, she'll love it:)
