i bought a male rat from petco about 8 days ago, it doesn't do anything besides sitting in a corner looking scared, its pretty small and young, when i take it out to hold it, it jumps out of my hand and runs. it does eat, but when im not in the room, i can tell because there is less food everytime.and it drinks water ... help please?
A few things here:
1 - He's new. He needs time to adjust to his surroundings.
2 - Does he have a place to hide and escape from sight? That will do wonders to calm his nerves. I've kept many pets who aren't afraid of me - including my rats - but they need a place where they feel hidden to retreat to.
3 - He jumps out of your hand and runs because:
a - He's still afraid of you.
b - He wants to explore.
c - He wants to hide.
It's normal rat behavior. Over time, if he feels secure in his cage, he'll trust you more when he's outside of it.
4 - As long as he is, in fact, eating and drinking, I wouldn't be concerned about when he's doing it.
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5 - Rats are social animals and should never be kept alone. Another rat would not only calm him, but will also help him grow a bit more confident of his surroundings.
He probably is scared out of his mind!!! You took him away from all of his buddies and now are trying to pick him up and hold him all the time! best thing to do is to immediately go buy another rat for him (male so they dont breed) then just give him time. Try just setting your hand in the cage so he gets use to your smell, try feeding him treats as well. Baby food on a spoon works best for socialization because they cant take the treat and run away. It can take up to a month for some rats to adjust to their new homes, but usually only a couple of weeks. But it all depends on the rat, one of my rats loved me the second day, my other rat it took months to build trust (but i adopted her from a bad home so i think thats why it took so long)
You should have got two rats, as they are very sociable. I would go and get another one and get them to know each other.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Try giving it food from your hand and it will gradually get to know you. Remember, it takes time to build a relationship and you are much bigger than it - it must be very scared!
Hope this helps!
:)
If you've had him 8 days, I'd say he's still getting used to you. My only advice is to hold him as much as possible, try cuddling him to you. Many rats and other rodents from large pet stores have not been handled a great deal, so it's up to you to get him used to being handled. One of my rats had not been handled a great deal when I got her, and I had to spend a while getting her used to people.
First you really need to buy another rat, he should feel less scared. Second rats from petshops hardly have any human contact so they are not very tame. It took me quite awhile to tame my rats from the petshop, but the ones i got from a breeder 2 days ago are already tame, and when i go over to the cage, they climb over to the door
Lil rodents take awhile to get used to a new environment.
Because it's a rat ...
