New to the rattie world :)
Hi everyone!
I'm brand new to the wonderful world of rats. We rescued a lovely 12wk female dumbo by the name of Rose from our local Pets at Home on Friday. I fell in love with her and just hadd to bring her home and give her all the love and attention she deserves. My other half has had rats before but it's a first for me.
We have quite a menagerie at the moment, 2 green basilisks (and 8 of her eggs in incubation), 2 water dragons, 3 bearded dragons, 4 ferrets, 2 corn snakes, a praying mantis, a rough green tree snake and a fair few fish. We have a deal where I take care of the mammals and he takes care of the rest.
I've always wanted to keep rats as I think they are beautiful creatures, but never got round to it. I think maybe I have chucked myself in the deep end a bit by getting a rescue but I didn't see the point of getting another one whilst Rose needed a loving home.
She was originally bought by a family with her sister but they didn't give her time to adjust to her new home and wanted to play with her all the time straight away so she became a bit nippy, then she kept starting fights with her sister so they took her back to the pet shop. As the girl that worked there said, she wasn't able to see for herself if Rose was actually starting fights and bullying or if she was just trying to play. The girl said she is absolutely lovely when she gets to know you and she gives you kisses and all sorts, and will quite happily sit on your shoulder and travel round with you, she just needs time to get to know and trust you.
I've not taken her out of her cage yet as wanted to give her time to settle in. She comes out of her hidey hole when you call her name and will take treats from me. She's nipped me once on Saturday but that was because my fingers got too close to the bars as I was letting her have a good sniff of me. I've put her cage in the spare room at the moment, until she's settled in and I'll move her downstairs to the living room.I didn't want to aggravate her more with loud noises etc. I spend at least an hour with her throughout the day, just talking to her and offering her treats occasionally and changing her water and such like.
I was wandering if anyone can give me some handy hints/tips to help me gain her trust and let her know I won't hurt her, just love and care for her.
Sorry all, this has turned into a bit of a long post-ooops!!
Anyways,
Hi!!
Hi Elfaerin. And well done for rescuing little Rose! It sounds to me like you're already doing everything right by letting her get used to her new environment and by spending time with her. Really all you can do is give her time to build up her trust of you and to learn that especially hands are nice things that give yummy treats and affection. It's just a question of having patience, which I know can feel frustrating at times, but in the long run it should pay off and you should have a happy trusting little Rose
Unfortunately, this forum is not very active
Hallo!
Thanks for your reply, it's reassuring to know i'm doing the right thing. The last thing I want to do is make her scared, anxious and nervous.
I have noticed it's not that busy but I'm sure (fingers crossed) that it'll pick up as more people join.
Pateince I have and will wait for as long as it takes. She came out briefly last night. We had the side of the cage opened and held my hand there and let her come out in her own time, She came out quite readily which I was surprised about, then would dart back in, come back out, dart back in etc. Hopefully eventually she'll stay out on my hand for a bit longer and we can go from there. I didn't risk stroking her, just wanted to give her time and get used to me gradually.
One thing that does trouble me though is how I'm supposed to clean out her cage? She's pooped a fair amount and no doubt wee'd as well over the past week and I know that cleaning should be done weekly to save her getting ill etc but as she's not ready to stay out with us yet I don't want to ruin the bit of trust that has built up so far by trapping her in another box the moment she does come out so her cage can be cleaned.
Sorry to pick your brains again but do you have any ideas?
The fact that Rose is coming out to see you, even though she darts back in again, shows that she's beginning to trust you. Do you offer her a treat when she comes to you? The way to a ratty's heart is always by offering a treat
I've always done "click" training with my ratties, and from babies it usually takes them only a few days to learn that the clicking sound means I have something yummy for them. I start making a clicking sound with my mouth while holding out a treat, usually a yoghurt drop, and the second the treat is taken I stop clicking. It's amazing how fast they learn to associate the sound with food. And even though Rose is not a baby, she's still young enough to learn. Click training also helps a nervous/shy rat learn that hands are nice things.
As for cleaning out Rose's cage, it might help to start moving her droppings into one corner, that is if Rose hasn't started using a corner already. Placing her droppings into a litter tray would also help you to keep her cage cleaner, if all you have to do is lift out the litter tray to empty it. But always remember to replace a few droppings in the clean litter tray just to reinforce Rose's memory that this is where she should do her toilet. It's also best to use something other than her usual substrate to differentiate the toilet area from the rest of the cage.
Urine is more difficult though. It's very rare to get a rat to urinate in a litter tray, as rats use urine as territorial markers.
The only other thing you could try, as I can understand you not wanting to put Rose in a box while you clean her cage, is possibly to try putting her in the bath on some old towels with a little of her already used bedding that has her scent on it so she doesn't feel too insecure, and to place a little of her scented bedding back into the clean cage so it doesn't feel too scary for her when she goes back, and I'm sure she will learn to appreciate a clean cage in time!
Good news!!
Rose came out of her cage last night and looked like she was begging to come out again this morning!!
Got home last night afer being away Saturday. We had moved Rose into our bedroom and locked the door as we didn't want our housemate and his friends poking their nose in at her and making her more nervous than she has been. Went in last night to say hello and thought we'd try to get her out again. Dan put on the same leather glove as we'd used before and held his hand up to the open door. She came over for a sniff but didn't seem to like the glove. As Dan was taking it off I put my hand there and she came out! She placed her teeth on my fingers a couple of times then cam straight out onto my hand and sat there quite happy. She ran onto my other hand, then onto Dan's, then back on to mine and up my front to sit on my shoulder. She was quite happy letting us stroke her, ran back down and did the same to Dan. She stayed out with us for a few mintues then went back in. We gave her lots of praise and a nice bit of cheese as it seems to be her favourite but we generally give her the yoghurt drops.
I got up this morning and she was by the door again holding onto the bars with her paws, looking out at me-bless her, it was such a picture!!
Unfortunately though I had gotten up late so didn't have time to see if she wanted to come out but I'll be seeing her as soon as I get home tonight and see if she's up for another investigation of us.
It seems like we have made a break through and as much as I want to give her cage a good clean out, I think I'll wait a couple of days, try and interect with her some more then try the bath trick, see how she is. Thankfully she's already using a corner of her cage to do her business.
Thank you for your handy tips, I'll try some of them out and see what happens!