# New rat still afraid of me?



## Cayley (Sep 8, 2014)

I got Leuka a week ago and she's not warming up to me well at all. I've tried sunflower seeds, and she won't even take them from me. She flinches when I go to pick her up or just pet her back, she seems healthy, no sneezing or other symptoms. What could be going on? Any ideas how I can help her become less afraid? she's never once tried to bite me or anything and she's by no means aggressive. :/


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## Rimmer (Jul 26, 2014)

Try taking her and another rat that is tame out together, it will tell her not to be afraid.


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## Cayley (Sep 8, 2014)

Grey is her cage mate. Grey is very sociable and will run up to the cage when she sees me, she licks my hands and likes to curl up on my shoulder. They've been together since I got her...I didn't know to quarantine. They get along really well.


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## Simons mum (Dec 19, 2013)

It took Peaches 8 months to warm up to me. I'd sit on the floor with my overly freindly Token and hold chocolate chips. Now she comes straight to me even if I don't have treats. She did pick up the habit of running up to my toes to take a nibble if I didn't give her a choc chip. We're working on that now.
Needless to say, it could take time, alot of time, but she's scared and timid. Your other rat will teach her in time that you are safe. Peaches follows Tokens lead and feels if Token feels it's safe, it's safe.


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## Elska (Sep 17, 2014)

Well, it's only been a week. As Simon's mum said, sometimes it can take quite a while before a rat really settles in and starts to come out of its shell. I know it can be a little worrying when you only just get a new rat and they don't seem to be bonding with you, but these things take time. Don't start worrying yet!

On the other hand, some rats are just more timid then others. One of my old rats, Rattus, was very fearful when we first got him, and with a lot of time and trust training exercises he began to understand that humans could be trusted and to even enjoy our company. But nevertheless, in the three years that we had him he never was just never as confident and happy-go-lucky as our other rat, Splinter, who I even brought out at parties as he loved people and he made a lot of my friends want to get pet rats!

So it's possible that your rat Leuka is just naturally a little less self-assured than your other rat, but that doesn't mean that Leuka won't warm to you over the coming months with time and training, and that she won't end up being a lovely companion to you and to Grey 

I will also say, a trust-training exercise that I found particularly effective with Rattus was to have some tasty natural yoghurt on a spoon and to offer it to your timid rat, (best let the other one free-range during this time, otherwise they'll take over the whole exercise!). The benefit of offering them liquid treats on a spoon is that they can't just snatch it and run away with it - they have to eat it slowly and remain in your company, and that will eventually allow them to associate you with positive things.

In the beginning, offer it to them while they are still in their cage, possibly partially hidden, so that they feel comfortable. Over time, you can start to make the rat work more and more for the reward - you can make them come to the door of the cage, then you can make them come out. Eventually you can make them sit on you before they are allowed to actually taste the treat. You can also try in the later stages of this exercise to handle your rat very gently while you are feeding it; just try stroking its fur a little so that it knows that you're not going to steal its food away, and so that it learns to associate your touch with positive things happening.

Keep the exercises short and the amount of yoghurt small, especially in the beginning. Also, I will say, too much yoghurt can give them runny poos! (Though a little is completely fine). So just make sure you're not overdoing it.

I found this exercise very effective with my timid rat, but remember that it does take time; just do a little every day. And always try to end on a high note 

I hope that helps!


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## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

Handling can be scary for a new rat, especially if they aren't used to humans. You can't think of them or treat them like cat or dogs. Many rats don't like being petted, at least not at first, so that's_ not _going to calm them or make them like you. Holding them is even worse. Rats evolved as prey - in the wild, everything bigger than them is either going to ignore them or try to kill and eat them, so of course they'll be scared of being picked up unless someone already taught them humans are friends. Even then, they can be terrified to be dragged to a new home with new people they've never met.

I feel like trust training, as Elska has described, is the safer route to go if you are not an experienced rat owner. Try not to handle them too much at first if you go that route. It's sort of like teaching a young kid swimming lessons when they're scared of water. You don't splash the heck out of them or dunk them right away, you'll scare the crap out of them and make everything harder. The safest way to start is usually to coax the kid into the pool and reward their progress. Sure, at first they'll dip a toe in and run away, but you can give them a little piece of candy or a toy when they stick a whole foot in! Eventually comes the leg up to the knee. It might take a while, but they'll get there.

The alternative is immersion training, which is sort of the equivalent of dragging the kid into the ocean and giving them a crash course in swimming. Do it right and they'll learn a LOT faster, but if you don't know what you're doing it can go badly and make things worse. If your rat is not aggressive, a good immersion strategy might be to lock yourself in a bathroom or closet with her and absolutely nothing else but water and a litter pan. She'll have nowhere to go but to you, and you can gently pet her, hold her, talk to her, and give her lots of treats. You have to set aside several hours for this to work; I think Rat Daddy's metaphor is that if he put you in a room with a friendly bear and you ran away too fast you'd never learn it was friendly. You might have to tire yourself out running in circles and screaming before it came and gave you a gentle hug and you realized it wanted to be your friend.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Many new rats can be withdrawn and shy, some are that way by nature and other's have been mishandled before you got them. Immersion takes advantage of the idea that your rat is alone and afraid when you adopt her and present yourself as a friend to comfort and guide her into her new home. Fearful rats take a bit longer even with immersion, especially those that may have already been mistreated. I suppose if you do anything badly things don't go well, but overall most new rat owners don't have any problems with the technique. There may actually be certain advantages to not having to unlearn certain methods from other techniques that could bog down your progress... Do read the sticky thread (at least the first few pages) before you try it and see if it feels right to you...

But mostly, I think viewing rats as prey animals is selling them short. Rats are omnivorous scavengers and opportunistic hunters, they are also pack animals. In this way they are much more like wolves or even humans in nature than rabbits or deer. Some years ago I had a piranha and it was about the most skittish fish I ever owned... just because it was a predator, didn't mean it was looking to get itself eaten by a bigger predator. There's a certain psyche common among prey animals... it's like a flight or flight strategy whereas rats, dogs and even humans choose between the options of fight of flight. Rats can attack alone or in packs and can challenge much larger animals, even humans. I suppose it's not a big issue, but it goes towards understanding your rat and how competent it can become. Domestic rats evolved from a proud line of tiny wolves not tiny sheep. They have very complex behaviors and are easier to understand if you see them as what they really are or can be.

Best luck.


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## Cayley (Sep 8, 2014)

Thanks guys so much! You've really been helpful. I'm glad to know she's acting normally. I was worried that it'd been long enough for her to warm up to me. I'm new to all this and the only animal experience I've had is with my dogs. They're very different. Although I'm beginning to favor my rats


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## new_rattie_mommy (Aug 24, 2014)

It can take a few months to have your rat warm up to you if they are especially timid or scared. Although I'm not saying that's how it will be for you because a week is not bad at all. You are just very lucky if you didn't have that experience with your first one. Especially if you bought her from a pet store. my two boys i bought together from a pet store almost 3 months ago. It took around 3 weeks for them to trust me and come out of their shell. They have completely different personalities tho and my one boy was all in once he warmed up to me. He loves being handled and cuddled for a bit before he gets hyper and runs around. He doesn't sleep on me cuz he is very hyper for a boy but he always wants to be around me and when I get up to go somewhere he will jump at my feet until i pick him up and let him be involved with whatever i'm doing. My other rat though, has an opposite personality. He's very sweet and has never bitten me or anything but he's so timid and not completely trusting of me. It definitely helps when he seems daisy interacting with me but he absolutely hates being picked up or pet. He comes up to me and gives me a couple kisses and maybe a grooming and that's his way of showing affection but the only affection i can show back is talking to him. I worked with him a lot at first to try and do immersion so he will want to be cuddled like my other one but at this point I for the most part respect his wishes and don't touch him when he's around. I pick him up and give him love a few times a day though in hopes that he may still come around and i just feel like he needs some of that whether he likes it or not. in good news though, in the past couple weeks he has made great strides though and interacts with me a lot and doesn't get quite as upset when i pet him. So i am certain he will come around in his own time. That pretty much proves that even if your rat doesn't seem to warm up to you after weeks she still may with some patience.


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## Dan203 (Jul 10, 2014)

Tempy is only just now coming around for me after 3 months, and is still super skittish with my wife. When we got him he was so scared he would just freeze anytime we'd go near him. Like he was just paralyzed with fear. It's taken a LOT of time on my part to get him comfortable with me. My wife hasn't put in as much effort so he's still scared of her. And even with me it's hit or miss. Today he was super affectionate he got up on my lap and even let me pick him up and scratch his belly a bit. But yesterday he'd run away from me anytime I even motioned in his direction. I never really know how he's going to be, but it does seem like the last couple weeks we've had more good days then bad.


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