# new single girl petrified!!! help.



## vicloorz (Mar 3, 2008)

We had wonderful pet rats for years...but not for a while and I've never experienced this before. But, then again, we got her from Petsmart and not from a breeder, and she was left alone in her cage there at the store. Anyway, she explored the new (and rather boring, at this point) cage for a little while, then just sat in the corner almost catatonic, not even barely blinking. i'd pet her and she didn't respond. then, she went into her igloo and when i checked on her this morning, she was still there, in the same basic position, crouched up sitting-like inside her igloo...didn't move at all when i picked up the igloo.

OMG. is she alright? should i bring her back before we bond with her? my daughter is freaking out. she bought a hamster a couple months ago who died within a week. we bought a new cage for our new rat, so that can't be it. If she dies, i will never buy a rodent for a pet again. 

any advice is so deeply coveted! Thank you! Vic


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

I have some advice that might not be so popular but consider what you just said here about not ever buying a rodent again... I'm gonna say it

it might be best for you to return this rat before you bond because if you want to make sure you have a perfect rat from day one then it might be better to pick out 2 from a large number of choices rather than pick out a single girl where there were no other choices & you settled for what was available. Rats really need companions & since you not only have one problem with her being freaked... you are looking at potentially doubling or tripling your frustrations since you need to find a cage mate & quarantine her as well before intros can be made. 

If this girl is under socialized then she needs to be with a handler that is committed to her & working with her. It may take someone with far more experience of handling an under socialized rat & if you don't have that experience or confidence in being able to commit to that... well... 

You sound like you are really able to give a loving home to a pet, maybe this one isn't the one & you need to be a bit more selective in your choice. No shame in that... since it is what's in the pet's best interest that really matters.

I hope that everyone can see that I am simply trying to be a voice of reason here... often when doing this you say some things that others may not like to hear but I am honestly thinking about all parties involved. In a perfect world this lone, skittish little girl would need to land in the hands of someone who can work with her extensively & have an establish family of rats waiting for her to join them in 2 weeks once she is QT'ed.


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## vicloorz (Mar 3, 2008)

Thank you, Julia. I am not offended. I just feel so bad that she is so scared...i thought that since she was already all alone, she might be okay making a transition...and I didn't realize how important it is to have two of them together. our first rat was our favorite friend for three years and he was taken from the kids' rat at school who had babies, and he never had a cagemate. The rest of our rats in the past (two more sets of girls) were bought as cagemates. 

So...assuming I take your advice about my needing to know what to do and assuming I don't take your advice about returning her...what is your suggestion about teaching us as quickly as possible what we can do for her now that she's here? we can go get a second one and begin her next-door quaranteen (sp?) right away because we've loved our rats and never had this problem before. this little girl is also probably about a year old, so would that have something to do with her fear? 

so...just to summarize...you think her being so still is a sign of fear? and you think she's afraid because she's in a new place AND alone? whereas, at the pet store, she only had to deal with being alone? 

thanks...i do appreciate your candid words. i only said that i'd never get a rodent again because if she dies...and the other little hamster died right away there was obviously something wrong that i don't want to keep doing.

victoria


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## jesirose (Feb 22, 2008)

If you got her from petsmart why do you think she is a year old? They sell their rats pretty quick, she should be around 2-3 months at the most. I've gotten my four rats there - two of them are incredibly adventurous and sweet. One is terrified of everything and we are still working with her. The fourth girl was terrified for about a week, but she also had a URI. Now she's getting much more outgoing. 

I'd take the new girl to a vet, as she probably has a URI - it's pretty much going to happen when you buy from a store. When I brought home Thirteen she didn't eat, sat in the corner all the time, and it was so sad. Once we got the infection cleared up, she has become really sweet and eats better, she runs around on the wheel, etc. 

If you don't want to pay the vet, you might just take her back to Petsmart and get the refund, then go to a breeder and get two healthy and outgoing girls. You shouldn't have any problems with Petsmart, they have the 14 day promise. 

If you keep her, having a cagemate will probably make her feel a lot better. You guys should do trust training every day until she gets comfortable with you.


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## vicloorz (Mar 3, 2008)

i thought that was odd too...that they said she was that old. perhaps the clerk had no idea what he was talking about. she looks youngish (but not like a baby). how do i know if she has a UTI? is the vet the only way to find out? i really dont' want to bring her back unless i really can't do anything to help her. she's so sweet when i pet her or hold her. i just feel so bad that she's so quiet and scared. thanks.


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

if you keep her then you make the commitment of time & patience... if you go to get a get her a cage mate & you only get one rat, you have to consider this... if she or the other does not accept an intro then you have two lone rats to deal with. Are you able to have 3? Is your cage going to house 3? 

Do you have a second cage to do a QT? If so... do you have someone without rats that will keep the new rats for 2 to 4 weeks? If not then you have to =keep them absolutely as far away from each other as possible & wash up & change clothes in between handling. You also cannot have them free roam on the same surfaces. I wasn't sure what you meant by next door. Is that as in, the house next door/ at a friend's house?

You really didn't speak about her behavior with you in your first post. It kind of gave off the sound as though she was too stressed out to be held. You mention here she is ok with being held. The only advice I have is time & patience.

As for her age... can you provide a picture with something to compare her to... like a dollar bill of a cola can or whatever... something familiar. 

Also, go back to the store & ask other members of the staff if they know how long she has been there & how long she has been on her own. If she is older (like a year) & she has been all on her own for a long period the chance of an unsuccessful intro goes up. If you do go the route of getting her cagemates... get younger girls but not really young girls. After they go through QT, get someone to help you for the day. You will want to completely scrub clean the cage they will be going into at some point. You will also want to wash any & all accessories that will go in there. You will want to wash the rats with a mild baby shampoo. Then after all this is done have an area sectioned off as rat proofed & slowly introduce them. Have a box or something that they can get into in case they get scared of each other, just somewhere the younger girls can run to if your older girl gets too aggressive (this may not be the case, she may welcome friends right away... you just never know... heck, the two new girls might whip up on her). Anyway.. don't take your eyes off them. If you are not convinced after several hours of observation that they are safe around each other separate them for the night. If everyone is getting along... leave them together but keep them within your hearing range because rats can become very active during the hours we sleep... 90 % of the nasty fights I've had all happen after midnight.

So... there is a brief rundown.

There is a lot more to say but this gives you some basics.


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## kancerr (Apr 7, 2007)

putting some tasty food in your hand can also help her to slowly warm up to you. is she breathing really funny? constantly sneezing(or sounding like somebody who has a cold? or sounds somebody who smokes a lot would make.) those are a few signs of a URI. But you can never be sure without a vet visit. if you got her from petsmart she is most likely young, people buy them all the time for snake food(and pets), they dont normally last long there. which gives pretty good odds for introducing another rat(and as passion said if youre unsure about her age it is probably a good idea to get 2 rats instead of 1 so you dont end up with 2 lonely rats if intros dont go well). if shes okay with being held, doesnt bite. take her out when youre at home and let her hang out with you as long as you can(make sure she eats and gets water tho) that should help her to calm down. also will help when introducing another rat to her(which would be a good idea, if shes stressed out right now it probably wouldnt be a good idea to intro another rat to her, might end up backtracking too far). 

what style/size of cage do you have? is she cramped or crowded? (im assuming tho since youve had a couple at once before its a decent size cage..) 

;] gl keep us posted.

mighta just repeated what passion said, but hopefully i threw in a few more suggestions.


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## vicloorz (Mar 3, 2008)

thanks, kancerr. your advice was very helpful. it's been an entire week now and she is still frightened, hiding in her igloo most of the day and even during the night, when i get up and check on her. i really wasn't sure about how much to bring her out and hold her...if that was helpful or not...so your adivce was perfect. She does not breathe funny. It's just that she freezes and barely moves when we see her. she's fine when we bring her out, tho she's not calm. She's never bitten...only a couple times when she thought food was there and was very gentle. i suppose i need to bring her to the vet, even tho i don't really have the money! her cage is not super large...we gave our rats and cage away when we moved to a new state...it was too big and the move was too chaotic to put our last rats through it. so, she has a basic beginner rat cage from petsmart...we were going to add on little by little (money issues) vic


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## begoodtoanimals (Dec 6, 2007)

I too started with a rat like that, Harriet and she came around as soon as she got a ratty friend, Luna who was about 6 weeks old. Harriet is still more standoffish than Luna, who is extremely social. I am going to get two more babies and they can all be socialized from the start. Harriet can just be herself and in the meantime I know she will continue to improve and have a happy life. Giving her back to the pet store would have been a tragedy for her.


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## jesirose (Feb 22, 2008)

Have you started doing trust training with yogurt and baby foods?


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## piney (Mar 10, 2008)

I dont think feeding out of your hand sounds good, sounds like the start if a hand nibbling habbit. im very careful about that because on occasion my rats have visitors who are young kids.


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## Rattiegma (Jan 23, 2008)

piney said:


> I dont think feeding out of your hand sounds good, sounds like the start if a hand nibbling habbit. im very careful about that because on occasion my rats have visitors who are young kids.


See, I'd have to disagree with you on this one. I thought the same thing, but the only way I could get Roxie to come near me at first was by putting baby food on my fingers and letting her lick it off. And it seems to have had the opposite effect of what you're mentioning. As soon as any fingers come near, she starts licking. In fact, the only time she's nibbled on my fingers is when I've had a hang nail or something! hahah


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

I have only ever fed my girls by hand. They have never had a bowl, because I've never just dumped food at them. Every time they ate, especially treats, they knew that it was me giving them the food. I personally feel that it got them much tamer, much faster than if I had been doing it purely by non-food trust training methods. 

As long as you don't pass food through the cage bars (a real no-no, because then they tend to acquire a violent grabbing motion when taking food, and will grab at anything coming through their bars, such as a small child's finger), there should be little to no problem with food associated nibbling, at least after an adjustment period. Why my girls never had, they were good from the get-go.


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## piney (Mar 10, 2008)

hmm, well thats neat to know. i guess ive always been a but protective of my fingers, a long time ago i got a rat from a pet store, she was in a tank of males and i knew she would be pregnant, i felt bad and took her home. she was visious with hormones, she bit down right through my finger nail once when i wasnt paying attention, WOW it hurt, little bites too. i hate being bitten. the girls i have now dont bite. they will put their mouth on you to taste or somthing, but never bite. they do like to pull things thought the bars though, people come over somtimes when i have no authority of it "the guys" are here to be idiots with my boyfriend somtimes, and i think they mess with them. my boyfriend(corey) has said he had to tell them once to keep fingers out!


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## jesirose (Feb 22, 2008)

If you are scared of being bitten, it helps to present your hand as a fist. There is not as much to easily bite on your fist, as opposed to fingers which fit in their mouth. 

Once they get used to that then you can lay your palm flat, and I put the food or treat in my palm close to my wrist. They have to walk onto my hand to get it and they are more interested in it than my fingers. I say "Treat!" when I do it so they know when there will be food there, otherwise they should just walk out so we can play. So far it's worked great with 3 of them, the other two are still very scared and shy but we are working on it.


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## piney (Mar 10, 2008)

ah, i just brought home six babies . thet were to be killed cause this guy didnt know what to do with them..... he has snaked but there were too many babies... so now they are here. if anyone knows of anyone in the western mass area looking for any, i have boys and girls.


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