# First immersion socialization with Mochi



## SeaMama (Feb 5, 2013)

So, Doka is doing a really great job adjusting. She is friendly, wants to come out and seems to enjoy time w me. Mochi, on the other hand, is very shy and doesn't seem to enjoy me at all. I have read alot from RatDaddy about immersion socialization so I thought I'd try it. This is how it went...




LOTS of poo, like WAY more than I've seen before. And waterfalls of pee a couple times.




Eating my pants.




Feeling a bit better afterward.







This was me afterward.

She was totally freaked at first. I insisted on holding her until the shaking stopped and I wouldn't let her wonder around until she was doing it from curiousity rather than running away from me out of fear. She wouldn't take any snacks at all but she did groom herself in my hand and then groomed my wrist as well. YAY!

Overall the session took a little over an hour. I feel like we made alot of headway.

Any suggestions?


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm not familiar with the term "immersion socialization"--is that the same as what I think of as forced socialization? Where you basically force the rat to interact with you as much as possible until they stop seeing you as a threat and start seeing you as family? Because if so, that's what I've done with my two shier girls and it sounds like you're doing a great job! the pee and poo will stop being an issue in a few days. The longer you spend with her in each session, the more quickly the process will go. Something I always like doing is sitting down in the bathtub with some toys and putting the rat in there with me--it usually only takes them about 5 minutes to start eagerly crawling all over and exploring me, and the tub is small enough that they can't really run away.
You've got some serious battle wounds, there, but I'm sure you know they'll heal very quickly.  Otherwise, keep doing what you're doing! She'll come around.


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## PeachPeach (Jun 22, 2012)

That was how the boys were when I first got them. I decided to remove them from the cage and force socialization rather than take the slow route. Even on the first day, despite lots of raisins and pee like Mochi, they really warmed up and even fell asleep/groomed themselves/relaxed. 

It's been three weeks now and I was able to make positive headway from forced socialization to a bit of a blended technique (now that they associate me with pets/treats they're voluntarily poking their heads out of the cage for curiosity and pets, so I'm holding treats in my hand and training them to crawl out and along my body for them, which is going swimmingly!). They not only will do the aforementioned sitting/playing/approaching me, but they're also tolerating being picked up in the cage with much less flailing and will let me pet them without any flinches or movement away from me while I'm giving them food.

In my case beginning with the forced socialization was really helpful, because they hadn't been handled much and one of their breeders picked them up by the tails. So breaking the hand=ow! association was necessary. Once they realized I was an okay human and came bearing treats, reversing and doing a gradual socialization approach for the finer points of trust worked great. 

I'm no rat expert, but just going by their body language and responses and letting that dictate how I approached helped a TON, as did reading up on rat behavior, in general, and specifically agonistic behavior.


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## SeaMama (Feb 5, 2013)

Thanks for the support and help you guys. 

Rumy- "immersion" is just what RatDaddy calls it. It's just basically forced socialization. I like how he explains how to be an alpha to your mischief. 

Anyway, as an update to this, I got Mochi out of her cage again a couple hours ago. She still didn't want to be picked up but once she was out, she was markedly more friendly and calm. She let me love on her and pet her quite a bit. And no poo. YAY!


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## PeachPeach (Jun 22, 2012)

Great news! I'm glad she is warming up so quickly


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Glad to hear that everything seems to be going well! I'm a big fan of forced socialization in most cases.


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