# Completely confused as to how to socialize rat when all he does is hide from me



## mysteriousmeow (Sep 2, 2013)

I have only had my rat for a week. He is probably around 4 months old and certainly not a little baby anymore. Unfortunately, he is from a pet store and I get the feeling he was not handled much. He is starting to be a little more curious, and a little less skittish. He still hides from me when I walk in my room or if I move too fast. 
I am not sure how I can get him used to me when he doesn't want to be held by me.

I have looked around for an answer to this question, and I am very confused. Some say that you should handle the rat every day and others say to let the rat come to you.

Well he isn't going to come to me to be handled on his own.

What should I do?

Continue to let him stay in his cage and feed him treats and talk to him, until he eventually comes out of hiding and wants to be handled?

Or grab him from the cage and handle him everyday until he becomes used to being handled by me?

The latter seems like a terrible idea, as grabbing him out of his cage probably does nothing to make him trust me. On the other hand, I heard if you don't handle your rat from the get go, later on, they will not want to be handled by you.



What would you reccomend?
(And please do not tell me to get him a friend. I know he needs a rat buddy. I am already looking into getting another rat, but I want to be better informed before I do that.)


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## xxTheRatChampion (Apr 18, 2013)

*My new little girl, Nova, is the same. All she does is sit in the igloo. All the tips I can give you is leave the door open when you're with him and place your hand in the cage with a treat in the middle of your palm. Coax him out of his cage with a treat. But if you do have the chance to get him, put him in the bathtub (no water of course) and sit down with him. Let him crawl and sniff you. Tub training should always remain short and sweet if he's skittish.*


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## EJW323 (Jun 18, 2013)

I'd read the sticky in the behavior section called immersion training. It helped me bond with my skittish girl and she's such a sweetheart now. 


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## naley_2006 (Aug 19, 2013)

I definitely think letting him get to know you little body part onward seems like the best idea. I unfortunately wouldn't know much about this, I got my little girl when she around two months old and she's never done anything but run and press herself against the cage whenever someone comes by for attention! I really hope yours warms up to you.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Immersion is a great method of socialization; it's tough to think that first hour spent terrorizing your rat is good but honestly just bite the bullet.


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## WhiteWidoW (Aug 29, 2013)

Immersion? Even if they are young? Please explain how you do that :O


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

WhiteWidoW said:


> Immersion? Even if they are young? Please explain how you do that :O


I think it will go much easier to do it while they are young. Immersion doesn't entail anything special, I think most simplified it is just sitting with your rat and opening communication. No matter the age, a rat is communicating as best as it can with the individuals in its environment. For a shy rat, this may mean cuddling it and coaxing it out of its shell. For a playful one, it may mean wrestling and treat dispensing. Immersion doesn't automatically entail pinning your rat or any other aggressive behavior, sometimes it just means petting/playing/cuddling them for a couple hours until you feel you have bonded and understand each other.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I understand your concern about putting your shy rats into a situation that's going to stress them, but rats are built for short term stress at least to a certain degree... In the long run, your rats are way more stressed by not knowing who you are and not having a human friend day after day.

Immersion will help you bond with your rats so they will have you to love and care for them and that will reduce their stress level for the rest of their lives.


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## Piff (Aug 29, 2013)

My boy is the same.. He wasn't handled by his previous owner, and he's already over a year old. I've taken over caring for him and try to push bonding, but he doesn't seem to be interested in cooperating. Seems he'd rather just hide than play with me. 
Seeing as your is smaller, you have a definite chance of winning him over! so my suggestion would be go with the immersion as often as possible.. that is, take the rat (even unwillingly I guess, if he really won't come out even with food), let him immediately know it's ok to be picked up by giving him a treat and just sit with him, in an area where it's just you and him and treats.. no toys, no hiding places.. like a tub, yes, or an empty couch or bed. You're going to have to be really patient and keep at it often, but sooner or later he'll make the connection human=fun&treats. 
Again, I'm an accidental rat owner, so I don't really have a wealth of experience, but this seems to be more or less what I'm reading in help pages and forums!
Good luck and let me know how it goes!


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## WhiteWidoW (Aug 29, 2013)

Ok, and how do we do it? We put the rat in the bath with water and let the rat go up and down?


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## WhiteWidoW (Aug 29, 2013)

I do that you say but not with water or inmersion. Does inmersion means playing outside the cage with your rats? No water? 

Sorry, this is a bit difficult to me but spanish rat forums are terribly bad.


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## Piff (Aug 29, 2013)

No water! no water!  it's a metaphorical "affection immersion".. you're surrounding it with attention and friendship! Just you and the rat, sitting alone and getting to know each other


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## DobiePaws (Aug 25, 2013)

Here is the link to Immersion Training on the Rat Forum http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.php?67442-Immersion-Training-The-Guide

NO WATER, the suggestion of the use of the bathtub was for a playpen, a small SAFE area.


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## WhiteWidoW (Aug 29, 2013)

Omg Hahahahahaha xDDD I was planning on dive my rats into the water when i read that xDDD. Thank you


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

The water solution is for introduction; immersion is a bit more than playing with your rats because you want to be able to "speak" to your rats, essentially just pick up their cues. This is a nice site for a written explanation: http://www.ratbehavior.org/ of behavior but ideally after immersion you can sort of have an idea yourself and your rat can get an idea about you as well.


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## WhiteWidoW (Aug 29, 2013)

Ok i'm reading that, it's really helpfull, this is exactly what I was searching for. Really nice work Rat daddy :O, you are completely an expert...

I'm going to study that but maybe I will have to open a new thread to ask some doubts...


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I understand that immersion can sound confusing when you read it, basically it's hard to explain in words... but once you get the general idea and you try it it all starts to make sense as you go along.

It's like reading a manual on how to fix a car without the car there. As you take each part apart and put it back together the steps make sense.


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