# Too late for bonding/establishing trust?



## RavenTheRat (May 28, 2015)

Hi all,
So, I have my second pair of rats at the moment, and... for a couple of personal reasons, in the almost 5 months I've had my rats, I've only taken them for out of the cage for playtime maybe 7 or 8 times. I know how bad that sounds. It's really bad. I know.
Don't get me wrong. I adore my pets. And they have a giant cage, plenty of toys with new ones all the time, vet visits, regular cleanings... it's not an excuse I'm just trying to say I don't horribly neglect them or anything like that.

Anyway. I've already committed to, from now on, taking them out on a daily basis like I should have all along. And no matter what everyone's answer to my question they will get that. But everyone on here has always been so informative and kind so I wanted to ask for the expert opinions.

Is it too late to bond with my rats at all? I'm in a much better place now, and I really, really want to give them as fulfilling life as I can and I would also like to have some kind of bond or established trust with them. Are they too old for that? They aren't terrified of me or anything, they come to the door to say hi every day and when I do take them out they run all over me and take treats. I just want to know if I can hope to establish a relationship with them, or if too much time has already passed.

Thank you guys for any answers


----------



## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

I'd say its never to late! I think that basically any social animal can be bonded with at any age (I mean, people rescue/foster older rats and can bond quite closely to them), and this includes rats.

I haven't gone through as an extreme stint of time without interacting with my rats, however each year I take a month long vacation and when I return, the rats basically warm back up to me right away. And when I had my first trio of girls, circumstances that lead to one unfortunately passing and another getting deathly ill left the most shy girl pretty much left alone socially wise (don't get me wrong, I did clean her cage, feed her, water her, etc...but I was busy caring for her sister and studying for finals, so I could only go downstairs and offer a treat or two before going back to my day). This lasted for around a month, which was a bid hard on Sonic because she was a pretty shy rat by nature and no longer had any cage mates to be with. So I imagine it wasn't so bad for your guys, as they had each other.

Anyway, Sonic was the extreme sort of scared, and even though she'd tentatively take wet treats once I started working with her again, we still had to deal with issues like her being terrified of being touched or held. After about 2 months of trust training and getting stagnated in progress, I ended up just picking her up and interacting in the free-range area on a daily basis. And by then I had bonded her shy-turned-confident sister Shadow back with her, so Sonic had a good role model who was now super human friendly to copy.

Again, Sonic was a pretty extreme case due to her incredibly timid personality, but she still came around. It took quite a bit of time for her to fully trust me, and even then she never warmed up to other people. But I think this was totally due to her skittish personality, and less to do with the periods of little interaction.



I'm sure that your ratties will become more bonded to you now that your spending more time with them. And I don't think you need to worry about establishing trust, as they already like and feel confident enough in your presence to greet you at the cage door (I mean, I was taking my girl Cream out every day from the start, and only a few month ago did she start to greet me at the cage door. She's much like that other girl that I was talking about, in that both she and Sonic had/have severely fearful personalities. The difference is that I ended up working a lot more with Cream confidence-building wise, and she's now just about as friendly as my other more confident girls!)


I'd just keep working with them on a daily basis, and remember: The true way to a rat's heart is through their stomach!


----------



## MRM (Dec 26, 2016)

Agreed, it is never too late. Everything Shadow said is wonderful. 

I got my rescue boys at a year old and they were not very well socialized (even though their previous owner tried her best (she was only 12)). I think one of them bit her once and she was scared to handle them after that. And I think that was a couple of months before I got them from her.

Anyways, we had a little bit of a rocky start but the key is to never give up. Take baby steps. If you get to a third or fourth baby step and you see that they regress a little, just slow down and go back a few steps. They will come around with daily interaction. With my boys, I even went as far as getting up at 2 or 3 AM to spend time with them. That was when they were naturally active on their own so it was the easiest time to interact without having to wake them up. Now they adore me and are the sweetest things in the whole world. 

It doesn't sound like your girls are anywhere near as bad as my boys were. I think you will have great success with establishing a loving relationship with them.


----------



## athenianratdaddy (Dec 20, 2017)

Rats are incredibly adaptable and in most cases they can get used to any new situation granted that they do not become fearful or hurt from it. Your rats may even like the 'new' you and the interaction (and attention) they are getting. So, no, it's never too late. Be patient and CONSISTENT. This time you can't start taking them out and then go back to not taking them out. Rats not only become accustomed to a daily routine, they come to EXPECT their daily routine to take place! On days I don't have to work in the morning, I made the 'mistake' of letting the girls out and now they expect that every single morning. I can tell because 10-15 min after I get up they're all pushing against the bars, whereas before I would have to wake them and coax them with treats! I think the rats will start responding (how soon it depends) but after that it'll be up to you to continue 'making it happen' for them.


----------

