# My rats don't like me?



## Kuraudia (Jan 15, 2014)

Hello 
Sorry but this is going to be a long post.
Anyways, I'm a new rat owner and I live in Spain, where rats aren't really liked (people here hate them)  I had a look on the internet to learn stuff about them and I discovered that it was a good idea to get them from breeders (or am I wrong?) but as I said, rats aren't popular here and I found adverts for people selling babies for food, rat poison, etc. What I didn't seem to find where any good Spanish breeders. I saw about two, but they seemed to be out of business. I really wanted rats so I had to get them from a pet store. 
I was given Bianca, a female PEW, and all I know is that she is less than a year old. She bit me when I tried petting her and made me bleed, but I know it was because she was scared. I put her in a cage and gave her food and water and tried making her as comfortable as possible.
I tried giving her food from my hand, but she wouldn't take it. Eventually she did, but she was still very scared of me. 
I got her a pal, Matilda, just a week later. I introduced them and apart from a little fighting (probably because the second one was pregnant) they seemed to get on fine. Matilda seemed more aggressive but Bianca was much calmer with me.
Six days after getting Matilda, on the 29th of December, she gave birth to thirteen babies, of which only seven are still alive today. They are so cute :3 and they're doing fine 
Matilda is still aggressive and agitated, she won't let me near her, not even to pet her. I assume this is because she is stressed and with hormones and I don't mind giving her time. The babies let me pick them up and handle them and I can already tell which are female and male (four girls and three boys). They eat on their own, and play with each other and the like. I know I'll have to separate them soon.
Now that I've introduced the lot of them, I'll focus on Bianca. It's been a month and I've got her out every day, tried giving her treats out of my hand, petted her, let her climb on me, picked her up, TRIED playing with her (she wasn't at all interested), and she doesn't seem to be bonding with me. I know she hasn't been socialized because she came from a pet store, I just want some tips on how to do better so that she likes me. I tried letting her smell me, but she tries to bite me and when I do put her on me or pick her up, she gets away quickly.
This is really frustrating as I'm doing my best and it seems like we're not improving.
Thank you for reading it all and I'm sorry about the mistakes  hope it's not too hard to read.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Until her babies are fully weaned and away from her, her hormones are going to declare you an enemy. You can give her yogurt on a spoon (thereby saving you from nips) and trust train her until then.

Afterwards, I'd get her out and just sit in a room (small one where she cant get away so much) or have her in a hooded sweatshirt for as long as you can (maybe watch a couple movies, read a book) and give her treats during.


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## Kuraudia (Jan 15, 2014)

I tried giving both of them plain yogurt (on a spoon) with no added sugar and they didn't like it, so I tried with honey, which they both love! Yet again, Matilda shied away from me when I touched and ran into the cage, but Bianca didn't seem to mind. The did make a mess of everything, though.
About the hoodie idea, you do mean Bianca, right? Matilda won't stay still for a second and would never let me hold her for so long. But I will try with my white rat, thank you so much!


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

First, keep working with the babies... they are almost guaranteed to be a success. Hand raised baby rats become the very best pets and friends.

And Matilda is defending her babies and doesn't really know you that well so her assertive attitude is understandable, for now.

As to Bianca and Matilda, after she has weened her babies, I'd armor up and give immersion a try. If your rats are frightened, you don't need to be aggressive but you don't let them bite you either. 

In immersion, you face down an aggressive rat and make it understand that you are the pack leader and not a chew toy, with a frightened rat you are more gentle and try to reassure it that you won't hurt it... You tell the difference in whether your rat is running away or attacking you. Frightened rat run away while aggressive rats charge you... If your rat charges you you are in for a difficult and unpleasant conflict before things get better.

A long session of bonding and play helps your rats get to know you like short sessions don't and lets you fix problems you can't fix in a few minutes a day.


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## Hitmanthe3rd (Jul 16, 2013)

My rats took a good week before they were no longer afraid of me. My main goal was before free ranging, to get them addicted to treats so no matter what happens I can Shake whatever I have and they will come running. Just be gentle, don't pick her up much yet. Leave some cheerios in there so She can discover them for herself, and then stop leaving them in the cage. She'll realize that the only way to get cheerios is to get them directly from your hand. This strategy had my boys socialized in an easy weeks time. The main difference tho, is that mine have never bit me. Even on Day one of getting them, They didn't like being picked up and wouldn't take treats, but they wouldn't bite me. (Just TONS of nervous poops). Also Rat Daddy's immersion training does wonders, even if you only do it once or twice. Sit on a chair she can't escape or on your bed and make sure the only place to hide, is under your shirt or legs. She'll be forced to socialize with you, keep treats nearby as well (I really like to use Cheerios because of how Not unhealthy they are) Basically this is EXACTLY what I did for about a week, and now they come up to me and give me kisses, and climb on me. Not really into Cuddling yet, but being that they are males they should be cuddly little lazy bums in a few months.


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## Jess <3 (Jan 23, 2014)

Pet store rats can be wonderful pets but you have to take into account the way the majority of them are treated before being sold. It's most likely that your rats were bred in a sort of 'puppy mill' fashion with little room and no handling... Bianca doesn't trust you becuase you are a human and so far i imagine humans have not been nice to her. It might take a long time but you'll build up a relationship with her if you're persistent. Like others here have mentioned, yoghurt on a spoon is a good idea, then move onto treats and food that is big enough to put enough distance between the two of you when she takes it (so she bites at one end which is far enough away from your fingers!) Then you can move onto smaller food until she's walking right onto your hand to take it from you! 

As for Matilda, she's in protective mother mode. Rats that know their human well and trust them completely will usually let them in and around the nest area with her young but, as she came to you already pregnant, you didn't have enough time to form that bond with her. Once the babies are completely independent you should start trust training with her the way you'll already be doing with Bianca.

Make sure you separate the boys and girls at round 4-4.5 weeks so they don't breed with each other!


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## Kuraudia (Jan 15, 2014)

Thank you all for your posts and wonderful advice! I've got very good news for you!
Bianca doesn't even try to bite me when I put my hands out for her and I did the hoodie thing, and she even played with me! She hid in it and had a good look around, smelling me and even came up to my face (I was terrified) but nothing happened 
We may not have bonded yet, but I think we've gotten so much closer. I am no longer scared of her 
The babies are nearly four weeks old and Matilda is feeling so much better. She doesn't looked stressed at all. I tried touching her and she shied away from me, but at least she's not running away in fear.


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## Jess <3 (Jan 23, 2014)

That's great, congrats on your progress with them! Will you be keeping any of the babies or finding them all new homes?


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## Kuraudia (Jan 15, 2014)

You're all so nice ^^
Well, I want to keep at least one and my sister's fallen in love with one of the females, so she'll probably keep it in my cage. I really liked a baby boy that I've called Popcorn, but I probably won't be able to keep him 
I'm doing my best to spread the word around here so people get to know how adorable they are and change their mentality, but, only one person has decided to get ONE baby (even after I repeated that it would need a partner).


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Personality adopts out rats. Work with the pups so everyone will fall in love with them. Then they will be easier to re-home. Until people get to know your rats they aren't likely to willingly invite rats into their house.

We were in a small park in a rather nice neighborhood and a couple boys dragged their mom over to meet us. She introduced herself as a mom who refused to let her kids have pet "rats". For a few minutes she watched her sons play with Fuzzy Rat and then she got hands on... so hands on in fact that she didn't let go of Fuzzy Rat for a very long time and her kids seemed smart enough to let Mom have a very long turn meeting the friendly rat. She started asking the basic stupid questions, about biting and filth etc and moved on to the right ones.. like how many rats to get, cage size, food, care and where to get rats... I'm thinking the kids got their rats. 

Oddly, most people perceived Fuzzy Rat as a very expensive animal. Certainly she was priceless to us, but everyone was surprised that she only cost $2.49. One comment we heard often after people held and played with Fuzzy Rat or even Max is "Now I want a rat too." Laughingly enough I'd say most of the same people would have never thought that they could like much less want a rat 5 minutes before meeting ours...

Sweet rats make people love and want them. But otherwise for many reasons having nothing to do with fancy rats people just don't like rats and there is nothing you can say to them to change their minds. Get people to meet your rats and people will adopt them.

Best luck.


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## Kuraudia (Jan 15, 2014)

Fuzzy Rat seems so sweet :3
I have tried getting people over to my house to come and see how adorable and smart they are (Matilda especially is very cunning) but people here don't want to. I managed to convince two friends, but they dumped me, so it's there loss.
Well, my mom HATES rats but fell in love with the babies, so that's cool.
Anyway, I'll keep being persistent.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Actually you don't invite people over to meet your rats, your rats are incidental to their visit. They come for pizza and fall in love with a rat...

Rats can be insidious.


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