# Unfriendly and Unhappy Rat



## Adrian (Dec 31, 2013)

My 3 month old male Rollo has become extremely standoffish. At his best he is indifferent to me and his 2 cage mates. He never seems happy and I don’t know what else to do for him. Because he is so standoffish, he is very difficult to catch again once let out for free range time, and so this is limiting the amount of time he has outside of his cage, witch I’m sure only makes him more unhappy.

Let me briefly explain how we got to this point:
I bought Rollo and his brother Askell, along with a single male Falon all at the same time, a month ago exactly. Rollo and his brother were both very timid in the first few days, although Falon was bold, adventurous and playful right away and helped give the two brothers courage and got them to play with him and me as well. Rollo took a little more time to trust me enough to play with me, but in time he would play. Although he would play with me, he never displayed any affection towards me like grooming me like the other two do. He never seems happy to see me like the other two, either. He rarely grooms the other two unless he had just penned them in a small fright.

I had been making progress with him in getting him to be less standoffish. He has never been food motivated (I've tried a lot of foods) so short outing on the bed with me and the other two rats was starting to get Rollo to the point where instead of running around doing his own thing by himself he would actually come up to me and seem mildly interested in me. He was also becoming more playful with me and the other two rats. This progress was made for about a week before he suddenly became aggressive (he hit the three month old mark). I had to correct it by giving him a few little bops on the head when he nipped me and some small bops when he became too aggressive with his cage mates. Theses very light smacks curbed his aggression in only a day, but since then we (me and the other two rats) have all gone back to square one with Rollo. He wants nothing to do with me at all, although he is not afraid of me. He wants little to do with the other two boys, although they both go to him and groom him and sleep with him and genuinely do seem to like him. Especially his brother. But he rarely plays with the other rats anymore, and when he dose, it usually degrades into a small fight. He always wins the fights because he is bigger and stronger. I still giving him treats, and cuddles, but he mostly just seems to tolerate me petting him instead of enjoying it, and although he will often take treats from my hand, he isn’t super interested in them.

Rollo is a cautious rat, but not afraid of me, his cage mates or the environments I let him explore. He is not food motivated so that has done nothing to win his affections. I want him to be happy, but nothing has worked. And because he dose not like me like the other two do, he never comes to me when he is free ranging and so it’s a hassle and waiting game to find him and put him back in his enclosure. Because of this, he can’t be let out very often because I can only let him out when I know I’m going to be home for the next 4-6 hours so I can find him and put him away. I thought in time he would stop being afraid of me and love me. He no longer fears me at all, but he doesn’t love me or his cage mates either.

Is there anything I can try to do to make him happier and warmer to me, Falon and Askell?


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

OK so you dethroned Rollo and he's pouting. That sounds about normal. He gets the rules, but he isn't entirely thrilled with them. 

My first thought is a nice long one on one immersion play session would help him to understand you want to be his friend. Give him lots of attention and belly rubs if you can... You punished him for being bad, now it's time to reward him for being good.

Also try to carry him around the house and find him something challenging to either explore or do. Intelligent rats get really bored and unhappy in the same situation a normal rat might enjoy. Some rats just need challenges.

I know how this goes... your rat misbehaves and gets less and less interesting activity and less contact with you which makes him misbehave more and get less quality attention... this cycle ends badly. Spending the most quality time with the least friendly rat seems counterintuitive and not much fun... but if you think about it, it's the special kid that usually needs the attention.

Best luck.


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## Adrian (Dec 31, 2013)

So do you think I need to force this one on one attention on him? Because I’ve been trying to do that and it never goes well. When I place him on the bed with me, he jumps on my shoulder and leans over to the cage. He wants me to stretch out my arm so he can climb back. Before I had to discipline him, he would often come back and forth from the cage to the bed on my arm. Now once he goes back, he doesn’t want to come back to me. (Although he has squeezed out of the cage a few times when I’m not around because he wants to be on the floor, so it isn’t that he doesn’t want to be out at all, just not on the bed with me.)

So, today because I realized he didn’t want to be on the bed and play, I put him on the floor. He just explored all of the little hidey-holes by himself and ignored me like he always does. He isn’t afraid to come out in the open, he does do that from time to time and dose so with confidence, he just prefers hiding places and will stay there for hours. It took him 4 hours before he finally came out in the open to snoop around some boxes the other two rats play in when they are out.

I’ll try carrying him around in my hoodie and not letting him back in the cage when he wants to, when he is on the bed with me.

Rollo is very smart, that’s another reason I’m worried for him. He’s calmer and figures things out far more quickly then any other rat I’ve ever had. Because he’s so smart, I worry that he’ll become extremely bored and agitated if I can’t help him become friendlier and more manageable quickly before it gets worse.

Thank you for the advice!


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## Ergala (Jan 23, 2014)

Maybe create a little obstacle course for him, I mean really really challenge him. Make it fun and enthralling for Rollo. Just for you and him to do together.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I don't particularly like the term "force". Rather I think you have something to offer Rollo he may not appreciate yet. The object of the exercise would be to create a shared experience you both might enjoy and bond over. Play, treats, challenges etc. would help to pass your time and engage him. Immersion isn't about force, it's about communicating. And yes a smart rat with a strong personality can be difficult to break the ice with. 

Fuzzy Rat was an awesome true shoulder rat, but she was bored, and destructive if she was kept indoors too long. Some rats need greater challenges to blossom. I'm not suggesting you start Rollo on shoulder rat training, but I think you can come up with something you can do together that doesn't involve force.


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