# Does anybody have any true shoulder rats?



## FamilyRatters1 (Jun 22, 2013)

I know the odds to get a true shoulder rat are very low, but I still want to try. Any of you out there that has a true shoulder rat, do you think you could tell me your process of training? And how you knew that your little rattie had true shoulder potential?


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

There's a lovely thread on here I've linked below that should answer many, if not all, of your questions on this matter. 

http://www.ratforum.com/showthread....ome-rat-activities&highlight=shoulder+ratting


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## FamilyRatters1 (Jun 22, 2013)

Haha, I guess that would answer all of my questions on it!!


(you should talk to Jaguar on becoming a moderator..)


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## RedFraggle (Jun 4, 2012)

Badger is an "indoor shoulder rat" by Rat Daddy's descriptions. His only adventure outside was when the carry cage collapsed on the way to the vet and he got loose. He didn't run off, but he did have a lovely time in the shrubs whilst I frantically tried to catch him for 20 minutes!


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## Lesti (Jun 25, 2013)

Haha! I think Stitch is a limited shoulder rat. He has been outside on the ground with me before (at a school when the kids were gone) and did just fine. He followed me around. He doesn't really listen to his name though, so I don't think I'd do it again. He loves everyone he meets (even small kids) and I carry him to the park with me. He has never been to a grocery store or anything like it before though. I walk him around the block (on my shoulder) and he is a very good boy. He may even be in between limited and true, but I wouldn't be able to stand worry-ing (lol how do you spell that?!?) about him all the time like I would if he were a true shoulder rat.


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## Lovingly (Jun 24, 2013)

My rat Delilah took me by surprise when she turned out to be a shoulder rat  I didn't have to train her a bit! My first rat James was also a shoulder rat and I didn't have to train him one bit!! He just did it instinctively!!


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I suppose since we took Fuzzy Rat to the town fireworks show just the other day, she's still a true shoulder rat... The loud bangs make her flinch a little but she loves the colors.... 

She actually can't ride on shoulder for any distance anymore and needs to stay on arm. But as long as she hangs in there, very much yes we have a true shoulder rat. 

And yes, oddly enough it you really have one, they are just like dogs almost from birth. They require very little training, mostly it's the human that needs to learn not to get them killed through our own stupidity. Shoulder rats will trust you to get them into real trouble. 

Of course if you are wrong about having a shoulder rat, it will most likely get itself killed or lost without too much help on your part. That's why the key to my shoulder rat training technique is to work with every rat at a safe outdoor site. Fuzzy Rat blew through safe site training in a matter of days, and on the way back from the safe site we stopped at a local restaurant and ate out with her on our shoulder from day one. She was just special from the get go. So yes some are naturals. Amelia our other rat is a nightmare to handle outdoors, she takes constant management and lots of experience to make it even possible. Actually the more competent she gets, the more trouble she gets into.

Here's a pic of what our safe site looks like, it's actually 40 acres and surrounded by water on three sides.










Amelia doesn't mind being outdoors as long as she's not out in the open.










Fuzzy Rat's idea of hanging out in a tree... way up top and no hands!


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## mameur (Nov 3, 2012)

I think caster will become one or maybe he already is he's the only one i feel truly safe letting loose outside and knowing he'll come back asap he doesn't enjoy exploring much yet even at his young age and he doesn't enjoy being too far away from me and already knows his name... also loud noises don't scare him one bit... he was in a feeder bin and an unintentional buy and when i put my hand in the bin he and another female, out of maybe 20 other ratties inside, were the only ones who came running to my shoulder licking everything on his way up there lol. if i could have i would have adopted that female as well because i know she had potential to become a very attaching rattie. Pick them by personality not by color or marking you'll be much happier.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Same deal with Fuzzy Rat, she was mismarked and not a rat I would have chosen, but she kept coming back and climbing on my daughter's hand so my daughter insisted on the dumpy little girl pup with the short nose and stain on her back.... and believe it or not, my daughter carried Fuzzy Rat out of the store on her arm we didn't even take the box.

I've worked with several rats, and I haven't found one to be stupid or untrainable. Just about every rat can make a great pet... But some are just vastly different from the rest right from the get go. I mean I know it's odd to describe, but they are more like puppies than rodents from the minute you meet them.

Still folks, even if you are lucky to have the "right" rat do train it at a safe site. I know Fuzzy Rat was ready to see the big dangerous world practically from birth, but we humans did learn some valuable rat management techniques there that came in useful when we ran across male wild rat scent trails and other unforeseen dangers. You are not wasting your time there. For rats that shouldn't be shoulder rats this is where you will find out, for rats that are going to be shoulder rats this is where you learn to work together with your rat and refine your rat handling skills. And your rat learns it's commands and how to behave in the great outdoors. Its safe training in limited real world conditions.

I know you might have to travel a bit to go to the safe site, and it might take a while to find one, but we are talking about your rat's life, so take it from an experienced shoulder ratter with a true shoulder rat, it's important.


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## NikohlasJosiah (Sep 30, 2012)

Oli is deffinatly a shoulder rat. He sits up there while I clean and while Im doing pretty much anything. He sits on my shoulder as I walk down to the school or to a friends house. He loves sitting on my shoulder in the car to watch out the window. I didnt really have to train him to do that or anything. He did it on his own.


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## NikohlasJosiah (Sep 30, 2012)

He expecially loves going down to the school. Most people back away from him. He loves it when people come up to us. He will poke his nose out at them to get their attention. My friends pass him back and forth and he loves it. We go and sit in the school yard and he explores. He was really tame and ready to explore when I got him. He was actually in the box waiting to be a feeder and I insisted they let me buy him. Im glad I did, because he is the best rat I have ever owned. He is going through training now because my doctor is trying to get them to agree to let him be my service animal. There is a list of animals allowed, but there are a few cases of rats being one. He has gone in to my doctors and my doctor loves him and thinks he is the perfect rat for that.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

The only problem with rats as service animals is that their lives are so short. But honestly true shoulder rats are amazing, they are special right from birth. Well every rat is special, but sharing your life with a true shoulder rat is another level of trip altogether. It might sound odd, but most true shoulder rats seem to turn up in snake food bins. Perhaps they are like the diamond ring in the crackerjack box. You have to breed lots of rats in order to get one.

Oddly when you are doing it, shoulder ratting all feels so normal and easy. (once you get past the learning curve) It's only when you start to work with a rat that isn't born to be a shoulder rat that you realize how hard it really is for a rat to be confident and competent in wide open spaces. That and of course when you look back over your life with one... As Fuzzy Rat fades into her twilight months, weeks or days and needs to be carried everywhere and can't ride on shoulder anymore or run or walk any distance... it's a little sad, but it's been a wonderful trip. And suddenly you realize just how rare and precious true shoulder rats are.


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## littlefishy (May 15, 2013)

my half&half is a shoulder rat. he was and is my first rat, i kinda got him on accident. I work at a pet shop and he was a pup that was just born like 3 weeks ago and i was just playing around with the rats and i put him on my shoulder and he just sat there. well, i didn't intend to get him as a pet, but one day of playing became a week, then a week became a month, then i was telling people i was training him for the store, then he was just flat out mine. He rides on my shoulder as much as i will let him. At the store he is with me all day long, around 8 hours a day. Our uniform has a collard shirt and he likes to sleep in between my neck and the collar, or if he gets cold he goes under the shirt and sleeps on my shoulder. that last one kinda makes me look like the hunch-back, but he is sweet so i let him. He even starts to lick the back of me ear when he has to pee, i let him pee, then he crawls right back up my arm and onto my shoulder.


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## Minky (Apr 4, 2013)

My first rat Dolly was a shoulder rat. I bought her from a feeder bin for $2.50 when she was the size of a mouse. She was my only pet at the time so she got loads of attention and she went with me everywhere. I made sure she was exposed to as many new places and experiences as possible when she was very young. When she was tiny, I'd tie my hair in a ponytail "loop" and she would hang out inside the loop behind my neck. I just let her sit there for hours and she got the idea. Dolly was the kind of rat that would come whenever she was called. I could let her go pretty much anywhere and could call her back anytime - I just had to put my hand down and she'd come running up my arm.

When I went up to New York for college, I took Dolly with me. Went through airport security with her in my coat pocket (this was in the early 90's when airport security was quite different). She didn't have a cage, she just lived on my desktop in a tissue box nest, and her travel box doubled as her litter box (At the time I didn't even know that rats could be litter trained. She just figured it out for herself.) She lived for over 3 years, eventually succumbing to a very large tumor. That was before the Internet - at the time I had no idea that tumors were operable. 

She was just a little hooded rat from a feeder bin, but as a pet she was quite remarkable - definitely what you would call a shoulder rat.


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## Minky (Apr 4, 2013)

Is it true that they are so rare? I thought that most rats were trainable if you start when they're very young.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Most rats are trainable if you start them young. But you can't train away their anxiety for being out in wide open spaces or their tendency to panic. If you work really hard with any rat you will wind up with a rat that can be taken outdoors but it will require constant management, spend most of it's time down your shirt and be one loud noise away from bolting into traffic. Or it may very calmly walk away into the woods and never come back. I've worked with both. 

True shoulder rats are rare because they have a Throazine personality as in they don't spook and if they do get frightened they need keep their presence of mind and have a strong bond with you so that they run to you not away from you.

They also need to be OK with wide open spaces, rats normally hate wide open spaces. 

You can make a normal rat more comfortable outdoors and if you are a good rat trainer you can manage a well trained normal rat, but it's a constant test of your skills and your rat is always on the verge of doing something really stupid and lethal. 

With a true shoulder rat you can really take it pretty easy. If Fuzzy Rat disappeared we just had to wait for her to come back. If she didn't turn up within an hour or so, she would be waiting back at the car, on the driver's side front wheel to be precise. She would commonly walk at heel and play chase games with kids like a puppy.

Tonight we took Amelia to the park, as Fuzzy Rat is now gone, she napped in my lap and sat on the table next to me and followed me along a railing for a short distance, but she didn't play on the ground and I had to stay right next to her and keep eyes and hands on every second. And she's been out with us several times to that same park before. She let a few people pet her, but she just stayed frozen in place and tolerated the experience, she didn't participate. The reason she came home with us is because we managed her very carefully and have lots of experience. Not because she's a true shoulder rat by any stretch of the word. And most likely, she never will be. To be honest one fire cracker would have sent her bolting into the marshes. Fuzzy Rat did three municipal fireworks shows right under where they were launched.

Out of a vast number of rats some will be decent but limited shoulder rats, manageable by a good handler under low stress circumstances, but if you are lucky you will find one that can be a true shoulder rat, and that is only if you don't get him or her killed while you are training him or her and learning the craft of outdoor rat handling.

Oddly most of the true shoulder rats do seem to come from feeder bins, I suspect the people that buy feeder rat pups are more willing to take chances taking their $2.49 rats outdoors than people that spent lots of money for their rats and waited months to get them. I also believe that commercial rat farms are breeding rats with more mellow personalities to keep their employees and customers from being bit. 

So yes, true shoulder rats are rare and oddly enough most of them come from feeder bins and for the most part those that have posted photos here have been capped, hooded or a mismarked combination or derivative thereof.


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