How to bond with and tame your new Mischief.
First, it’s important to say that each rat has their own personality, because of this, different methods will work better and more quickly with different rats - some rats may already be inquisitive and will become tame more quickly. The two main pieces of advice that can be given are:
• Be confident in your approach.
• The more time you spend with your rats the more tame they will become.
So, you have become a new rat parent and have just brought your new babies home. They are currently exploring their new home, what next?
Well the sooner you start interacting with your rats the quicker and easier it should be for them to form strong bonds with you, so you can start the bonding process even when you're giving them time to settle in and relax in their new environment.
You can do this simply by being next to the cage allowing them to get used to your scent. You could also put something like an old t-shirt that's been worn for a few minutes or even tissues that you have had against your body in the cage with them. Now if they don't seem too skittish and nervous you can talk softly to them through the bar allowing them to get used to your voice.
Now you can start to interact with them. There are many ways that you can do this, the methods below are not the only methods, but they are the ones most often tried and suggested.
• Make a fist and put your hand slowly into the cage and keep it still, allowing them to come and sniff and investigate. Making a fist makes it harder for them to fully bite if they do decide to. If they do bite, but it's only tiny nibble that causes no pain, then this is more than likely a test bite; they are just finding out if you are food or not. If they do bite hard, don't be disheartened. Take some time and continue talking around them and to them.
• Rats are extremely clever and will quickly learn that you are the provider of many tasty treats. You can use this to your advantage and offer treats such as yoghurt, baby food, etc, off a spoon to start off with. Once they are used to that you can then move on to having a treat in the palm of your hand, allowing them to take it from your hand.
• The desensitisation method involves picking up your rat in the cage, lifting slightly and placing them back down again right away. Do this as often as you can. This will get them used to you picking them up without any worries of them escaping your grip, in what is, from their point of view, the safety of their home.
• Bonding Pouches/Bags/Back to front Hoodies will all allow you to have your rats snuggled up with you while you walk around the house or sit on the. They allow the rat to feel safe and secure while getting used to you and there new surroundings.
Now that they are happy with being picked up and interacted with, now would be a great time to start introducing free roam as rats really don’t benefit from having zero time out of their cages and just like handing the longer you leave this the harder it will be.
Free roam can be done in many forms playpens, bathtubs, rat proofed rooms ect.
As stated this is not a full comprehensive list of methods so please feel free to add and share yours.
Hopefully this helps
❤MarmalisedRats❤