timid rat

[maddy]

my rat pepper is really timid...sometimes she'lle come up for cuddles but most of the time she just wants to run off and hide somewhere
she's ok with being picked up out of the cage now but she use to cower under my hand when i furst got her.
was wondering if there was any tips on how to get her a bit more taim...
i usually handle them in a rat proofed room where they cant escape and i can catch them easally.
because of my sight impairment i don't usually wander about the house with them on my sholders because it can often take me a cupple of days to catch them if one of them accidentally escapes and gets away from me...
any suggestions/tips would be greatfully recieved...
cheers

[begoodtoanimals]

What has helped one of my rats is to just sit in their free range area and let them explore. If you "catch" her she might get afraid of you. Better to let her go into a oatmeal tube and pick it up with the rat. That's how they don't associate you with something fearful. Chasing won't work
If they are in their cage, talk to them, let them smell your (washed or else they think it's food) hands. It might take a long time, it did for my rat a few months and she is still improving as she gets older.
If you give them treat make some special sounds so they know that you have treats. The good thing about that is that if you don't make that special sound, they won't look for food or bite your hands. Rats don't see well so if they think you have or smell food they grab the first thing they see (usually fingers)

[AMJ087]

Use treats adn let them go at there own pace. Maybe hold a treat and allow her to come explore you and it. The more she realizes nothing bad happens the more comfortable she'll be.

[this_wallflower]

My babies free range in the bathtub--I sit in there with them and after a little bit, they're climbing all over me and exploring. They're still fearful in the cage, but after free ranging, I feed them and then like an hour later, sit at the front of their cage with the door open and let them take treats from my palm, climb out and onto my lap, etc. I've had them just a week now, and they're wayyyy better. Last night they weren't nearly as bad about being carried to the bathtub either. One of them even spent some time on my shoulder in my hair.

Time, patience, consistency, food.

[begoodtoanimals]

Checkout this site: http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm and scroll down to almost the end to "Fuzzlet World"

[AMJ087]

Theres many good sources of information online. Thats why i love belonging to a forum, you can connect with the people who if dont have the answers can help point you in the right direction!

[maddy]

let them both get introduced to and crall about on a friend last night
zoe was the one that climbed on my friends knee more to be honest
then paniced to get back to me when she clicked and realised that it was my friend that had her and scramblled back to me and clung on to my fleas front...
pepper was really good last night she just sat on me and let my friend stroke her
so that's progress in its self i reccon