I know you said you don't want help taming, but I have to ask. Does she have a friend rat to play with?

 

Malta, I have 5 girls and only one of them is still skittish of your hands 90% of the time. She makes a great shoulder rattie she just does not like being "handled". All of my other girls are the opposite, so I just came to the conclusion this is just her personality. Everyday I put forth the effort to show her affection and attention hoping one day she will come around but in my head if she does not I am ok with it. She has never been aggressive, and does show interest in you, she just does not want to be held by you. I still love on her though anyway, lol.

 

Doris is the same.
She's only recently started coming upto the cage if she knows she's going to get a treat. Otherwise if I put my hand in to stroke her she'll scuttle off and hide. All the times I've tried to pick her up she either tries to squirm out of my grasp or if she's sitting on my shoulder she does an almighty jump to escape me - I've almost lost her twice in the kitchen now!

I feel so guilty becuase she never comes out She seems happy enough and she has Dotty and Roxy, but I'd love to have 3 happy ratties running across my bed rather than 2.
Soon after Dotty had her babies, she started to come to the cage to me, slowly started taking treats off my arm and then eventually started to come up onto my shoulder...and now she has free run of my bed when it's play time.

 

Yep she has a friend, and everything else i rattie could want. Little Bear doesn't even care about treats though if it involves coming to me.

You know it's funny. As soon as i posted this and went upstairs she decided to be much more social then ever before. Usually she won't come out of her hide boxes AT ALL when i'm in the room, but today she was playing with her bell and chasing her tail, and seemed a little interested in me :? Hmm she's trying to make me look silly isn't she? lol

Berks you summed her up perfectly. Sounds like the same rat. Ok i feel better now. 8)

 

I have an extremely moody female rat. She will squeak bloody murder when you try to pick her up if she's not in the mood but she'll come out of her cage and play. She even likes to be pet. Some days she'll be completely fine with being picked up though. Sometimes I'll talk to her and ask "Are you going to let me pick you up?" She'll squeak if she doesn't want me to but I make sure to do it slowly. She's less fussy that way.

 

I have the same thing going on at home. I've been feeling guilty, but this thread makes me feel a little better.

*sigh*

 

I've had a male that hated being out of his cage. It happens but it's kind of rare it seems. He never bit, just was scared to death and I could tell he wasn't comfortable so I didn't push it and just came to HIM to spend time with him. He grew a little closer that way but sadly I had to pts him before we went any further.

I think it's just the bad genetics of pet shop/ex feeder rats.

 

The first male I ever had was cage aggressive, human aggressive, and extremely scared of being out of his cage. I was the only one he let near him but I still ended up being bit and scratched repeatedly(he nearly tore off one of my mom's nails and lunged at my 5 year old sister).

I had to give him up to someone who was more experienced and had more time to rehabilitate him(or just give him the peace and quite he wanted, lol).

 

yeah mozart is still really shy. i let her run around the room and if she has enough time to do so she'll eventually make her way to me. she doesn't especially like being held, it makes her squeak and jump around, but she's definitely not agressive. i think i want to get a third rat to keep my first two company and maybe it will bring momo out of her shell, but otherwise i just kind of let her do her thing.