[new_rattie_mommy]

I am sorry this is going to be a long post but I want to describe her behaviors so you know what is going on cuz I am at my wits end! ???So Rose is 3 months old now and I've had her since she was 5 weeks. She's not really scared of me anymore like she used to be so I think we've made a lot of breakthroughs with our relationship. She doesn't really like to be pet yet though, so she may be independent or she may have not warmed up fully yet. But my problem is that she is extremely naughty. she is on a whole different level than my boys...of course she learned things secondhand from my boys which doesn't help things. But she's so naughty I can hardly keep up with adjusting my ratproofing to stop her destructive behavior. She's crazy acrobatic and can literally climb walls, cuz her nails grow like grass. She can climb my dresser, which used to be off limits along with my desk. I have stopped my boys from going on there for months but since I got her I had to just take everything off my desk and dresser and now allow them to play up there because I honestly can't stop them from getting up there anymore. I've tried so many things and I can't keep up. she gets around everything. She's so small she can fit under my radiator so i taped cardboard to stop that but she constantly is trying to get the cardboard off and get under it even though she will fry and die. She knows she isn't supposed to cuz she looks and me for a while before she tries to do it and then tries to get the cardboard off really fast. She also digs up my carpet in various spots in the room, like by my closet door so she can get in there to play. She was successful at that one night and I couldn't find her anywhere and i saw the carpet by the closet door was dug down to the wood with nails sticking up and shes so small she could squeeze under the door and get in the closet. I found her playing in there. So now I have to put things in every corner to stop her from digging up the carpet but she still tries to get past whatever i put there to block her or she finds a new place to dig. It's exhausting. She also poops on my floor all the time even though she is mostly litter trained at this point, probably 80% when she's in the cage. My boys do not poop on my floor and daisy will do it every once in a while, mostly if he doesn't feel good. I am honestly at my wits end with her. My Lily is so well behaved and laid back, he doesn't get bored so he doesn't get in trouble except an occasional corner digging problem that happens rarely now. Daisy was my naughty one before I got Rose and he's naughty cuz he's so smart he gets bored and finds things to do but he never digs my carpet or does destructive things. Just little annoying things. And the thing is that Rose knows she is being naughty and she is responsive to me and gettting better at being trained to come when called and things like that so when she misbehaves what happens is I yell at her and she actually looks at me and when I eventually get her to stop she runs over to me and climbs up on my shoulder to play with me. It's almost like she thinks I'm trying to be playful with her and doesn't realize shes in trouble. Or i guess she could be sucking up to me. What do you think that means? Does she know she is in trouble? And the hardest part is she is just so darn cute lol but i honestly just dont know what to do because her behavior is not correcting with age, it is worsening and my room is being destroyed to where I know at this point there's almost no chance I am going to get my deposit back. My boys had a few problems too when I moved in but they I was able to correct them with consistency and that's just not working with her. What do I do! I can't not let her out for playtime but it's making me want to just leave her in the cage cuz I don't want to deal with it. I hope Ratdaddy can comment on this post and give me some much needed insight on the situation.

 

[Lita]

I'm sure she'll calm down some with age but it may take a while. Girls are just more spaz then boys so you should expect her to get into more trouble then your boys. Making walls out of heavier and sturdier material, such as bricks and coroplast, should help keep her more contained and make it harder for her to get where your blocking. High walls, like 4 or 5 ft of coroplast should be good, its smooth and she shouldn't be able to climb it. Honestly if it was me, I'd invest in a play pen, Martin's cages make playpens, though you could always make one yourself. One with a coroplast bottom and a wire top, so she can't get to your floor or escape. Of course this depends on the layout of your room, if that would work. Several of our girls climb upside down, they are just so much more agile. Our girls love to toss their litter boxes, so we have to put a brick or two in front of the box to keep them from shoving it out. Xp. We have four girls and five boys at my house of the same age (3 mo i belive) and I really prefer the boys sometimes. XD and we have six girls who are between 1 year and 5 or 6 months we think and even comparing those girls to our boys, I like the boys better! XD much less naughty then even the oldest girl.

 

[Adeliek]

You pretty much just described my little girl, she was crazy like this at about the same age....she's still crazy now (almost 6 months) just not as naughty. She knows her limits now, don't get me wrong every now and then I'll catch her trying to dig the carpet up AGAIN, but she's not half as bad as when she was younger. She loves jumping, climbing and escaping whenever she can! It should settle down don't stress too much I also noticed my female's nails seem to grow a lot quicker than the boys, I wonder if that is sex difference?

 

[EmilyGPK]

There is a distinct gender difference with rats. Females are very active and constantly seeking new experiences. Not to be a downer but some females will just never sit and chill, it is not in their nature. You might want to look into harness training her while she is still young?

 

[new_rattie_mommy]

yeah I am hoping it is partly just her being a baby? That she has that innocent way about her, like how she runs to me like do do do what's the matter? when she gets in trouble. and doesn't listen very well. I am really hoping that will get better when she gets older. It seems like it will by what you guys are saying? Also with the whole nails thing, she has much thinner and pointier nails, so they grow much faster and are deadly to the poke lol. I have clipped them twice now in the past few weeks and they needed them bad and I keep looking at my boys' nails thinking they will need theirs done too since hers have been done twice and it's been forever since I did my boys and nope...still good on the boys side lol. the boys are also much thicker. It does make it easier to clip Rose's because of that. one little clip and it's good. But she struggles to the death. She's not used to it yet though and my boys put up quite a fight still so I don't blame her. I would love to have had more options with her regarding things like coroplast and stuff to block. I have dreamed about that! lol but I have heard it is quite expensive and I am a college student who lives off a little allowance for groceries and gas here and there from my parents so i can't afford much at all. same with the playpens. those can be pretty expensive from the ones I have seen at the stores. Like upwards of 50 bucks. And i would hate to trap her in such a small space when my boys get to run free and play. As of yesterday I have figured out a way to move my dresser and desk closer to the wall an closer to eachother so they are right up against the wall and eachother. I couldn't do it before cuz of my cable hookup but I figured out a way and that has fixed a major annoyance lately with the carpet digging, radiator problem,and a few other annoyances so I will have a break for a while until she figures out the next thing to do...lol oh the joys of rats. they always keep you on your toes. How do you harness train? I have 2 harnesses that I bought my boys a while back but they didn't fit them. I think it would fit my girl though cuz she's a little one. it'd probably be tough to get it on her though lol.

 

[Rat Daddy]

Yes we all want outgoing and brilliant and intrepid rat friends.... but we should be careful about what we ask for because we might just get it.

Fuzzy Rat was absolutely the most amazing true shoulder rat... she lived for human attention and adventure and meeting new people and exploring new places... This made a one of a kind superstar true shoulder rat, but it also made her a interior disaster. When she got bored and wanted attention she sliced wires, when she wanted to explore and I locked her out of the closet she dug into the carpet to try and get under the door.

This isn't a behavior you can fix, but it is one you can re-direct.... A box of clutter rags, old newspapers and stuff might be just as fun to explore as under the radiator and lots of play time will tire her out.... And if she is the right rat and you are willing to really work with her, you might have a true shoulder rat on your hands....

Yes, some rats are pretty home safe.... they pretty much lounge about and are perfectly content homebodies, then there are the really smart rats full of personality and inquiry... They are the rats you really want but they are also the rats that will completely upset your life and destroy your stuff.

If Fuzzy Rat had a busy day outdoors the house was safe, but in winter and if we were busy electrical things would stop working a lot. And keep in mind Fuzzy Rat rarely slept... A few hours down time and she was up and eager.. my house is still full of paper nests she built under things and in closets and in old boxes we still occasionally find two years after she's gone. She was a very busy rat.

In the early morning hours of the day before Fuzzy Rat died she insisted I put her on the floor, which was odd because she couldn't walk, she began to drag herself a few inches per hour to get under my desk and by the time I got to bed she had cut my phone wires one last time... It took her hours and likely consumed much of the energy she had left... It certainly was critically important for her to do it. Maybe she was telling me she really needed my attention or it was a bucket list thing she just had to prove to herself one last time...

I tried deterrence but that never worked... activity and distraction was what she craved. There was actually another similarly destructive rat that became a true shoulder rat a while back and that slowed his path of destruction too. You can't stop an intelligent and intrepid, high energy rat from being who she is, but you might be able to redirect her efforts and use her abilities for good...

Please don't just take Rose outside, read my thread on the subject and find a good safe site where you can train her or at least let her burn off all of that excess energy. Or try and find an indoor place she can explore and reek havoc in as well as interact with you.

Max lounges about in her one nest, sleeps most of the time, gets up to say hi occasionally and eat but pretty much keeps to herself. Now that she's older she's a pretty perfect house pet you don't even know you have. She only turns up when she wants something and I could practically go days without seeing her, if I let her. We took Max to the beach and she dug herself a nest under the lifeguard stand and settled into the warm sand, whereas Fuzzy Rat went swimming with the children... We certainly love Max, and Max is smart too and has great shoulder rat skills, but Fuzzy Rat was like a puppy and a very best friend to our family. She was the life of the party.

Like I said, we all want that special rat or child, but when you really get one you get a handful of trouble as well.

Best luck.