My wife and I purchased a pair of male dumbo rats 3 days ago from a small local pet shop. It is our first experience with rats but we have lots of hamsters and ferrets a long time ago. The rats are young and have been well handled, the people who work in this pet shop are well informed and into the animals they sell. Before we got the rats my wife bought a Jenny Rat Cage that includes shelves, a ramp and a couple of pipes. At the pet shop we were told that it was best to leave them alone for a day or so to get used to their new home, which we have done. However they still seem so nervous and are extremely reluctant to come out of the larger pipe. I have read that it is a good idea to entice them out with a treat. We have tried the specialized rat treats that we bought and various other goodies but they are not interested, they give them a good old sniff and dart back into their pipe. Yesterday we resorted to removing the pipe rats and all and sat with them in the bathroom, removed them from the pipe so they had no choice but to interact with us and they were fine. They will climb on you, can be picked up easily, loved being petted and seemed to get used to us. However after they went back into their cage they went right back to the hide in the pipe routine. Is this common behavior? Do we have the right idea about forced play time? Or should we wait a while longer till they get bolder? I’m just worried that they like the idea of not being handled and continue to get less and less keen to be handled.