OK so I'm attracted. I'm absolutely in love with our shoulder rat and as proud as any pop can be of his little (well actually pudgy) girl. And she's the real deal.
First to kill any confusion regarding the name shoulder rat.. I first herd if from an elegant older lady who noticed me walking by with Fuzzy Rat in a store and she remarked "Look Herbert, there's man wearing a "shoulder rat". She seemed comfortable with Fuzzy Rat and we let them meet and greet. But it occurred to me that from the perspective of a non-rat owner, most of the time they are going to meet a rat, is on it's owner's shoulder. So rather than coin a new name, I adopted the one that seemed like people already knew and felt comfy with. I just added the classification between the true shoulder rat and the limited shoulder rat as there is a very big difference.
As to a rat trained to stay... wow, that's no easy trick! It took forever for Fuzzy Rat to grasp "Stay". Stay doesn't translate into rat language, rather If you scream it loudly enough a rat can grasp it as "freeze and look for danger". Amelia panics when she's on the ground she stays on shoulder out of fear and because she feels safe there. Most limited shoulder rats are similar. They haven't learned 'stay', rather they are afraid to explore. A true shoulder rat still hangs out on your shoulder too, but when it knows a place and feels safe there or when you put it down and it trusts your judgment, it will readily explore. A shoulder rat really reads your cues. It just knows when to stay put and when it can roam. I visited a friend's house, he has a cat and Fuzzy Rat stayed on my shoulder for two hours. As my friend isn't really comfy with rats, I didn't offer to put her down and she didn't ask, And we are welcome back.
I did a long thread on shoulder rats that's still going, and I'm not going to short cut the procedure here. But basically you need:
The right rat. It needs to be unusually calm and inquisitive. (the Throazine personality) It needs to be bonded to you and follow commands. Because Fuzzy Rat has such a high threshold of stimulation, indoors in our house she's very hard to control, she just knows everything she needs to and is perfectly comfy making her own decisions. If she thinks I'm calling her for treats or something she wants, she's right there, if she thinks I'm going to stuff her into her cage, it's "watch my tail". Outdoors however, she's right on the mark, her anxiety levels are at what would be normal for an indoor rat indoors and she's fast to respond to commands and if she gets frightened she runs straight to us.
Last summer we were walking along a trail next to a marsh. We were about 30 feet behind Fuzzy Rat and she was leading us back to the car, when a juvenile groundhog popped out of the reeds and the two rodents nearly collided. They were nose to nose about a half inch apart. The ground hog leapt up and bolted back into the rushes and Fuzzy Rat darted strait back to my foot and up on hand. That's precisely what is supposed to happen. I had absolutely no time to give a command. Everything hinged completely on how Fuzzy Rat would react on her own. Shoulder rat or dead rat, and there wasn't a thing I could do about it. This is the kind of thing you learn at your safe site, where there are no other animals and no marsh to lose your rat into.
Ground hogs are pretty pudgy and look funny running, but then so is Fuzzy Rat and I hadn't seen her move that fast in a while. There are lots of groundhogs at the park and they keep their distance, Fuzzy Rat is used to the smell everywhere and doesn't avoid it, but meeting one up close and personal was unnerving for her and really over the top hysterical for us. Seriously, even the remotest thought of Fuzzy Rat doing anything else never crossed our minds. She's a true shoulder rat and that's what she does every time, always.
You need a safe site... How can I stress this enough? This is where you learn to control your rat. And if your rat washes out here, it goes back with you to the safety and comfort of your home. You will screw up, you are learning a new skill, it's right and good that you make mistakes, and your rat might panic and make a mistake too and it might just take a few miscommunications before everyone gets on the right page but at the safe site that's to be expected. At just 3 weeks old, when she didn't know us, Fuzzy Rat panicked and ran under a shrub. A week later she ran into the shrubs to explore on her own and came back on her own 45 minutes later and the idea of the safe site was born. Screwing up in my front yard was dangerous, the safe site however was a happy place for Fuzzy Rat to explore.
Lastly you need to learn the danger signs, to watch your rat and let it teach you. Fuzzy Rat was glued to my shoulder well before the owl overhead alerted us to it's presence by screeching in frustration and Fuzzy Rat gets all doe eyed and girly when wild boys are around. You have to instinctively look up for predators, and watch for attractive nusences for your rat, like sewer grates, poison mushrooms or snake dens. You have to learn to recognize fun play areas like chain link fences. Rats love to run along fences of all kinds and need to learn the difference between managing risks and being reckless. You need to build a special bond with your shoulder rat and learn to be a real animal trainer. We took Fuzzy Rat to the circus last summer, she wouldn't walk at heel in the crowd, but still both the horse and elephant trainers congratulated me on Fuzzy Rat. One of the pony trainers even said he might give rats a go and couldn't get enough of Fuzzy Rat. BTW, elephants are not afraid of mice or rats.
Now as a promotion for your rat rescue, a true shoulder rat would really make a big difference in how you are perceived. When I tell people we have rats, they pretty much figure I've lost my mind, when they meet Fuzzy Rat, they almost instantly change their opinion. One of the most common questions we get is "That's a rat?" It doesn't look like what people expect, it doesn't act like what people expect and you can watch them their minds changing right in front of you.
By the way, last footnote, it really helps if you shoulder rat doesn't look like Ben. A big fat agouti or jet black rat will bring you trouble in spades. People will actually snatch Amelia (our high white) from my arms before asking what she is. She's so soft and cute and likes to tuck her tail under my arms that people really get surprised that they are holding a rat. And before I forget to make a point of it.... remember the 15 foot rule always! At about 15 feet rat phobics feel pretty safe, close the distance too fast or surprise a rat phobic and you will have big problems fast.
Well that's the nickel tour but do read the full thread, and let me know if I can help.
As to what a a good promotional shoulder rat should look like... I've always thought fawns and cinnamons would do well but shoulder rats should have dark eyes to avoid sun damage and pink or light ruby isn't good, the first photo is of Amelia, most people love her looks and the next is Fuzzy Rat, also not scary to most people:
