How to Tame a Rat
If you were lucky enough to find a good breeder, you will have rats that were well handled since birth., Give your rats one treat every time you come up to see them in their cage., Now start making your rats come to the door in order to get the...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: If you were lucky enough to find a good breeder
(You can also find well handled rats that have been abandoned at many of your local shelters.) Bonding with these rats is easy and can happen in the first couple days.
They should take treats straight from your hand the first day and be very easy to handle (although keep in mind that young rats and female rats are usually somewhat wiggly even when they've been socialized).
If your rat isn't well-socialized, go to one of the sections below first, and come back to these steps when appropriate. -
Step 2: you will have rats that were well handled since birth.
Cheerios work well for this.
However, never feed them through the bars of the cage as this encourages biting.
Open their cage door, announce that you are there, and make sure they are aware of you so that you don't startle them, shake the treat container so that they associate that noise with getting a treat, then give them the treat.
Doing this will teach them to look forward to your visits, because it means treats for them! Say each of your rats' names as you give each of them their treat, and it will teach them to know their names, (in fact tell your rats their names as often as you can.) Do this for a week.
If a rat does nip you, let out a squeak or several squeaks.
Keep your squeaks at the tone and pitch to what you imagine an irritated rat to sound like.
Don't scream out a squeak, that will cross over the line of rat-rat communications, into human-traumatizing-rat-with-fright.
You are not trying to seriously frighten your rat with yelling, just let the rat know s/he needs to be careful.
Rats do not want to hurt their humans, so they want to learn, and will learn to be careful. , This will teach your rats to come to the door when you want them to, so you don't have to chase them down in the cage.
Shake the treat container to encourage them to come to the door.
If they don't come to the door, hold the Cheerio in front of their nose and tempt them to the door with the Cheerio. , When the rats come to the door, scoop one or more of them up and take them to a designated, rat-proof play area where they can run around and explore new things.
How to Build a Safe Playground for Your Pet Rats To teach your rats to come to you and let you put them away when they are done playing, you want to do the following.
Shake the treat container, which they should associate to getting treats, and when they come to you, pick them up, then give them a treat while your holding them, then quickly set them back down.
Do this two or three times while they are out.
Then the final time when you pick them up and give them a treat, put them back in their cage.
If you were to put them away on the first try, the rats would quickly learn that coming for a treat means they get put away in the cage, and they would stop coming.
By doing it randomly, multiple times throughout the playtime, they can't predict when they would be put away.
And if you didn't pick the rat up before giving him the treat, he would zoom away with the treat before you could grab him.
If you wanted to, instead of shaking the treat can as a marker, you could say the rats name and the word "come" or "come here" as a marker to get your rats to come to you.
Whatever you choose, be consistent. -
Step 3: Give your rats one treat every time you come up to see them in their cage.
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Step 4: Now start making your rats come to the door in order to get the treat.
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Step 5: Play and bond.
Detailed Guide
(You can also find well handled rats that have been abandoned at many of your local shelters.) Bonding with these rats is easy and can happen in the first couple days.
They should take treats straight from your hand the first day and be very easy to handle (although keep in mind that young rats and female rats are usually somewhat wiggly even when they've been socialized).
If your rat isn't well-socialized, go to one of the sections below first, and come back to these steps when appropriate.
Cheerios work well for this.
However, never feed them through the bars of the cage as this encourages biting.
Open their cage door, announce that you are there, and make sure they are aware of you so that you don't startle them, shake the treat container so that they associate that noise with getting a treat, then give them the treat.
Doing this will teach them to look forward to your visits, because it means treats for them! Say each of your rats' names as you give each of them their treat, and it will teach them to know their names, (in fact tell your rats their names as often as you can.) Do this for a week.
If a rat does nip you, let out a squeak or several squeaks.
Keep your squeaks at the tone and pitch to what you imagine an irritated rat to sound like.
Don't scream out a squeak, that will cross over the line of rat-rat communications, into human-traumatizing-rat-with-fright.
You are not trying to seriously frighten your rat with yelling, just let the rat know s/he needs to be careful.
Rats do not want to hurt their humans, so they want to learn, and will learn to be careful. , This will teach your rats to come to the door when you want them to, so you don't have to chase them down in the cage.
Shake the treat container to encourage them to come to the door.
If they don't come to the door, hold the Cheerio in front of their nose and tempt them to the door with the Cheerio. , When the rats come to the door, scoop one or more of them up and take them to a designated, rat-proof play area where they can run around and explore new things.
How to Build a Safe Playground for Your Pet Rats To teach your rats to come to you and let you put them away when they are done playing, you want to do the following.
Shake the treat container, which they should associate to getting treats, and when they come to you, pick them up, then give them a treat while your holding them, then quickly set them back down.
Do this two or three times while they are out.
Then the final time when you pick them up and give them a treat, put them back in their cage.
If you were to put them away on the first try, the rats would quickly learn that coming for a treat means they get put away in the cage, and they would stop coming.
By doing it randomly, multiple times throughout the playtime, they can't predict when they would be put away.
And if you didn't pick the rat up before giving him the treat, he would zoom away with the treat before you could grab him.
If you wanted to, instead of shaking the treat can as a marker, you could say the rats name and the word "come" or "come here" as a marker to get your rats to come to you.
Whatever you choose, be consistent.
About the Author
Sarah Brown
Specializes in breaking down complex organization topics into simple steps.
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