New boys one is EXTREMELY timid

[cbrown92390]

As it says in the title today I got two new ratty boys. They are approximately 7 weeks old. One of my new boys is terrified of everything. He cowers in the corner and when he gets frightened of anything he will run as fast as he possibly can and will run blindly into his toys hideaways and even into the walls of his cage. This is my third generation of rats and I have no clue how to comfort the poor little guy or how to go about handling or socializing him not to mention the inevitable intros with my other rats. Please help

 

[jorats]

That poor little guy. But hopefully when you start to socializing him one on one, he might start to feel better. Also with intros, he might very well do better once he has some stable boys to help him cope.
I'd do the down the shirt trick. And do that several times a day.

 

[cbrown92390]

That poor little guy. But hopefully when you start to socializing him one on one, he might start to feel better. Also with intros, he might very well do better once he has some stable boys to help him cope.
I'd do the down the shirt trick. And do that several times a day.

Thanks I did not even think to try that with my shirt. I am also thinking I may do that with him in my bathroom where I can lock the door. I dont want him leaping out of my hands and crawling under the sofa or something. I also adopte his brother to help each other cope with the intros. However I think I will give him a day or two to adjust to everything before I start anything with him.

 

[hopefloats]

I never tried the down the shirt trick. I have but it never seemed to work. I have always tried a lot of treats, and playing with other rats around the skittish ones. That has always seem to work well for us. I just prefer not to have a rat poo in my shirt but that is just me LOL

 

[EKV113]

I would also try the down-the-shirt one... My rat Mochi was so scared of me when I first got her, and would hide in the back of her cage. But once out of the cage she would rather hide under my shirt than be trapped out in the open... It sometimes takes a while for your ratties to understand that you're not trying to hurt them, but they'll come around eventually!

Good luck!