Hello everyone! I'm new, this is my first post - sorry if I'm not meant to start a new thread but I'm absolutely desperate for advice about my new pet dumbo rats!

I just don't seem to be able to bond with them at all. They'll let me stroke them but they don't like being picked up. They know I'm the one with the food which is great and they'll take food out of my hands etc. But they sort of run to the other side of their cage when they see me and hide till they know it's safe to come out - when they're comfortable with me being there they're fine and they run about like mad things. They're healthy little things and they don't appear to be unhappy.

I've tried putting into practice all the advice I've been given about looking after rats, but they've started biting me when I put my hand in their cage now.

Obviously I don't want to get to a stage with them where I can't go near them without getting attacked so I don't want to leave it like this. I've had them for a week and a half which I know isn't a very long time and they're still only quite little, somewhere between 8 and 10 weeks old - but I'm worried it's just going to get worse and worse as they're getting older.

Help!!!!!