I purchased 3 male dumbo rats from pets at home two weeks ago. They are still quite nervous and will hide in a corner of the cage when i put my hand in..one is just starting to take food from my fingers but other 2 very unsure...they will let me stroke them but seem frozen and all huddle together..they are handled every day but dont like it for more then a few minutes....any one have any help on what else i could do?

Down the shirt trick - basically, put on an old jumper, and sit somewhere nice and enclosed with them in the jumper. They get to explore you and realise you are a safe place to be, without you actually having to be too hands on with them.

Also, perserverence is the key - their fear peaks and they can only hold themselves at maximum fear for about 20 minutes. After that, they simply can't be on 100% high alert anymore and start to become braver as they adjust to the situation.

__________________
http://kaedianmori.tumblr.com/ <--- NSFW





RIP - Marsh, Hugo, Mako, Rufus, Seamus, Lavender, BigBoy, Tetley and Fitch <3

put your hand in but don't touch them, let them come to you. if they're somewhere busy put themsomewhere that's not as busy and spend a weekend with them, alternating hand in cage and cage door locked just being near them, talking to them.

let them see you're not a danager and they'll soon relax. don't try picking them up, again let them come to you and climb on. wear a hoody so they have a hood and pocket to hide in. stick an old sock in (very used/sweaty not washed) so they get used to your smell.
don't feed them through the bars either, again you'll get nipped and they may associate any fingers as food and it's not a habit you want to perpetuate as it makes moving the cage very hard and sore!

don't hand feed them yet, if they're babies you're more likely to get nipped and your jumping/shrieking will just scare them.

persevere if they're timid they will take a while to get used to you and their new cage, they won't all progress at the same rate you will have a bolshy one and a very very timid one, let them all find their way in their own time.


do a search in this forum for threads on this subject, we keep giving this advice out, MODS PLEASE STICKY ONE, i have asked the last 2/3 times!!!!

other than that, enjoy
oh yeah, they're extremely intelligent so look at them when you're saying their name, they'll soon pick up who is who

__________________
This is not a game of 'who the fek are you'.

Not a single gram of fek shall be given today.

two of my rats now started to take food from my hand and come out of cage for a few minutes near me so am well pleased with this small progress

cool .......................

__________________
This is not a game of 'who the fek are you'.

Not a single gram of fek shall be given today.