Taming your Rat

Rats are intelligent pets that can bond very closely to their owners. They enjoy human contact and interaction and should have at least an hour of attention and/or out of cage time every day. When you first get your rats you need to set aside at least 20 minutes per rat per day to get to know them individually.

There are a number of things that will affect how easy you find it to get your new rats accustomed to being handled. The primary thing is the rats' previous experience of humans. For a novice rat owner it is best to get your rats from a breeder who socialises their babies well, a pet shop where the staff handle the babies regularly or a rescue centre experienced with rats. Rats handled regularly as babies are usually curious, outgoing and never bite. A rat who has been well-handled in his/her previous home only needs to learn to trust their new owner. This is much easier than beginning with a rat who has had no handling and is scared of all human contact.

This article makes two assumptions. Firstly it assumes your rats are not used to human company. If you have confident well-socialised rats you can skip many of these steps. Secondly it assumes you have more than one rat. Rats are naturally social animals used to living in groups. Single rats are often nervous and insecure and therefore much harder to tame. Rats living in pairs or groups gain confidence from each other and even compete for human attention.

Down boy...down boy! roar...