When bonding with rats, I like to try to think of focusing on the senses they work with most, smell being the strongest. Rats do not have good vision, it is important that we do not come from above, especially with new rats or rats with an unknown background. Always wash your hands when working with rats that you do not know, just to be safe. For instance I can place my fingers between bars and even smell of food at the same time, and my girls do not care, but I would never do so with rats I don’t know.
Smell
Working with smell is one of the things I advise first. Sleeping with a fleece blanket or wearing an old (washed in unscented detergent, no perfume) t-shirt to bed and letting them have it the following day has been one of the most effective things I have done with all rats in my care, personally owned and fostered. I find removing other sleeping spots and making one with your scent the only option can be best with the shy ones, or else they can ignore it. This helps them get used to your presence without you actually having to be there, making it less stressful for the both of you. They will relate your scent to warmth and comfort, and explore your scent without interacting with you (great for rats that bite!). You can also rummage through food and substrate, this gets your scent inside the cage, and helps them to become more curious about you. Eventually, they should start approaching and exploring, curious as to what you are doing.
Be sure to wash your hands, their sense of smell is arguably the strongest sense, they may confuse your hands with a snack if you ate recently. This is very important if you have other pets, always wash hands between interacting with other pets!
Hearing
Speak softly, rats do not have good vision so if they do not see you coming they can be spooked. Speaking with a soft sweet tone and saying their name can really help with bonding. If you are yelling and being noisy all the time, they may not want to spend time with you. However, many rats can be acclimated to noise, just be cautious when working with rescues. I try to be loud when I am not interacting with them, so they do not directly relate me to fear, but so that they can also make strides to come out of that shell and not be afraid of normal every day sounds.
For shy or abused rats, they may be afraid of loud noises. It is important you speak softly but also go about life as you regularly do. Do not silence yourself when they are around, do not quietly clean in fear of making them scared, or you may never get back to that normal way of life. Rats acclimate very well, when given the chance. Some rats need a quiet environment, if you have a home with loud young children it may not be the best setting, but most rats can get used to every day noise. If you have new rats that are shy, due to being rescues or poorly socialized, then try leaving the radio on when you aren't in the room, and spend as much time in the room just being there as you can. Play a game, draw, crochet, watch tv, listen to music, exercise, whatever you like to do in your free time!
Taste
Working with snacks is awesome, a lot of rats are food motivated! Baby foods (meat flavours are especially yummy for them!) and other desirable snacks off a plastic spoon (then work up to your finger if they don’t bite) can help them bond with you. They not only relate you to rewards, but this forces them to eat the snack and stick around, rather than snatch it quickly and run away.
Offering snacks each time they come out (baby puffs and cheerios are great daily snacks) helps them relate you to snacks and affection, so they often begin to get excited when you enter the room! However, you do not want to relate yourself only to food, so be sure to focus on other factors too.
Using special treats for bonding alone can really help, they are the most rewarding. When playing in a playpen/safe room, using baby food or having special snacks they don’t get often to really encourage them to come to you, and relate you to good things. Some rats are more savoury, others sweet, it’s best to find what they like most and work with those. You want to focus on high value treats; When you discover what they like best this can help to really encourage bonding, you can then use this in small amounts to your advantage. Baby food, apple sauce, things you can break into tiny pieces (yogurt drops, chicken, freeze dried meat/fish treats, but this can’t be too often, moderation is key!), and low sugar yogurt work very well for this.
Touch
Playing in a playpen, or a small rat safe room, can go a long way. With minimal hides and enrichment at first (one hide at least) to make you most interesting, wear a hoodie, sit down and be patient. It’s best to have special bonding snacks handy for this (remember, high value treats!). Be sure to include something that smells like them, something that holds their scent, like a dirty blanket or hammock. This helps them to be more comfortable to move around freely when something with their scent is already there, this is especially important when bonding with rescues or poorly socialized rats.
Petting them, touching them, putting them on your shoulder, letting them groom your hands/fingers, and having them in a bonding pouch works with the sense of touch, and often strengthens bonds immensely. Be sure to reward them for any kind of positive behaviours! Rats do not have good vision, so working with these other senses can make a huge difference.
The Confidence Method
This method is a bit controversial, many disagree with pushing boundaries, however leaving one’s comfort zone can be extremely beneficial. Nobody ever got anywhere without a little push! This can build trust, I use this method with nearly all rats I get for myself. I do however use the slow method with rescues/fosters when necessary.
Handling them despite their hiding, or confidently picking them up to bring them to a play area, and treating them like one of your other fully bonded rats can have very positive impacts. Especially when you have other rats, as they can teach the new rats that you mean good things! However, it is advised not to combine fosters and residents, so this only applies to rescues being permanently housed with original residents.
Within this method, many do not wait for them to settle. I would say give them a day or two to decompress if they are a bit shy/hesitant, but there are a few rats out there that can benefit from handling right from day one. There are many that wait up to two weeks, even longer in some cases. I’d say, unless they bite, do not wait more than two to three weeks to start bonding with them hands on. If you wait too long, there is the possibility they could detach completely and just not enjoy the company of humans. However, for shy/abused rats, or rescue rats, this may not work so well. The slower method may be the best approach.
*Note: Oftentimes, breeder rats need no time to acclimate and can be interacted with immediately, this is ideal for those who are new to rats, or for those who are looking for rats to build a bond with rather than rehabilitate. Supporting ethical breeding is key to ensuring we are able to still have rats as pets in the decades to come, and an important part of sourcing social and predictable pets that fit you and your environment.
The Slow Approach
An approach that better fits specific situations, such as rescues, pet store rats, or neglected/abused/unsocialized rats, is the slow approach. This method focuses on going with the rat’s pace, not pushing boundaries too quickly, and just building trust slowly but progressively.
Allowing them to choose when they want to actively leave the cage during free roam, allowing them to choose when they want to interact with you, and essentially ‘ignoring’ them when they choose to ignore you. This can work extremely well for some rats, but close others into an even tighter shell. It’s important these methods are only used when all else has failed, or when you have the experience to examine the scenario and make the right call to ensure no steps back are taken. Rats that have been neglected or abused often benefit extremely from this method, but unless you're working with rescues, you won't really have to use this.
*Tips for rats that bite:
Please be careful, rats can seriously injure you, and even cause nerve damage. I’ve seen bites down to the bone, I’ve personally been bitten multiple times, one even took me to the emergency room. Even small bite wounds are no joke, animal bite wounds are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria and infection, so it is important we take care of ourselves. Protect yourself, use gloves if you must. Be sure these gloves will feel soft if you do so choose to pet them, but note that many rats can bite pretty hard solely out of curiosity, they may chomp the glove.
I try to approach each ‘aggressive’ rat without gloves, and if I am bitten badly enough I will wear them if needed. Many times, rats are not biting out of aggression. Fear, confusion, poor eye sight (if hands smell like food), pain, illness, environmental factors/stress (other animals/rats, noise level, etc) are all factors within biting. A rat that bites shouldn’t immediately be labeled aggressive until after all other factors have been considered and examined. Bonding with rats that bite can be tricky, but using methods such as snacks on the end of a spoon, and working more with scent at first, can help the process to begin. Building trust and having patience is of most importance, but be mindful of safety for all.
If you need help working with rats that bite, this video can help you.
Most importantly, be careful!!
Should you get bitten, be sure to wash the area with antibacterial soap and warm water, then apply polgsporin or vitamin e cream; Wrap/cover the wound with surgical gause or a bandaid when cleaning the cage and interacting with your rats, otherwise let the wound breathe unless it's bleeding. If swelling persists after 24 hours, see a doctor. If you begin to have a fever, see a doctor asap or head to the emergency room. It is most often that you do not need a tetanus shot, however depending on how deep the bite wound is, it's possible your doctor will want to do one as a precaution; Thankfully it's extremely rare for pet rats to carry rabies so that's not really a big concern.
This all being said, rats are incredibly small pets and they can be extremely affectionate, regardless of where they've come from, or what they've had to overcome. To those reading working with biters and new rats, best of luck!