my nervous rat Itsy

Question
Hi Sandra
I have written to you before concerning my 2 rats Itsy and Bitsy. Bitsy used to be a bitter but with patients and time she does not bite anymore and has adopted my partner,she loves him and spends 2 hours a night with him which is great to to see so thankyou for all your help with her. Now the problem is Itsy, she is so shy and timid, i thought with Bitsys new confidence this would help Itsy but its not working that way its really hard to get her to come out of her cage, you call her and she goes to bed and at times will not come out, when she does come out she just hides if you try to touch her she will push your hand away with her teeth as if to say don't touch me i take that as a warning and leave her alone am i doing the right thing. I keep a jar of baby food with me she will sit on my lap and lick my figers. I have had these 2 since they were 14 weeks old and they are now 8 months old is it to late to change Itsy or will she always be shy and timid i would love her to be like Bitsy full of beans. Any help would be apprecitated.

Answer
You can train here the same way you trained Bitsy...patience....patience and more patience.  DO NOT try to take her out of the cage at all. DO NOT reach in for her. You need to find a way to lure her out, with a bit of graham cracker or my rats favorite, Gerber baby snacks that come in a tall plastic cylinder. They are strawberry flavored and melt in babies mouths to prevent choking....my rats love them.  The odor is a strong strawberry scent so they will smell it and come out for miles away.  LOL  Set up a play area like instructed on my website, Sandyscrittercity.com on the page GETTING STARTED.   Once she comes out, allow her access to her cage so she can go in and out as needed.  She may put just two feet out of the cage and run back in...she may come all the way out and retreat back in again, this can go on for the first 20 minutes or the first week of trying to lure her out to her new play area.  My rats know its play time because I open up the door to their carrier (a cat carrier) and they all three jump in it and know that they are getting transported to their play area and its time to play. Rats are so smart...they will catch on.  ALL RATS can be trained to trust, even if its just the people they see the most of such as you and your partner.

Check out the page also on how to train  shy or biting rats, probably what I had you refer to with Bitsy? Same applies for shy rats minus the part where you put them back in the cage with no reward after they bite.