new blue blaze girl rat

Question
I just got my rat Friday 5/14/2008, she is between 7 and 9 weeks old. Got her from Petsmart. She does not like to be outside of her cage, she gets very nervous...She also doesn't seem to hear me. I can clap my hands, ring bells etc. and get no response. however she does hear high pitch sounds.  Will she make a good pet, one I can teach tricks, and do you think she may be partially deaf?

thanks,
Brenda

Answer
Hi Brenda

Rats make great pets. The problem is, the pet stores.  They take these terrified little animals and sell them and never really tell the owner the real way to handle them. They make the new owners think they can take them home and just start playing with them.  If you bought a rat from a personal breeder, chances are you could do that, but from a pet store, unless you lucked out and found a bold rat that was born with an outgoing trusting personality, there is work to be done.  Why? Because of the breeders that these big pet store chains use.  They get rats from breeders that pump out dozens and dozens of rats and give them to the pet stores after weaning them from their mother.  THe truth is, rats are born scared of humans. You cant blame them of course since we have been trying to eradicate their species from the planet for centuries.  You are supposed to start holding, petting and speaking to the rats from the day they are born and by the time they open their eyes at 2 weeks old, they are familair with the human touch.  
Pet stores also fail to tell the new owner that rats are highly social animals and need to be with their own kind. You should have brought home two rats not just one. I think the petstore was happy to at least make one sale and they dont like to press their luck but they know or at least SHOULD know when  selling these animals that they do better in pairs.  
You need to put yourself in your new rats shoes...err...paws. :)
One minute your in familiar territory with your sisters and the next minute your all alone with this huge strange person ringing bells and clapping hands trying to get you to respond and this little tiny animal is confused, doesnt know what is going to happen to her from one minute to the next and right now, because she was not properly socialized, she is trying to simply survive. She has no idea that you mean no harm.
I would refrain from the bell for now and from any loud sounds. What she needs is your soothing, calming and convincing voice kept at a comfortable level. Rats hear great, its their vision that is terrible.
If anything, the bell is making her terrified.
So the pet store did not tell you that this rat cannot just come home with you and start responding to you and your thinking that your doing something wrong or that something is wrong with her. Again, she is
scared and unsocial and now its your turn to do what the breeder should have done many weeks ago: Trust train her.
SOme people simply say they will return the rat and get another, but chances are you are ending up with the exact same thing no matter what rat you buy unless the rats were properly raised and unfortunately petstore rats are not bred for health nor temperment.
That doesnt mean she wont be a good pet, of course. It simply means she isnt going to be an instant pet, sitting on your shoulder and coming when you call her name or snap your fingers. As you know, she wont even come out of her hidey house.
No matter if you decide to get her a cagemate (you can go right now and buy one of her sisters and she will bond right away because she wont forget her yet) Having two rats is no harder than having one and in fact, its easier. A pair of rats are healthier since they are not stressed and stress causes impaired immune system which in turn causes illness which you want to avoid, esp in a young rat.

Ever since I started working with rat owners, I get more people asking for help in training scared rats and was overwhelmed with questions here as well that I sounded like a broken record. Instead, I devoted an entire page on my website on how to work with rats that are unsocial at no fault of their own.  Starting from scratch, you can read up and learn how to approach her and the right way to handle her. With a bit of patience and better understanding of the way rats think in no time you will have a loyal friend that is as bonded to you as some dogs are with their owners. Most of the people that come to me for advice about this and read my site all come back a week or two later and thank me saying that their new rat is now much more friendly and comes out for playtime etc...
Here is the link to my site.
http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/helpbitingscaredrats.htm

After that, check out GETTING STARTED which can help you set up the perfect home and help you know what you need to raise your rat to be healthy and happy:
http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/gettingstarted.htm

You can never learn enough when it comes to rats!

Please read it over and if you have anything that you need to go over, please write back. I trained a wild rat that used to bite me to pieces and she turned out to be the most friendly rat I have ever had, and so I have put all of my tricks and approaches I used with her on this site as well. I also have training in rat behavior that simply means I have a very good understanding of rats emotions and the way they think.  One thing a rat picks up on as many animals do is negative energy.  Just as a dog or horse can tell when a person fears them, rats can tell when their owner is uneasy as well which in turn makes the rat uneasy as well. They are smart so dont ever doubt that they arent paying attention. They are just waiting for the right time when they think it is safe to finally trust you.


Good luck and keep me posted

Sandy