- Home
- Science Bits on Modifying Rat Behavior
- Modify Rat Behavior
- Earning Trust - Science Incomplete
- Let Rats Decide When
- Bathtub, Carrier, Glove, Shirt, or Pouch: These Are Just Things and Not Techniques
- Let Rats Use Their Teeth
- Help an Unsocialized Rat - Any Rat! - Love a Transport Box
- Litter Box Training Pet Rats
- Use a "Neck Box" with Shy Rats
- Help Your Rat Sit Quietly In Your Arms
- Help Friendly Rats Be More Careful with Their Teeth
- Work Inside the Cage to Help Shy Rats Trust
- Snuggle with Rats
- Pockets Pockets!
- Bond with Rats in "Pouches"
- Infant and Baby Rats - Affecting Behavior
- Bring Rats Into Your Shirt?
- Snug Holding Pet Rats
- Use Touch to Help Shy Rats Tolerate Touch
- Use Touch to Help Shy Rats Tolerate Touch - YouTube
- Help Tame Rats Slow Down Treat-Taking
- Rodentistry
- Please Do Not Use "Forced Socialization"
- Forced Socialization - Jane Adamo's Original Method
- Groom To Bond
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 1
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 2
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 3
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 4
- Aggression & Management
- Rat Behaviors
- Ratbehavior.org - Essential Behaviors
- Major Rat Body Language - RattyRat
- Establishing the Social Hierarchy: Normal Rat Behaviors
- Normal Play Behavior in Rats
- The Dangers of "No Blood, No Foul"
- Are These Two Rats’ Behaviors “Over the Top”?
- Rats and the Concept of "Alpha"
- Submission, Dominance, Appeasement
- Fear Behaviors of Rats
- Behaviors of "Released" Laboratory Rats
- Tail-Flicking in Pet Rats, YouTube 1 of 2
- Tail-Flicking in Pet Rats - YouTube 2 of 2
- Introduce Rats to Rats
- Enrichment
- Rats Hunt Feathers
- Rats Stash Stuff
- Rats and Evil Bandaids
- Fountains, Rubber, Rocks, and Rats
- Rats Stash from YouTube
- Rats Nom-Nom Coconuts
- One Example of a Rat Play Room
- Jump, Rats, Jump!
- Rats and Pumpkins
- Rats Enjoy Water
- Rats Play
- Enrichment YouTube Videos
- Rats Outside?
- Rats Make Trouble
- Fun Wheel, Stress Wheel, or No Wheel At All
- Rat Health
- Oops? Pregnancy, Birth and Babies
- Start Here: Rat Basics for Pregnancy, Birth, and Babies
- Rat Reproduction - by Debbie Ducommun
- Raising Rat Orphans
- Caring for Rat & Mouse Orphans - AFRMA
- Baby Rat Growth: Birth to Weaning - Rat Guide
- Baby Rat Growth: Baby Rat Development - AFRMA
- Baby Rat Growth: Pictures of the Pinkies - Rattie World O' Comfort
- Sexing Rats: Sexing Baby Rats 101 - AFRMA
- Sexing Rats: Alpha Centauri Stud
- Sexing Rats: Litter Journal - Curiosity Rattery
- Sexing Rats: RatRaisins.com
- Sexing Rats: Is This Rat a Boy or a Girl? - RattyRat
- Healthy Squeaks or Sick Squeaks?
- Bandaging Rats
- How To Do a Post-Op Bandage with Anchor Tapes on a Rat
- Slideshow - Post-Op Bandage with Anchor Tapes on a Rat
- Real Life Example of Anchor Tape Bandage Emergency
- When a Rat Won't Leave a Bandage or Wound Alone
- A Veterinarian Demonstrates Bandaging Rossi
- Good Bandages
- Workable But Mediocre Bandages
- Problem Bandages
- Bathing Rats
- Giving Medications
- When Rats Need to Diet
- Rats Do Hiccup!
- Rats Hiccup - YouTube
- Hind Leg Weakness
- Physical Symptoms of Ill Rats
- Videos of Rat Physical Exams
- Compassionate Euthanasia of Pet Rats
- Trimming Rats' Nails
- Trimming Rats' Teeth
- Rat Anatomy, or, Pretty Pictures
- Multi-Level Cages for Older Rats
- Assorted Rat Cages
- Compassionate Euthanasia
- Oops? Pregnancy, Birth and Babies
- Other Sites
- Rats Are Beautiful & Hilarious
- Friends
- Gwen
- Family From Fosters
- Three Rats: Maizie, Robin, Rudy
- Introducing baby boys to Gully, Tookie, and Pemy
- Introducing Maizie and Mijah to Gully, Tookie, and Pemy
- Maizie, Mijah, Reunited with Babies Rudy and Robin
- Maizie's Amazing Boy Babies, Rudy and Robin
- Maizie Has Oops Babies
- New: Mijah and Maizie
- Seven Makes Rats
- Willow Joins Me
- Flight Cage Fun (No, Rats Don't Fly)
- Pemy Joins Gulliver and Tookie
- Gulliver and Tookie
- Bitten By Pemy Rat
- Pemy and Dicey
- Mixed Up Lots 'O Rats Fun
- Old Lady Rat Lives with Young Boys
- Tugger, Toby, Timmy
- Adventures In The Rat Room
- Tugger, Toby, Timmy, Almost Grown
- Boy Rats Play Table
- New Boys Tugger, Toby, Timmy
- A Lila Rat Slideshow
- Chancy Rat, Four Years Old!
- Gwen's Pet Rats - The Girls
- Chancy Rat Boggles
- The Big Rat Room
- The Girl's Rat Room - When They Were Young
- Pen and Box Play Space
- The Old Lady Rat Room
- Clicker Adventures
- Karen Borga
- Lindsay
- Wanda & Tony
- Gwen
- Links - Behavior Modification
- Search Options
- Contact Me
Bond with Rats in “Pouches”
(For the Rat Who Already Willingly Enters a Pouch)
If a rat is not afraid to venture into a pouch, encourage him do so, and then set the pouch near you. This can be a helpful socialization technique. What's key is that the rat isn't afraid to enter the pouch from the get go.
What this method does Not involve: Insisting that a scared rat go inside a pouch, or taking hold of a shy rat and putting her inside a pouch when she doesn't want to go there.
I've often seen the notion, "Bond with your rat using a bonding pouch." Most of the descriptions explain that a rat likes to be inside a covered cave of sorts. The idea is that you wear a type of pouch around your neck, in which the rats hang out, and then carry the rats around with you while you do chores or whatnot. The result is that the rat becomes desensitized to scary sights, sounds, smells, and You.
I would actually suggest slowing down with this kind of work, and start with using a pouch on the outside of the cage, or on your lap.
I explain more beneath these links. These links are for purchasing pouches, but you can also make a no-sew pouch. Pictures of that type are at the bottom.
https://squareup.com/store/rattie-world-o-comfort/item/boncho-bonding-poncho
http://www.dearpiehammocks.com/products_sleeping.htmhttp://magicalhammocks.webs.com/hammockstyles.htm (a variety of types) (not currently selling)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/wrapcity?section_id=5793406
https://www.facebook.com/denisesrathammocks/
For helping the rat learn to feel comfortable being touched, and to bond with you for snuggling, I've been having a huge amount of fun using a large hammock with a particular design. You can see a photograph of examples at the bottom. I got the idea to hold them in one, on my lap, in bed, where they're not allowed to roam on the bed. These very large hammocks are designed with just one fist-sized/rat-sized opening. The pouch smells like them and is very snuggly and comfortable. I slide my hand through the main door, which is about 3.5 inches in diameter, just right for a closed fist, and once my hand/wrist is inside, the door is more or less shut off, it's just me and the rats. :)
What I really like about this method is how I can interact with the rats. My hand gets a lot of attention from them, and vice versa, and I offer much comfort to them. I get them at opportune times, right after dinner, or breakfast (on the weekend when I'm home for that), or right when I get home in the late afternoon and they're just waking up. I get all 3 in at once, set the thing on a pillow and the pillow on my lap.
My experience is that I'm "joining" them as a fellow rat. They doze, groom themselves, groom each other, groom me, brux, boggle, and hiccup. Chancy falls asleep. The others zone out under my non-stop scritching. They look out the door, or nudge each other around as they attempt to get the "best" snuggle spot. They feel safe inside the enclosure.
Then, I do also wear the neck-type pouch around my neck. Specifically I have liked the ratoob because of its large size. The rats can move from the pouch on my lap, to inside the tube, and this allows me some freedom to do chores and help desensitize the rats to all the activities sights, sounds, and smells. An example of a ratoob is on this site:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/35664518/ratoob-redIn general for all this socialization work, I'll hang out with the rats for anywhere from 15-40 minutes depending on how the rats are. There are no pee-pee accidents because the rats don't like peeing inside their beds, and they know how to give me a "pee-pee" dance signal when they need to go back to the cage. I can read the computer and scritch at the same time; what more could anyone ask? :)
This is one of the best activities I've ever done with my honey bunches, and I'm sorry it didn't occur to me to try it out when they were babies.
Bond with Rats in "Pouches"
A human checks out the rats in a pouch. Pouches let you get very up close and personal with your rats.