Help with timid rats
Hii! My boyfriend and I got two 3 month old male rats about a month ago, and they are very skittish still. Is this normal? We hand feed them treats(normally once a day), try to talk quiet around them, don’t forcefully pick them up or pet them but they still seem terrified of us.
They run into their houses when anyone walks into the same room as them and only come out to grab a treat from us..
Are we scaring them too much or trying to see them too often? Do yall have any advice on this? I don’t want to be accidentally traumatizing the boys!
The only traumatizing thing I can think is once a week when we gotta clean out their cage we pick up their house with them in it and put it into a different “cage” normally a box with some bedding. We always make sure they have a safe place to hide and not to grab at them.
I’ve only had to pick them up once it was a week and it was because they were a mess and I put them in a medium bowl of warm water to help them clean themselves. They still could see their cage and had full access to run back into their cage. They’re sweet boys they never try to bite us or anything.
Am I doing something wrong?