Highly Strung

[Vouivre]

Is there anything to do about a rat that is well...psycho?
My brother got her from the petshop (i dont know if that has anything to do with it), and she's a nut case.
She'll be fine and be climbing all over u, next minute u'll move ur arm and she'll leap across the other side of the room before you can even blink. She's also very active
so I was wondering if there is something I can do to calm her?

[Joe]

   Yes, there is. Wait around a year, maybe a little more.   She just sounds like your typical female rat. She'll calm down some with age, but until then, enjoy having a hyper rat.

[Vouivre]

I have four females that are all very active, none of them are as jumpy as her  

[rogermerriman]

I would concur with Jo. You have probably just got one very active rat! One of my two new boys (just coming up to 4 months) is quite hyper, tends to rocket around the room, hang of the cage bars etc!

[Kristen]

My girls are exactly the same way. I'll be petting Anya on the head, and next thing I know, she'll be on the other side of the bed. She moves so fast I can't even see her run! I think I read somewhere that they start to slow down at 1.5 yrs, but your girl sounds perfectly normal.

[scout]

It's a possibility that your brother's new pet store rat may not have been socialized very well and is timid when anything moves. The more time he can spend with her, the more she'll settle down. That said, if she's a young female, she may be everywhere all at once by nature. They love to explore!

[Ensie]

I recently put our two rats, one of whom is (was) TOTALLY hyperactive, together in one cage. For the energy dynamo (who was also very tense and easily spooked), this is what I did: I took her out of her cage every single day for at least 3-4 hours. I made sure to give her lots of love and kisses before I put her on the sofa. I stayed on the sofa with her and gave her lots of yummy treats. I kept my hand under the blanket (which was really interesting, because I was trying to read a book and drink some tea at the same time!   ) so she would get used to me and so I could pet her whenever she came close. Granted, I did this with both rats because, well, this is what I do with all of my rats. But I made absolutely sure to do this when the atmosphere was calm and quiet and I monitored the hyper one to see what kind of effects happened. For several weeks, it looked like I would have a hyperspasmodic scaredy-rat on my hands, but then one day, she just decided that coming out and spending time with me under the bankie is not so bad after all. This rat is still kind of shy, but she is in no way hyperspasmodic or afraid of people/things anymore. She's a beautiful, gentle, affectionate sweetheart who likes to come out and play, but who also likes having her own space. So I would say, spend tons of time with your rat(s) in a calm, quiet place and be patient. She'll calm down and then her personality will shine through.

[KimmyKat]

I concur with Ensie. Scaredy-rats just have to be handled alot even if it's not much fun at first. My Louise hated being handled when I first got her (she and Thelma had been returned to Petco, supposedly someone nipped). She would go every which way to avoid being caught and then SQUEAK, squirm and poop until she went back into the cage. I insisted on keeping her with me, "trapping" her with a lap blanket, carrying her around on my shoulder, talking some sense into her. In two weeks she was not the same rodie. She still is not what you'd call a cuddly rat, but she loves me and there is definately a bond.