Wild colored rats-are they all psycho?

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm wondering how many people out there have the wild colored rats (agouti selfs), and if they are all really crazy!

I've had this female for a while now, I kept a baby from her first litter who, in turn, just had her first litter. I thought that this rat's baby would be much friendlier, and then that baby's baby would be even more tame. Well, it didn't turn out as planned. I kept the tamest baby from the original female and she's even more crazy than her mom! Her babies seem to be on the crazy side too All of my other rats are tame, you can pet them, scratch them, hold them, love them etc, but these wild rats run like crazy and try to escape every time I even look at them.

So my question is, is there any point in me trying to tame them? Should I keep crossing them with my "normal" rats and see if they eventually calm down. I'm starting to think this rat isn't wild colored, it's straight off the streets!

Here's the original female, her daughter looks exactly like her, just more crazy


and her psycho daughter

[tomfromtheshade]

Gary can back me up on this. In my experience, the further that you get away from the standard PEW lab rat the more and more you have to selectively breed for calm personality. I have taken Gary's rats one step further from the black berks that I got from him and now I have them completely black (black selfs) and they are faster than my other rats and much more flighty. I don't know what it is.

[SlitherinSisters]

Gary can back me up on this. In my experience, the further that you get away from the standard PEW lab rat the more and more you have to selectively breed for calm personality. I have taken Gary's rats one step further from the black berks that I got from him and now I have them completely black (black selfs) and they are faster than my other rats and much more flighty. I don't know what it is.

That is very odd I hope I can eventually tame these guys. Maybe I'll have to keep only the ones who have the most white on their belly

I'm glad I'm not the only one experiencing crazy wild "domestic" rats

[Mettle]

When I was a young teen I had a wild coloured rat as a pet. She was amazing temperament-wise. I was able to train her to do tricks, she responded to her name when called (I'd let her free roam quite frequently), and I never had any issues with her.

I am a big believer in personality-traits being inheritable amongst animals. I've seen it with dogs that my family and friends' have bred and I have seen it with an assortment of the crested geckos that I was breeding over the past couple of years. It seems as though you are attempting to have more placid stock, in which case, were it me, I would feed off the mother and any others from that particular line that are exhibiting the more neurotic traits that you're describing and eliminate them from my desired gene pool.

[gothkenny]

As more of a rat person, I can tell you that color has nothing to do with temperment. It has to do with the breeder or the parents of the rat.
And, of course, how much you socialize it.

[Jay_Bunny]

I have some agouti rats but none are agouti selfs. Mine are agouti berkshires but neither of them exhibit the behavior you describe, though my agouti berkshire female, Nutmeg was a very aggressive mother. (instead of sharing babies, she'd fight over them, sometimes harming the babies so severely, I'd have to cull them.)

I am also a believer in personality traits being genetic but I don't necessarily believe it has to do with color. Any rat that bites or is overly aggressive I do not breed more than a few times, and if their offspring are similar, I discontinue breeding those females.

[tomfromtheshade]

As more of a rat person, I can tell you that color has nothing to do with temperment. It has to do with the breeder or the parents of the rat.
And, of course, how much you socialize it.

I agree that personality is entirely dictated by the personality of the parents. The black berkshires that I got were bred exclusively as feeders. They were bred to grow quickly and compete hard for food and water and be very very tough animals.

You would have to see these rats in order to believe them. They are enormous and they are much much stronger than the pet grade stock that I had been working with. I am entirely convinced that if something ever happened and these rats got loose they would replace the entire wild rat population in the area in a matter of no time.

[Aeries]

Whenever I 'hold back' rats for breeding, I alway choose selfs because I find the 'natural' look alot more visually appealing than patchy hoodeds. I currently have a self blue, agouti, black, fawn and white w/ black eyes as breeders. Personally I find all my rats love me for giving them food but that's about it. They definently do not like being held. They are quick to approach and search for food, but just as fast to escape when I'm trying to catch them. I don't push the issue with them though.

[Michelle.C]

I have been breeding rats for pets for ten years and there isn't a personality difference between coats. While most of my agoutis seem to be more active, none are more aggressive.

As for taming them down, I like to take one rat out (that I'm having problems with) every night while I'm watching TV or working on the computer. Just being on your lap and it not being a negative experience builds a lot of trust. Also, treats and physically dropping food in their enclosure (instead of a feeding hopper) also associates you with a pleasant thing. Speaking softly and handling gently (not using their tail as a handle) helps. Once they trust you enough that they don't run every time they see you, a light scratching on their behind and saying something in a playful voice lets them know that you are playing with them. Followed by making your hand scamper across their cage floor (like a rat running around), and they will chase it. They like foil balls and jingle balls, and watching you mess around with these things in their enclosure will build their interest in you and make them less afraid. You might also want to just stand there with your hand in their enclosure until they show interest in you. When they do, reward them by dropping a treat beside them.

Anyway, those are just a few ideas. Hope it helps.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I have a hold back agouti male. Chubby and very sweet. He has always preferred to be with a human than a rat. I see the craziness with any color. The siamese seem to be the most flighty and afraid. The light orange ones (color name?) are either shy or mean and bite. The black hooded ones seem to be the most hyper and the most likely to chew.

The black eyed grey's and ruby eyed blues always seem the most calm and sweet. I know they are all different though. My observations may not be anywhere close to others observations.