Since meeting Tessa the Rat in lab last week, I have spent more than an hour handling and playing with her. She was extremely skittish around me from the beginning. I'm the tallest person in my class, so I was worried she would be a little more nervous around me than other students. On Thursday, I handled her for about five minutes before she finally calmed down. She loves to burrow between my elbow and torso, so I've found that to be an effective strategy in calming her down quickly. On Friday, I let her do that from the start and she calmed down almost instantly. She was pretty comfortable around me, and I figured out that she was more likely to cling to me when I took her away from her cage. When she is near the cage, she will try to squirm out of my arms and jump back in the cage; if I bring her to the other side of the room (even if she is near the classroom holding cage) she will calm down more quickly. She did bit me a few times on Friday, though, but I never put her down in response (I don't want to reinforce such behavior).
Earlier this week, I started feeding Tessa Cheerios after she calmed down during handling. She bit me a few times while trying to get her out of the cage, but that behavior stopped after I washed my hands. I am happy to say Tessa has gotten used to me over the past few days of handling! Now, she regularly calms down after under a minute of handling if I am sure to let her explore her surroundings. Dannele handled her for me recently and said she was very calm and easy-to-handle.
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