Natasha has the honour of being our first female rat. We weren't looking to add another critter to the fray, but when we saw the description of her on the Petfinder homepage: "She doesn't seem very tame so will need a special home!" we broke down and went to go get her. The timing was right; Fez, recently neutered, had quickly changed from being aggresive to a big, friendly, softy, so we again had time to deal with a rat with personality problems. But we quickly found out that rehabing this sweetie would be pretty easy to do.
Within 2 days of what I'll call "'Eek!' Aversion Therarpy" :) Natasha stopped nibbling/biting our hands. As I write this, she's only been with us for a week, and she's now perfectly okay when we put our hands in her cage (no biting!) She'll also tolerate being scritched (I won't say she *loves* it, but she doesn't run away.) She comes out onto our hands for treats, and I'm sure that it won't take long before she comes when she's called by name. :)
As an aside, we are quickly learning the differences between boys and girls (I don't mean *those* differences!) Natasha is discriminate when it comes to peeing; she goes all in one corner, unlike the boys who go wherever. At first I thought the water bottle was leaking from the concentration of wet litter! After a few days, her face cloths are still smelling sweet since she bothers to roll off them when she has to "go". :) She drinks more than the boys do and she's oh so soft. I mean, I do love the boys dearly, but it's been fun to have a rattie running around and not dribbling on things the whole time. :)
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