How and why to safely pick up and hold a roof rat: scruff the loose skin at the nape with one hand, and support the bottom with the other. No sudden movements – quick, confident, and smooth.
Transcript
So we had the rats up there, and the idea was to take one down and show how to pick him up and hold him. This one is a boy, I believe. We checked, and yeah, he's a boy. The way to do it is to scruff him with one hand and put your other hand under his butt at the same time, so it's not so stressful for him. The scruffing makes it easier to pick him up. Otherwise he would just slip right out of your hands. These guys have got a lot of life in them, they really do, and that's a good thing. It also kind of shows you how tame they are, whether or not they struggle when you scruff them.
This guy didn't struggle much at all. Getting a closer look, you can see the one hand supporting his butt the whole time. He doesn't love it, but he's not struggling. And that's really all there is to it.
Watch it on YouTube. If it helped, the channel has a new roof-rat video most weeks, and there is a written guide with photos on the videos page.