Rat stressed due to new smells when I leave the house

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RatMomZ

Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2018
Messages
16
Location
UK
Hi all,
I find myself at a loss here. We've had a traumatic year and a half with our girls, going from seven in early 2020 to two now thanks to a myco flare up throughout the colony.
The two left seem fairly stable, though are on long term antibiotics to control the myco symptoms.
The issue I am now having is that one of my girls really doesn't like when we spend any length of time in a building other than the flat. Initially I thought it was due to kittens we were interacting with, but she's also been stressed out after I went to my parents which is a no pet household.
Having a shower after coming home and changing clothes doesn't seem to help. I'm currently spending afternoons at the foster home of two kittens we have adopted and though there's been some improvement, in that she will at least touch me or stand on me, she's still super stressed and sniffing like crazy.
Only ideas we have are that it's because she came to live with us just before we went into lockdown due to the pandemic and now that we work from home she just isn't used to new scents. Both girls are definitely more skittish since losing their siblings and older companions in such a short space of time, but otherwise were very happy rattling about.
It's been a week of me working part time out of the house though so I was expecting her to acclimatise more than this.
Any suggestions welcome - we are due to move house within the month and then the kittens would be moving in as well and I'd like to keep everyone as calm as possible. We can't really go back on taking in the kittens either as they have neurological issues and no one else would take them. Plan is not to let them interact other than across a room, but obviously their smell will be in the new place.
These are the first girls I've had (out of my eleven over the years) that are reacting to my scents changing so noticeably. Previous colonies didn't much care as long as I came home again.
Thank you
Zoe
 
Back
Top