DoodleSmythe
Member
We have recently adopted a pair of boys. (We were actually on a waiting list for babies from a breeder but we saw these guys needed a home and the shelter said they’d been there a month already.)
We’ve named them Ronnie and Reggie, they’re less than a year old but no more info given. We were told one was “shy”, both friendly... Shy is not the way to describe Ronnie. Anxious and bitey is more like it!
Reggie tests you with his teeth occasionally but never bites down and in the month he’s been here that’s almost stopped entirely. He loves to hang out with us and enjoys attention. It’s strange how different they seem. Ronnie doesn’t like us, not certain he likes his brother. Movement and noise frighten him, looking at him when he is out of the cage makes him run away but sometimes he seems to want to be friends. He climbs over me when he’s out if I stay perfectly still.
He seems to be on alert constantly and thinks you/everything is about to harm him. It makes me sad to think maybe his last owners made him this way.
He took a chunk out of my fiancé’s finger last week when he was stroking his head in the hammock (something he’d seemed to enjoy before). A few days ago, I thought I was making headway with him as he had started taking treats from me by hand. Went to give him a cornflake, he sat sniffing it all over, leaned back and lunged at me. It bled quite a bit and scared the life out of me!
He also fights with his brother (mostly when they are out of the cage), fur went flying tonight.
I don’t know what to do. Giving him up isn’t an option, that’s already been done to him by his previous owners and I couldn’t bear to do it to him again. We have got prices for neutering but I don’t want to do that to him if I don’t need to.
I want him to be happy and not spend his life afraid. I’m also now becoming quite wary of him which isn’t something I’ve had with previous rats and I don’t want him to pick up on it.
Any advice greatly welcomed!
We’ve named them Ronnie and Reggie, they’re less than a year old but no more info given. We were told one was “shy”, both friendly... Shy is not the way to describe Ronnie. Anxious and bitey is more like it!
Reggie tests you with his teeth occasionally but never bites down and in the month he’s been here that’s almost stopped entirely. He loves to hang out with us and enjoys attention. It’s strange how different they seem. Ronnie doesn’t like us, not certain he likes his brother. Movement and noise frighten him, looking at him when he is out of the cage makes him run away but sometimes he seems to want to be friends. He climbs over me when he’s out if I stay perfectly still.
He seems to be on alert constantly and thinks you/everything is about to harm him. It makes me sad to think maybe his last owners made him this way.
He took a chunk out of my fiancé’s finger last week when he was stroking his head in the hammock (something he’d seemed to enjoy before). A few days ago, I thought I was making headway with him as he had started taking treats from me by hand. Went to give him a cornflake, he sat sniffing it all over, leaned back and lunged at me. It bled quite a bit and scared the life out of me!
He also fights with his brother (mostly when they are out of the cage), fur went flying tonight.
I don’t know what to do. Giving him up isn’t an option, that’s already been done to him by his previous owners and I couldn’t bear to do it to him again. We have got prices for neutering but I don’t want to do that to him if I don’t need to.
I want him to be happy and not spend his life afraid. I’m also now becoming quite wary of him which isn’t something I’ve had with previous rats and I don’t want him to pick up on it.
Any advice greatly welcomed!
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