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Hi,
I recently became a proud owner of two lovely little ratties, Rin and Luna. They both have very different personalities, Rin is outgoing and started exploring straight away whereas Luna is more cautious. I’m at the stage with them now where they recognise me as someone not to be feared and someone who will bring them food, but don’t necessarily like me that much. They both come over and climb on me during playtime and Luna will climb up my arm and take an interested in my hands and fingers if I interact with her in the cage. Rin, on the other hand, is not afraid of me and will happily run all over me, but she does not like being touched by my hands, possibly because she associates it with being picked up and put places where she doesn’t want to go (like back in her cage after playtime!).
I have read the thread on immersion and thought I would give it a go to get them to interact with me more and recognise me as a friend. I did it separately in my downstairs bathroom and have now done it twice with both. The first time they both pooed and peed (scary new place!) but the second time they both seemed more comfortable. Luna even sat on my shoulder and in my hoodie for a while, which she doesn’t usually do if we are in the playtime room as there’s lots of other interesting things to do – and since then she seems slightly fonder of me (I even sang to her, lucky thing
).
My real question is about Rin’s behaviour – when she is in the bathroom with me, she’ll run and have a look around like normal but when I try to pet and stroke her she sits very still and tense as far away from me as she can get and will slither her body away from my hand, making a strange chattering noise. She is not scared or aggressive but it is obvious that she simply does not like being touched by me. Both times I have taken her back to her play room as I hate the thought of stressing her out unnecessarily – both her and I can have a lovely life together just as she is without strokes and cuddles. I can see how immersion works for an aggressive or timid rat, but she is neither, so should I just leave her alone to be the way she is? If she doesn’t like to be stroked then I suppose it isn’t really something to be fixed as it is not impeding her life. It’s just sad for me as I find myself bonding with Luna more as she takes more of an interest in me as a living creature, where as to Rin I am a playground and sometimes a big annoying hand which tries to stroke her!! Any advice would be helpful, thank you!
I recently became a proud owner of two lovely little ratties, Rin and Luna. They both have very different personalities, Rin is outgoing and started exploring straight away whereas Luna is more cautious. I’m at the stage with them now where they recognise me as someone not to be feared and someone who will bring them food, but don’t necessarily like me that much. They both come over and climb on me during playtime and Luna will climb up my arm and take an interested in my hands and fingers if I interact with her in the cage. Rin, on the other hand, is not afraid of me and will happily run all over me, but she does not like being touched by my hands, possibly because she associates it with being picked up and put places where she doesn’t want to go (like back in her cage after playtime!).
I have read the thread on immersion and thought I would give it a go to get them to interact with me more and recognise me as a friend. I did it separately in my downstairs bathroom and have now done it twice with both. The first time they both pooed and peed (scary new place!) but the second time they both seemed more comfortable. Luna even sat on my shoulder and in my hoodie for a while, which she doesn’t usually do if we are in the playtime room as there’s lots of other interesting things to do – and since then she seems slightly fonder of me (I even sang to her, lucky thing
My real question is about Rin’s behaviour – when she is in the bathroom with me, she’ll run and have a look around like normal but when I try to pet and stroke her she sits very still and tense as far away from me as she can get and will slither her body away from my hand, making a strange chattering noise. She is not scared or aggressive but it is obvious that she simply does not like being touched by me. Both times I have taken her back to her play room as I hate the thought of stressing her out unnecessarily – both her and I can have a lovely life together just as she is without strokes and cuddles. I can see how immersion works for an aggressive or timid rat, but she is neither, so should I just leave her alone to be the way she is? If she doesn’t like to be stroked then I suppose it isn’t really something to be fixed as it is not impeding her life. It’s just sad for me as I find myself bonding with Luna more as she takes more of an interest in me as a living creature, where as to Rin I am a playground and sometimes a big annoying hand which tries to stroke her!! Any advice would be helpful, thank you!
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