[Sabatea]

So, over my almost two-week long grounding I started to wonder if Neera's hand shiness was a problem. She is extroardinarily sweet and will lick my hand to death but she will run if I make a move to pet her. I have had her for almost two months now and she's always been a little shy about being pet. She'll crawl on me if I sit in the bathroom with her and she takes treats from my hand and grooms me, but she runs if I move my hand towards her. She doesn't show any distress that I can see when I do touch her but she tries to avoid it.

She is currently on Baytril for an ear infection, which seems to be cleaning up pretty well. She eats and drinks fine. She's more affectionate than Dela but Dela is perfectly fine with being pet and picked up... Neera doesn't panic when she's picked up but she tries to get down as soon as she can. Is it possible this was worsened by her ear infection/balance problems? Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Lita]

Most of our girls hate to be picked up or pet. You might get a scritch once in a while but generally they back away if you touch them, or try to anyway. I've heard girls can just be like that.

 

[Munchies]

Have you tried bribing her with treats only when she's being held?

 

[DustyRat]

Her behavior sounds rather typical. Sad to say.

 

[Sabatea]

Oh, she'll get in my hand for a treat but then she goes back out to eat it. She's not afraid of me or of me being near her, just doesn't want to be pet or held. I wish she'd let me help her sometimes when she can't get to the places she used to because of her ear infection...

So it's nothing I'm doing wrong then? She just doesn't like to be petted and held? Out of curiosity, is it possible she doesn't like it because of a past experience? I got her from a petstore where this terrible know-it-all employee was picking them up, lifting them out of the cage, and them promptly dropping them when they squirmed. I had already said I wanted Neera (The only one not sneezing. They all acted pretty hand-shy) so he decided to pick her up and tell me she was squirmy. A baby female rat being squirmy?? Nooo, how strange. So, he told me to fix this problem I just had to squeeze her, which he then did to her. Is it possible this brought on her hand shy behavior?

 

[Lita]

That might be a big part of it. The rescues and the petsmart girl are the anti-pick up girls. The babies don't like it but they are also young and hyper, same with our young girls. Our two feeder girls are the easiest to handle, the boys are next after them but they are young to so they are still hyper babies to.

 

[Phantom]

My V has a hand phobia. He does not like being touched with a bare hand, but he loves anything with fabric on it. Maybe she doesn't like being touched by bare hands like my V? Then again V is pretty odd. >.< He has a bit of a bipolar issue. He loves it when I wear a sweater to hold him. =P

 

[Sabatea]

I might try that. Neera's not too bad about it, since she lets me pet her while she's grooming herself, but that's about it. She does climb my arms and get in my hand on her own though. XD I guess she just doesn't want me to pet her or pick her up. I'm glad to know that it's not uncommon though...