| Thought I'd post something that has to do with pet rats, GRIN - CLICK HERE for the Pet Manual Forum Home Page |
| Lynn \kitty\ |
So, how many of you have a rat out there that just love to beg for pets and
snuggles? My big agouti hooded male, Junior, will sit in front of his door
and beg for a huggie and a pet. Spreckles stands up and stretches for a
tummy tickle and my list goes on....But I do have a few that just love to
snuggle up to my neck and chin and be petted forever.
--
Enjoy,
Lynn "kitty"
*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***
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| OldGeezer |
I had four girls. The last one died recently at just over 3 years of age. I
couldn't get them to stay in one spot more than ten seconds when they were
younger. They'd be all over me, but I was more their amusement park than
their snuggle-woogums. But at around 1.5 to 2 years old. they started to
love hanging out on my shoulders, laps, and especially my forearms
(preferably with long sleeves). I couldn't walk by the cage without at least
two of them begging to come out, and if they were out, I'd usually have one
or two follow me around like little dogs until I'd either stop and let them
climb me or, when they got older, stop to pick them up. You wouldn't believe
the free-ranging my rats get to enjoy (the entire run of the tiled floor in
the hallway and kitchenette, at least three hours a day...on a bad day), but
they'd often ignore the 150 square feet or so of play area and fixate on
getting to me if I was in the other room (getting on top of the barricade
and bruxing/staring in my direction). As soon as they'd hear my desk chair
squeak they'd know I was coming to pick them up and would do that
goofy-hoppy-happy thing they do.
I just got two boys figuring they're more docile...Ha! They're four months
old and have never been handled. The guy at the store said he had to put
gloves on to move them, so that pretty much says it all
(gloves...grrr...After all the terrifying picking up my boys have suffered
by my hand, they have yet to bite me once). And they were absolutely
deathly-terrified of being picked up at first. It hasn't been two weeks yet,
but I can pick them up now (but I have to be quick). They don't find it
scary anymore...just extremely annoying, so I'm breaking them in by putting
them down imediately after picking them up (somewhere else) after a quick
smooch on the back of the neck, so they get trained to associate being
picked up with a mercifully brief and gentle ride rather than forced
captivity. But even these two guys do stand at the edge or their couch when
I walk by, demanding attention, and will hop on my arms and cruise on up to
my shoulders, even right after I've put them through the traumatic torture
of being picked up and smooched. They absolutely love going on shirt safaris
(once they're on my shoulders, I grab my shirt collar and pull it to make an
inviting cave-entrance...they can't resist. Charlie loves going in and
getting into boxing-matches with my fingers when I softly tap him through
the shirt (one of my girls always did that...sigh). Locke seems to enjoy
just laying there and vegging out.
Funny though...they're coming along amazingly well, but they will still run
away instead of being picked up when they're on the floor (unless I'm
trying, muhaha). Yet they regularly run up to my feet and stand straight up
on their back two feet looking up at me, which always meant "Pick me up" to
the girls. If they expect me to get on all fours to offer a shoulder every
time they want to hop on, they've got another thing coming.
Anyways, long story short....There is nothing special about a rat that begs
to be snuggled. It's the rat's keeper who is special. If your rats beg for
your attention, it speaks more about you than the rat. Good job.
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| Lynn \kitty\ |
Well bless your heart and huggles for you!
You DO tell the most wonderful stories about you kids. I miss having a
free-ranger. I did in my old apartment. Ready, our female PEW, ran the
roost. She would sit on the cat and chase the cockatiel around. But we had
less belongings then and a more secure area. The old house we are in now
just has too many wonderful hiding places to nail down. So I turn mine loose
on the dining table with lots of things to climb in and on and out of. They
also get to roam the bathroom. But that is about it. I have a bunch of
Houdinis. LOL
Thanks again for big such a run of sunshine!
Lynn
"OldGeezer" <Nope@NotGonnaHappen.com> wrote in message
news:yjQ%f.5467$L.215516@news20.bellglobal.com...
I had four girls. The last one died recently at just over 3 years of age. I
couldn't get them to stay in one spot more than ten seconds when they were
younger. They'd be all over me, but I was more their amusement park than
their snuggle-woogums. But at around 1.5 to 2 years old. they started to
love hanging out on my shoulders, laps, and especially my forearms
(preferably with long sleeves). I couldn't walk by the cage without at least
two of them begging to come out, and if they were out, I'd usually have one
or two follow me around like little dogs until I'd either stop and let them
climb me or, when they got older, stop to pick them up. You wouldn't believe
the free-ranging my rats get to enjoy (the entire run of the tiled floor in
the hallway and kitchenette, at least three hours a day...on a bad day), but
they'd often ignore the 150 square feet or so of play area and fixate on
getting to me if I was in the other room (getting on top of the barricade
and bruxing/staring in my direction). As soon as they'd hear my desk chair
squeak they'd know I was coming to pick them up and would do that
goofy-hoppy-happy thing they do.
I just got two boys figuring they're more docile...Ha! They're four months
old and have never been handled. The guy at the store said he had to put
gloves on to move them, so that pretty much says it all
(gloves...grrr...After all the terrifying picking up my boys have suffered
by my hand, they have yet to bite me once). And they were absolutely
deathly-terrified of being picked up at first. It hasn't been two weeks yet,
but I can pick them up now (but I have to be quick). They don't find it
scary anymore...just extremely annoying, so I'm breaking them in by putting
them down imediately after picking them up (somewhere else) after a quick
smooch on the back of the neck, so they get trained to associate being
picked up with a mercifully brief and gentle ride rather than forced
captivity. But even these two guys do stand at the edge or their couch when
I walk by, demanding attention, and will hop on my arms and cruise on up to
my shoulders, even right after I've put them through the traumatic torture
of being picked up and smooched. They absolutely love going on shirt safaris
(once they're on my shoulders, I grab my shirt collar and pull it to make an
inviting cave-entrance...they can't resist. Charlie loves going in and
getting into boxing-matches with my fingers when I softly tap him through
the shirt (one of my girls always did that...sigh). Locke seems to enjoy
just laying there and vegging out.
Funny though...they're coming along amazingly well, but they will still run
away instead of being picked up when they're on the floor (unless I'm
trying, muhaha). Yet they regularly run up to my feet and stand straight up
on their back two feet looking up at me, which always meant "Pick me up" to
the girls. If they expect me to get on all fours to offer a shoulder every
time they want to hop on, they've got another thing coming.
Anyways, long story short....There is nothing special about a rat that begs
to be snuggled. It's the rat's keeper who is special. If your rats beg for
your attention, it speaks more about you than the rat. Good job.
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| OldGeezer |
Well, I do have it made with this apartment where rats are concerned...Tile
floors with doors and one barricade blocking off the rest of the place. It
does illustrate though, to anyone who may doubt the rat's motives in human
interaction, that they're not using the human as a means to an end. Someone
might argue that the rat wants to get in or out of the cage and sees the
human as the only means, but my rats have three ways to get from the floor
to the futon and back to the cage. They also learn quickly enough that once
they get a treat that's it for a while, but even when there's no hint of a
treat, they will scramble across the open floor to where I am just to get
harassed by my hands, get in my shirt, climb up to my shoulder and, in
Charlie's case, get me to make those funny disgusted gasping noises by
trying to get his head in my mouth. In other words, they will interact with
a human for no other reason than to play. Even if they've got 100s of square
feet of space to hide/play in, I imediately become their destination of
choice when I sit down in the same room. That's what tells me when they're
truly getting tame. It sure doesn't take long!
Their character is uncannily similar to that of a dog (or more like
puppies), but at least dogs don't have the manual dexterity to pry your lips
open with their paws, heh heh.
"Lynn "kitty"" <kittybluebunny@dontbother.net> wrote in message
news:12424hdgkfqt1be@corp.supernews.com...
> Well bless your heart and huggles for you!
>
> You DO tell the most wonderful stories about you kids. I miss having a
> free-ranger. I did in my old apartment. Ready, our female PEW, ran the
> roost. She would sit on the cat and chase the cockatiel around. But we had
> less belongings then and a more secure area. The old house we are in now
> just has too many wonderful hiding places to nail down. So I turn mine
> loose
> on the dining table with lots of things to climb in and on and out of.
> They
> also get to roam the bathroom. But that is about it. I have a bunch of
> Houdinis. LOL
>
> Thanks again for big such a run of sunshine!
>
> Lynn
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| Joanne |
Lynn "kitty" wrote:
> So, how many of you have a rat out there that just love to beg for pets and
> snuggles? My big agouti hooded male, Junior, will sit in front of his door
> and beg for a huggie and a pet. Spreckles stands up and stretches for a
> tummy tickle and my list goes on....But I do have a few that just love to
> snuggle up to my neck and chin and be petted forever.
>
Truly wonderful stories!!
I have one such sweet girl that is definitely mama's rat. I adopted my
Ness last October from our local SPCA. She was already 18 months old.
She's my soul rat. During out time, she will seek me out and sit on me
for the longest time. If I'm standing, she will climb my pant leg right
to my hips which then I pick her up in my hands. She's waiting for me to
raise her to my face so she can lick me silly.
The other day, I had my dad sit on the floor with my 13 rats while I was
busy cleaning the mouse cage. Once in a while I had to walk into the
enclosure. Ness who was sitting on my dad would do a mad dash towards me
and do the dance on two legs begging to be picked up. She did this twice
and my dad's jaw dropped. At first he thought something was wrong but
when she did it a third time and each time, I had to scoop her down to
raise her to my face, my dad was in awe of Ness's behavior. She's my
love, that's for sure. Of course, i have another 3 rats that do that
too, come to me and beg to be picked up but none are like Ness, my puppy.
People say rats only do that for food... well, guess again because my
rats don't get treats from me. So it's not because they think they will
get yummies, they want some TLC!!
--
Joanne
Owned by 17 rats.
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