What is wrong with Frances? Spooky baby.

[DebW]

One of Phoebe and Stimpy's babies, Frances, has become a major scaredy rat in the past 2-3 weeks.  She is about 2 months old and backs into a corner and shrieks everytime I try to pick her up lately.  She'll come up to the bars and let me touch her through them and even touch noses through the bars with me, but I can no longer pick her up.  None of her brothers and sisters are this way.  She has darker ruby eyes, but does a lot of head swaying, so I know her vision isn't great, but I can't understand the terror of hands.  Once she's picked up, she's fine.  Any suggestions?  I'm finding this very frustrating.

By the way, I'm the only one who has ever picked her up and she's definately never been abused in any way.

[Beth]

I have a rat that has done that exact same thing. He's been given the all clear by the vets and I can say he's never had a frightening hands experience. I went back to basic trust training with him, yummy foods that have to be licked from my fingers etc and although he returned to being happy with my hands around him he still freaked when I went to pick him up. So we have a deal now, I tell him 'out time' and he hops into a tube or box (whatever comes to hand really) and he comes out of his cage that way. Once out he's happy to be held...

I have no idea what happened to make him change and although I know it would be nice to be able to just reach in and pick him up we have a fairly good system now that doesn't stress either of us.

Beth

[Sunilata]

I think some rats just don't like being picked up, period. It doesn't have to necessarily stem out of fear. One of my favorite girls, my Brynna, will hop out of my hands and run away (though not very far) every time I try to pick her up. She has squeaked one or two times, too, when I've made a grab for her and finally caught her. Once she is in my arms she is my beautiful sweet licky girl, and she doesn't mind being passed from one person to the other. She has never fear-pooped or bitten. I've just come to the conclusion that she doesn't like being picked up, but since she rarely compromises and climbs onto my outstretched arm, I usually have to just scoop her up and then kiss her as an apology.

That said, is it possible that little Frances was traumatized without your knowing? Maybe another rat scared her (though I'm not sure that it would cause this reaction, I am just thinking of possibilities)? If she has poor vision, another rat swooping down on her and beating her up (even mildly) could appear to be a hand, though rats go more by smell...of course, I don't know about you, but to my rats, I probably *always* smell like another rat, since I handle them so much.

[starsevol]

My old man Cosmo has never liked being picked up either.
He kicks and his whole body goes tight.

Other than that hes a snuffley licky sweet piggy of a guy!

[scout]

One of my girls gets like that on occasion - and it started at about the same age. I've discovered two things set it off. One, when she's in heat she gets (or used to get, she's outgrown it now) really scaredy-rat. And, two, I've discovered if I play with the boys first, she'll scream and fight to get away. If I wash my hands, she'll be fine 2 minutes later. So it must be the scent of the boys on my hands. Go figure! She's never even met any boys since her brothers moved out at 4 1/2 weeks.

[maryz]

Frances sounds like she is going through a 'screaming-meemie' stage.  I've had that happen a few times with girls from different litters.  There never seems to be a cause, and they are alright once out of the cage.  It starts at 6-8 weeks and lasts for a few months.  I just make sure they are out of the cage and handled a lot, and they eventually grow out of it.  I almost think that they aren't really scared, it's more of a show or temper tantrum.  I had one little meemie teach that bad habit to 5 other cagemates from two other litters.  I knew darn well those 6 brats weren't scared of me, they just wanted to scare me with their shrieks and drive me crazy!  They're all fine now, and I think of it as an annoying stage some girls go through.  I've never had a boy do it.  Frances will grow out of it.  See if you can lure her into a basket or sleeve or something to get her out of the cage in the meantime.

[RNPaulie]

One of my boys also did that when we first brought him home, every time we went to pick him up he would squeak like we were hurting him.  He was one of our first rats and he trained us --- I squeak you put me down hehe.  I talked to the breeder and she gave me some advice, mainly not to let him dictate when he was going to be picked up.  It was like he laughed at us when he did it.  So we all ( the girls and I) gritted our teeth and just put up with it(we were a little scared being new to rats) and it was never more than a squeak.  Now that he is seven months he doesn't bother, hasn't done it in months.  He knows we are going to get him out of the cage regardless of how awful he sounds.  His brother has NEVER liked being picked up and struggled quite a bit as a baby but has learned that nothing bad happens and is resigned to it.  He will never enjoy it, we just do it swiftly and get him to a shoulder as fast as we can where he feels safe.  Once out he is a love, just doesn't happen to like the "picking up" part!!! 

[DebW]

Thanks for all of the reassurances and advice.  I've never had one like this before.  I'm finding that it's not always an every day thing.  I'll keep track of the hormone issue and try coaxing her into something besides my hand.  Once she's in my hands or on my shoulder, she's just perfectly fine.  Hopefully, it's just a stage and will pass quickly.  I've never had a rat that I've raised from a pinky be scared of me before.  It makes me kind of sad.

[Melanie]

I had a female that was hand raised by me and had that sort of behavior.  It turned out that she had an underdeveloped brain.  An autopsy was done when she passed on at 7 weeks old.