Velo's Intro Thread [Advice pls?]

[jorats]

I love seeing the girls run around. So happy!
And ya, I've got squeakers who squeak just because they want too, it doesn't mean anything.
I love how good Rocky is doing. This is just fantastic. It even shows in your behaviour too. You seem much more comfortable too, even some episodes, you don't get too worked up, you keep your cool.
Oh another tip about a bad pin or a code pin, look at the other two girls, if they don't freeze or look worries, then it's ok. But if the girls become alerted and worried, then it's a bad pin.
So the pin at 21 min I saw I believe Pika hoping around happily so that usually tells me that the Rizzy pin was not a big deal. But that doesn't mean that it might not turn bad but so far... everything seems good.

 

[Velo]

Well things weren't as great tonight. Still fine but rocky wanted to wrap the girls. :\
He got a few flip/pins on Rizzy (kinda relentless but the others seemed fine and so did she) and flipped Theia once too.
I just didn't like the wrapping and you can tell the girls don't either. They don't mind flips/pins but the wraps make them uncomfortable, you can see it in their body language.

 

[jorats]

A couple of days into familiar ground always goes worse because they are now established and getting used to each other. We are still on track.

 

[Velo]

I agree I'm still happy with how things are going. It was a bit rushed tonight unfortunately as I had a lot going on (I should have been asleep by now too oops) and distracted a bit.

Excited to see how things go tomorrow though! :3

 

[Velo]

I'm having some serious allergy issues and can't find any meds that don't make me automatically pass out. So don't mind all my sniffling. ~_~
And I also show off my weird new toy (at like 14 min mark) because I thought it'd be interesting to you guys. They didn't figure it out yet but they seemed to like it.
Oh and I drop a loud F Bomb at 33. So uh, not PG.
Of course not much is caught on camera. Might have to do a video where I carry around a cam to show exactly what is up.
I guess it actually was better than I thought, I mean he was pushy a few times but not like 100% of the time.

http://youtu.be/EkW1PuoamFs

 

[dspch911]

Try taking an allergy pill at bedtime then it won't matter if you fall asleep.

 

[Velo]

I thought about that last night after I was already in bed hah! I'm a bit worried it will make it hard for me to wake up in the morning though so it's better if I test it on a non-work night.

 

[jorats]

Oh you know what would be so cool, a tiny GoPro camera on Rocky. LOL
BTW, I'm an f-bomber too. lol and other colourful words.
Watching the vid now.

 

[Velo]

Holy poop, that'd be great. My dad has 1 or 2 of those.
Don't know how I'd get it on Rocky though, I doubt he'd appreciate a camera strapped to him LOL!

Ah that's good. I feel bad re-watching these, it's like 1 swear every 10 non-swears. X3

 

[jorats]

That's a very cool toy. You'll have to let us know how well they like it.
It sounds like they are getting along really good. Nose to nose is sweet.
I too agree that he's just trying to play and engaging the girls in his play too.
Still going good!

 

[jorats]

What happens if you let him do the wrapping? I doubt he would hurt them now.
Or if you are still not comfortable, when you remove him and say no, put your hand on him and gently squeeze and press down on his head, like as if you are wrapping him.

 

[Velo]

Ya I thought so! We'll see how they can figure it out. I'm contemplating coming up with my own toy to mass produce for rats, not super happy with all the choices out there. Thought this one was new and cool though.

I like it when he tries to play I just want him to stop that darn wrapping. It seems when I yell at him he loosens his grip enough for a girl to escape, at least from what I noticed. Other than that I'm not sure what to do to discourage it.

Can't wait till they can share the cage so I don't have to constantly peel them off the outside hehe.

 

[Velo]

[ah posted before I saw your second one]

What happens if you let him do the wrapping?
Well he's "gotten away" with wrapping a few times, since I haven't been fast enough in the chaos of the rat room.
The girls seem to be able to escape, I can think of twice where I didn't stop him in a time, but a girl managed to bolt out without an accidental ow-y.

I'm more worried about accidental injury than intentional. And of course the girl's comfort level, since they seem to detest it LOL.

Do you think a faux wrap would show him "hey this sucks and is uncomfortable"?

Honestly I wish I could just turn my back and see what happens sometimes. XD But if anything happened the guilt would kill me.

 

[jorats]

If he was mine, I would ignore a few wraps, just to see where it goes. All we know, it could mean a big bear hug for the girl. LOL

 

[Velo]

Alright I'll let him but I will sweet talk him when he does it. I'm convinced my baby talk and weird songs calm him down ha!

If it's like the past then he will just keep doing it until it escalates into a rat ball but maybe it will change in the new environment?

What about flipping/pinning/kicking/punching behavior? I let him do that stuff but I stop him when he becomes what I think is "relentless". Should I not, is he maybe trying to play? That's when his guard hairs go up.

 

[jorats]

I would let him do it but try to redirect with kissy noises. If he doesn't redirect and he's too focused, then stop it.

 

[Velo]

Mmk I'll see what he does tonight.
We'll see how the evening goes. We were expecting / hoping for a lot of trick or treaters (first halloween in our house) but the weather here is not very good for it. Poor kiddos!

 

[dspch911]

Mmk I'll see what he does tonight.
We'll see how the evening goes. We were expecting / hoping for a lot of trick or treaters (first halloween in our house) but the weather here is not very good for it. Poor kiddos!

What?, you don't like the snow we are getting?? How the heck could Monday have been so beautiful and five days later we have snow???

 

[Velo]

I can't even believe it!
I hate it when it snows before December it's just wrong!
It's so windy too. =_=

 

[jorats]

We had quite the snow storm today. I hate it!