- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
- Messages
- 345
So either my rosey is especially hungry, or she is trying to kill me! 
Given that the shop she's from over fed her (2 med crix a day!), and she ate 3 large crix less than a week ago (she's about 4"), I'm inclined to think its the later...
She's been very calm for the week and a half or so that I've had her - mostly being the standard pet rock (though a pet rock who is in a different spot every time I look). At the shop she made threat poses when taken out, but didn't bite the hand that was holding her, just put on a big show. Since then she's been pretty calm, she grabbed her food fairly quickly, but mostly has been slow moving, responding to a gentle nudge to move elsewhere in the enclosure easily, etc.
Today however was a bit different. I walked into the room and as I approached she charged halfway up the cage towards me with her legs up and then stopped. I thought maybe she was just spooked and heading towards her hide. This was supported when I moved the cage to open it (wanting to clean up some poop and the boluses I finally found! (she hides them it seems)) and she ran into her coconut hut hide. I opened the cage and reached in with my tongs to grab one of the boluses and she came charging out and grabbed at the tongs! She hovered over that bolus in a threat posture, so I moved away to clean up some poop on the opposite end of the cage, then tried to pick up something closer and she charged again!
After some careful maneuvering I got all but one bolus that she was sitting on. So I very gently touched her back leg with the tongs - previously this resulted in her calmly stepping forward. Today however she whipped around and grabbed at the tongs again! After seeing her do this a couple times I altered my strategy and gentley touched her front feet so she'd charge, moving my tongs where I wanted her to go so I could get to that last bolus! She cooperated quite fiercely!
Since she is now more likely to be settled in than she was originally, I'm thinking this may be more of her personality than the more docile one I saw earlier. Perhaps I got the luck of the draw and ended up with a less than docile rosey. Or maybe she's a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. Or this may have been a freak occurance. :?
Honestly, since I never intended on handling much (mostly for her safety), I'm mostly amused at the idea that I may have gotten a rosey that fit her petshop description "Flame Chilean Rosehair" with a firey personality! I was laughing the whole time I tried to clean her enclosure watching her attacks (and very glad I took the precaution of using tongs to clean and not just my hand!). It will be fun to see if her personality continues to develop in this direction, or if she goes back to being a rock again....
Anyways, just wanted to share since it was quite an amusing adventure to clean her cage out! She may prove to be quite an interesting first T!
Given that the shop she's from over fed her (2 med crix a day!), and she ate 3 large crix less than a week ago (she's about 4"), I'm inclined to think its the later...
She's been very calm for the week and a half or so that I've had her - mostly being the standard pet rock (though a pet rock who is in a different spot every time I look). At the shop she made threat poses when taken out, but didn't bite the hand that was holding her, just put on a big show. Since then she's been pretty calm, she grabbed her food fairly quickly, but mostly has been slow moving, responding to a gentle nudge to move elsewhere in the enclosure easily, etc.
Today however was a bit different.
I walked into the room and as I approached she charged halfway up the cage towards me with her legs up and then stopped. I thought maybe she was just spooked and heading towards her hide. This was supported when I moved the cage to open it (wanting to clean up some poop and the boluses I finally found! (she hides them it seems)) and she ran into her coconut hut hide. I opened the cage and reached in with my tongs to grab one of the boluses and she came charging out and grabbed at the tongs! She hovered over that bolus in a threat posture, so I moved away to clean up some poop on the opposite end of the cage, then tried to pick up something closer and she charged again! After some careful maneuvering I got all but one bolus that she was sitting on. So I very gently touched her back leg with the tongs - previously this resulted in her calmly stepping forward. Today however she whipped around and grabbed at the tongs again! After seeing her do this a couple times I altered my strategy and gentley touched her front feet so she'd charge, moving my tongs where I wanted her to go so I could get to that last bolus! She cooperated quite fiercely!
Since she is now more likely to be settled in than she was originally, I'm thinking this may be more of her personality than the more docile one I saw earlier. Perhaps I got the luck of the draw and ended up with a less than docile rosey. Or maybe she's a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. Or this may have been a freak occurance. :?
Honestly, since I never intended on handling much (mostly for her safety), I'm mostly amused at the idea that I may have gotten a rosey that fit her petshop description "Flame Chilean Rosehair" with a firey personality! I was laughing the whole time I tried to clean her enclosure watching her attacks (and very glad I took the precaution of using tongs to clean and not just my hand!). It will be fun to see if her personality continues to develop in this direction, or if she goes back to being a rock again....
Anyways, just wanted to share since it was quite an amusing adventure to clean her cage out!
She may prove to be quite an interesting first T!