When Luz first owned me, he was quite the foot chomper. I still have the
scars on the tops of my poor lil feet to show off! He was a pet store boy
whom I had met before arriving in the big FFZ, and after about 6 months of
working with him, he's as lovey-dovey as can be. He wasn't handled very
much, and very much enjoyed attaching himself to exposed flesh (feet, noses,
chins). And the boy had to be *pried* off. Big time owies for Mommy. =)
I basically tried *everything*. The two I had lived with before Luz were
never biters, so this was a completely new experience to me. Bitter apple
sprayed on my foot didn't deter him. Squirting him with water while he was
attached to my foot didn't help -- he would just lick the water off, and
CHOMP!!
So, I gave up on all of the above, and decided to work with him on his, umm,
behavioral problems. The boy would chomp... I would scruff him, tell him
how disappointed I was, and give him a time-out in a carrier.
Alternatively, I would hold him (he'd rather be playing) instead of giving
him a time-out so he could reflect on the bad thing he did. =) It took
quite a bit of time, patience, and bandaids :-) but he's changed from the
unsocialized little beast to a mostly gentle 4.25 pound (just weighed him)
baby. I don't think he was ever being vicious or mean -- he just didn't
know any better. These days, he's my only lap fert, and loves to lick the
bottom of my feet. A total Momma's boy. Go figure. =)
To the person from the GA fert org who suggested the fly swatter/act of god
method for distracting Simmi (bite and run spaz-fert)... Well, I didn't have
a fly swatter, so I swatted in her general direction with a magazine.
Needless to say, she's the happy new owner of an old news magazine. She
went into her spaz-mode war dance and stole the magazine. Silly fert. I
don't want to encourage her newfound nippiness... but it's hard to catch
something that seems to move at the speed of light! She's about to turn a
year old, and *more* hyper than ever. Maybe she's found some mysterious
energy source under the dresser? Could the FLO be responsible???
Hmm...
- Alyssa
[Posted in FML issue 1744]
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