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]