Message:
Subject: Re: PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
Posted by Susan Smith on December 31, 1998 at 12:12:07:
In Reply to: Re: PLEASE HELP!!!!!! posted by Twinklebelle on December 31, 1998 at 01:17:51:
Thanks Twinkle, your note was very encouraging. My male has been with me for almost 2 weeks and the female for almost a week. They both crab at me like crazy, but she is vicious. My hands and arms look like I've been fighting with a Bengai tiger, I swear. Today I decided to wear some cotton gloves when handling them, I can't take the bites anymore. I know they don't suggest gloves, but in this instance, do you think it's ok? I've been somewhat discouraged about this whole thing - discouraged and abused! I'm glad to have this forum for advice and ideas and just to know that there are others out there going through the same thing. Thanks.
: Roy~
: I don't know what "duck cloth" is, but I have carried my gliders around in a pouch made out of denim from day one. It buttons like yours too. I do not know if they liked it back then, but I did it during the day and they were asleep most of the time so they may not have really registered it as "being in a pouch" but it sure got them used to my voice and the movement and being with me and that is good. But I have heard that you have to be careful to not get them too used to the pouch or else they won't feel comfy when they aren't in it.
: Sorry about your biting incident. I got my two gliders at different times. My boy I got about 1 1/2 months before the girl. He was crabby and I remember that for the first couple months he was so sensitive that he crabbed at me all the time and hardly let me hold him...let alone let anyone else handle him. BUT the good news is that now I have had him about 5 months and he is everyone's favorite. He is suprising everyone by his passive nature. He is mellow and goes to anyone. The girl was mellow from the start, but the second day I had her I went in in the morning to see how she was and I picked her up and she FREAKED OUT! She just started crabbing the lungs out of her and biting my hand as I was holding her like nothing else. I had never seen her do anything like this...from the moment I brought her home I had heard her crab maybe 3 times at the most and now here she was biting my hand off! I was shocked and REALLY nervous...was this how she was going to behave for the rest of her life? But when I think about it, both of my babies did really wierd things within the first 2 weeks to a month within bringing them home. I think they were scared and children and you know that children do not always behave how they will when they are grown up. Now they are both wonderful and fully bonded. Passive and social.
: SO the moral of this story is that they will do things when they first come home that they most likely won't do when they grow a bit and bond a bit. Give them some time and a whole LOT of trust (I think they become what you believe them to be)
: I hope this will help you....I know how nervewracking it can be at first...feels like all that bonding stuff works for everyone else and not you, but I am living proof that if you hang in there they will become your best friends. I never leave home without one or the other or both.
: Good luck and hang in there!!! TRIUMPH!!! :D
: Twinkle