# Please Help! Did I handle this right? Trust after an accident.



## Ruairidh (Aug 29, 2011)

I accidentally pulled my baby girl's tail to keep her from falling five feet, and now she's calmed down, but she's still not trusting me quite yet. 

I had Khoma, my unashamed favourite, on my shoulder to take her and put her back in her cage after I cleaned it, and tripped and she fell. I caught her by the tail, and it jerked her twice as I tried to keep her from falling. She lept from me into her cage, and I continued with my chores. I come back by the cage, and rather than greeting me at the bars, as Phee (her cousin) did, and Khoma usually does, she cowered in the corner and began hyperventilating. Hyperventilating turned into wheezing, and I took her out of her cage to give her a little bit of chocolate (it usually helps her lungs), but she was tense, scared, and continued to hyperventilate and wheeze. I held her on my chest under my sweater, which is her favourite place, and waiting for a half an hour until she took the chocolate, and immediately after finishing it, she sneezed and the wheezing stopped. The hyperventilation slowed and I put her back in her cage, and for the rest of the night I've been plying her with treats, and she'll take food out of my hand again now. She still won't come into one of the places where I can pick her up, but she's much calmer now, and is no longer scared when I put my hand in the cage. I have clothes and items that smell like me in their cage, but I'm just... worried. She's my baby.

I guess I would just like to know if a) she'll be okay in the long run, 2) I did that right, and Fish) there's anything more I can do to help her trust me again? 

Thanks?


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## Qku. (Apr 29, 2011)

Well, one of my rats got quite the scare when my dad tried to catch her, and she writhed so hard she tore her own nail out. She was pretty skittish for the next week and still a little relatively skittish for the week after that (even bit me again, while she had stopped that), but she got over it without much problems. And she's a rat that's kind of a scaredy-..rat, and she's almost always relatively skittish.
I don't know if you handled it right, I'm thinking you did fine, but of what I noticed it can be she will still be kind of freaked out for a couple of days, but it shouldn't last.


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## calisphere (Oct 25, 2011)

What a situation when our pets don't realize that we do what we do to protect them! I'm sure after a few days she'll remember that you're a great owner and bounce back. I don't know if cats "milk it" likes dogs do, but I think just going slow and treating her as you normally would is the way to go, with a few extra treats along the way.


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## Ruairidh (Aug 29, 2011)

Well, since last night I've acquired a tub of (All-natural, low-sugar, organic, non-GMO) Chocolate Covered Cherries, which are Koma's favourite, and have picked out a couple of the smaller ones and cut them into quarters to be Rat-sized. With a small bowl full of these for treats, I am letting her play in the warm, dark, dad-scented playground that is my hoody. I'll get her to come out of the cage, put her in my hoody with a treat, and let her play until she feels like leaving, at which point she goes back in the cage. Wait for her to want to come out again, and repeat. 

I've also poured frozen peas into their Diggy Box, which both are appreciating mightily. 

This seems to be working.


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## calisphere (Oct 25, 2011)

Yay for progress! She'll come around. Who can resist chocolate covered cherries? I can't and I hate cherries. Lol. I'm such a girl.


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## Kinsey (Jun 14, 2009)

I've found that nervous or traumatized ratties tend to really like it if every time they see you something good happens. My nervous baby I took in recently is responding well. I started out by opening the cage and either stroking her or setting food in front of her. If I couldn't do that I would just talk softly when I walked by. Pretty soon, despite frequent medicating, she runs to the side of the cage and climbs the bars when I come near.

It sounds like you are doing a great job- be patient and she will come around.


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## BigBen (Nov 22, 2011)

My rats seem to trust me in spite of a couple of mishaps the first few days (I am a first-time owner and have been learning the ropes). It doesn't seem to take them long to get over things, especially if one comes bearing treats (as is a human being's proper role in the world!).

I also find that my rats' willingness to be cuddled and picked up also varies throughout the day, depending on how awake they are and what mood they're in. One of my girls will squeak like death if I try to pick her up when she wants to do something else, but even then she is usually glad to end up on the bed or inside Daddy's shirt. So if you seem to be losing progress at some point, it may have more to do with her current mood than with the remembered trauma.


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## Amy03 (Dec 23, 2011)

It was probably just a little bit of a shock to her, she'll bounce back before you know it. one of mine once jumped off of a 5ft high mirror into a poster thinking it was a real place, she ran away and hid afterwards and wouldn't come near me for a a day or two and carried on hiding and just generally acting out of character for about a week. I started to think that she would never be the same but before I knew it she was back to her usual mischievous self stealing food off my plate and knocking glasses over so she could drink from them, I should have appreciated the peace while I had it lol.


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