Terrfied Rescue Robo

[Nerys]

Hi all,

So, I was in P@H on the weekend where I was planning to buy some toys for the Syrians. I thought I'd have a look at the adoption centre and saw this little face:




They think she is a female and was taken from her group and returned to the pet store because she was 'too fast'. She had been sat in this plain little cage, on her own for two months. No one had shown any interest in her in that time, so I couldn't leave her there!

Now here's the problem. The poor little thing is terrified of everything! (Understandable really). She panics when we go in the same room as her cage, she spent the first night huddled in a corner shaking and bolts at the smallest noise. I've been looking on here for advice and have put her in a room on her own, and covered the top of the cage with a blanket to try and make her feel more secure.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do to help her settle? Or is it just time and patience? I hate to see the little thing so frightened

[GhostsInSnow]

Time and patience. Leave her for a few days, only do food and water changes. Then talk to her whilst you do them, sit with your hand in the cage and put treats in if you want. They are super fast so make sure if you want to pick her up, get her to go into a jar or a cup.
My Robo was from P@H adoption too. He'd been taken from his group instore as they attacked him and was terrified when he came here. I got him the end of January and he will now take treats from me and I can perform a health check on him and weigh him weekly.
It really is all about time and patience and going at your Robos pace. Some don't ever really like being held. Good luck with her though

[_nod]

Aww, I'm glad she's found a home.

As you say - time and patience is what she needs.

We got our two Robos from a family who'd grown bored of them and wanted a puppy. I think they'd wanted pets they could easily handled and a couple of fast and frightened robos weren't right. From what we heard, there were some close calls with the family cat too. :/

So it's no wonder when we got them home they were terrified, we hardly saw them for days other than mad dashes from their nest to the food bowl or water bottle. Slowly but surely however we began to see more and more of them. We still don't handle them much, as they are still fairly timid compared to all the hamsters I've had previously, but the change in them is unbelievable from those first few weeks.

[samzyzg]

I would say time and patience
I've had my little Loki for just over a year now and he is still terrified of me. Only recently has he managed to not necessarily run away at the sound of my voice however he will rarely come out when I in the room and if he does it's for a quick drink or to grab some food from the food bowl.

[kyrilliondaemon]

Yeah, time and patience is essential.
Our robo Whizz is a great example of that - for five months we scarcely saw her, then one night I dropped some treats in and she was brave enough to let us watch her eat them. It was a huge breakthrough but it needed five months of patience before we got there. Now she'll take big treats from my fingers if she's feeling brave and I stretch to keep my hand as far away as possible, but she doesn't care if we're awake when she is - she's learnt that if she wants to be ignored we're happy to "ignore" her
The other rescue robo we got at the same time was more confident though, Skip let us see him from the start and at one phase in life he got up to beg for treats every time he heard us go in/out of the room
We've also got Muffin and Lucky. Muffin has never been scared but doesn't see the point in being sociable with us lol. Lucky is another rescue and... I've not seen him in over a week so I think that says it all really... He'll get more confident in the end though, just have to be patient in the meantime

[Pompompoms]

Oh bless her, she's likely not had a huge amount of interaction, and that which she did have could have been quite frightening.

My Lilly when she had her operation was similar, I'd had to take her away from her babies, she's been knocked out, operated on, then woken up a very poorly girl and completely terrified.
I kept her in a room on her own with the curtains closed, and in total peace while she gained her confidence again.

Your little one needs to know she is safe, does she have lots of things to hide under? If she can make her way around with lots of hidey places she will feel more confident. She needs to learn that your voice, your smell, and you entering her cage to change water/add food pose her no threat whatsoever. Give her plenty of time, speak to her softly, leave lots of lovely things to eat so that is what she associates you with.
She will start to relax, and you'll notice as her behavior will change. You can then take steps forward offering her food, and hopefully moving toward picking her up in the end.
She's a beautiful little lady, and I'm so happy to read she's found a loving safe home

[Nerys]

Thank you It's good to know I've not been doing anything wrong at least.

She's a little less terrified than she was, I've put a lot of tubes, blocks and houses in her cage so she has plenty of hiding places and that seems to have helped! She's come out twice to sniff at us (before running to the safety of her tube!) and has eaten a seed in front of us. It sounds so small, but I think it's a positive sign to her one day calming down. I'm not really bothered about holding her if that's not what she wants, as long as she is happy, safe and relaxed in her cage I'm happy