Posted by:
Roger Van Couwen
at Thu Sep 27 09:24:33 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Roger Van Couwen ]
Hello, I have a Blackthroat that is about 20 pounds. My question has to do with handling. I don't want to make a pet of him, and I've left him un-pestered until now. What I want to do is get him to let me handle him enough to get to the vet's without him going crazy.
So until now I've kept my hands off him because I didn't want to stress him. My hope is that now he is an adolescent, and is able to take some handling stress without having it affect his physiology.
Some of you remember he has a room of his own to roam, on two levels; the floor and 6 feet up. It never gets below 85 in there. I think he's hunting now, because I hear him knockning round in there sometimes.
When i feed him, I just quickly lay the mice in front of him. He nose hisses only a little at this. But now at different times I've added gently holding his left front leg for 10 seconds, stroking his back for 10 seconds, hold hid rear left leg for 10 seconds, and hold the base of his tail for 20 seconds. I towel over his tail to keep it from slap-breaking.
He nose-hisses terribly at all this, which is ok with me, and bends his snout down to my fingers on his leg. I'm afraid he's going to finally suddenly bite me. His body and jaw shape make me afraid to be bitten by him. I bet he could break a finger easily, or take an end off.
Is there an intermediate bite-threat display before he bites? This question is the main reason I wrote this post.
Roger
Thank you
[ Hide Replies ]
 Display behavior - Roger Van Couwen, Thu Sep 27 09:24:33 2007
|
