THE STORY OF BILLY

Billy was a baby rat sold to a petshop , he was bought by someone who then brought him back to the petshop saying that he kept biting. The petshop then put him into a cage and only got him out of the cage once a week because they were frightened of him. The workers were sweeping him on to a dustpan using the brush to get him on there. A friend heard of this and I decided to give him a home.

DAY 1 My 10 yr old son went to pick him up and he bit him, I began to think had I made a huge mistake, my son did have chocolate on his hands and I wondered if this had caused the situation.

DAY 2 My husband held him and he bit him, at this point I realised he didn’t like any other males near him or where he has been.

DAY 6 I stroked Billy whilst he was running over our bed and he went up to my husband and bit him on the leg.

I always said it was 3 strikes and he was out, I didn’t want to put him down but everyone was getting very wary of him. So I did the next best thing, I asked a nice and knowledgeable lady on the Internet if she could help me. She e-mailed me back explaining what would be going on in Billy’s head and suggested a lot of things I could do. So armed with this information I gave Billy treats when he came out of cage treats when he let me hold him, after two weeks Billy had stopped biting and I could pick him up and cuddle and kiss him and he’s a real sweetie. My husband regularly holds him now but my son is still wary and strokes him when an adult holds him, but he will let Billy run over him when he sits on the floor.