Advice for aggressive biting behaviour? PLease?

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marlo

New member
Joined
Dec 11, 2012
Messages
2
Hello all, Marlo the hedgehog and I are in a tough situation. One of siblings bought her three months ago at a pet store, by now I believe she is a little over four months old. At first, she was very sociabl, trusting, friendly, and cooperative. Gradually, she began aggressive biting behaviour, it’s hard to say exactly when and at what rate because she is not my hedgehog. I would handle her sometimes too, and as far as everyone goes she would lick and nip sometimes, that wasn’t a big problem. Almost always however, it would escalate from that into aggressive, bruise inflicting bites, sometimes even with enough pressure to draw blood. Or else she’ll skip the tasting entirely and get straight to hard biting.
Now, this has made her scary. My sibling has somewhat abandoned Marlo; she still lives with us but the original owner no longer looks after her or socializes with her. I didn’t really want to take on the responsibility. I do like Marlo but I’m also dealing with clinical Anxiety and Depression, both are moderately severe and debilitating and I don’t think I’m consistent enough for a pet. I don’t want to let Marlo waste away though, I take care of her essentials and bring her out at least every couple days for half an hour or more. I handle her but only with my sweater sleeves (which she also bites and tugs at) but she doesn’t seem to like that. I feed her meal worms each time she comes out to try and get her to enjoy the experience. It takes a lot of bravery to put my fingers around her and I don’t do it often. Each time I do she bites them hard not right away, but it is almost inevitable, and with my anxiety I can’t calm down. I’m worried I might hurt her if she bites me. They’ve already incited a panic attack once before, but luckily I was able to keep my cool just long enough to get her away from me. Marlo is very aggressive and I’m not sure why, either that or she is only kind of aggressive and also loves to bite things. Either way, if you’ve been patient enough to read this long post please help me understand what to do.
 
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