Merry and Pippin’s parents were both bought from a pet shop and their owners were breeding litters to sell back to the shop.  The babies were rarely handled except to dump them in a box on the rare occasion their cage was cleaned.  On one of these occasions Merry managed to struggle free and was then chased around the living room for about half an hour.  As a result of this he has a strong fear of being handled and is very nervous of humans.

 

Once you manage to gain his trust Merry is actually a very sweet-natured little rat as long as you don’t try to hold him in your hands.  He definitely prefers to stay in his cage although occasionally he’ll decide that he wants to come out and will climb onto your shoulder.  Unfortunately his nerves usually get the better of him after a couple of minutes and he gets panicky until he can get back into the cage.

 

Merry shares a Freddy 2 cage with his brother Pippin and little wonky Bilbo.