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Author Topic: When a chinchilla misbehaves  (Read 4711 times)

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nemue

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When a chinchilla misbehaves
« on: April 10, 2008, 08:45:04 AM »

I was just wondering if people have soemthing they do to stop a chinchilla from misbehaving.  My Kira, my spunky little girl, was being just a brat yesterday.  She knows she's doing things she shouldn't, like chewing on the window sill, but I can't do anything to stop her.  I spray my cats with water, but I can't spray them.  I've tried shaking a jar of pennies, thinking they're so jumpy, and if you can believe it, neither of them budged!  The only way I can do something to stop her is to pet her.  She's affectionate with me, but doesn't like me to touch her.  I don't like this though, as I don't want her to associate being touched with being bad. 

Another thing she does is gets out of the room.  There is NOTHING I can do to keep her in if she wants out.  When I clean the cage I walk in and out a couple of times, and she always gets out.  We usually then close all the bedroom doors but hers and my husband sits on the top of the stairs to stop her going down and we wait for her to go back to her room.  But she's getting sneakier.  Oddly, last night my husband had just finished telling me off for "letting" her out, when she ran past him and got downstairs!    rofl  That girl has no fear!  I love her to bits, her spunk makes her fun, but I want to find a way to control her a little better.

Does anyone have any ideas of how I can get her to listen to me?  Any training tips?  I have them litter trained, so I know it's possible with how smart they are.  I just don't know what to do!   

Thanks for your help!
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Beth

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2008, 02:15:33 PM »

Aw, Nemue.  I didn't know what to write in reply, and I'm sorry no one else does either!  I've noticed that Lulu is usually bad when she's out longer than I usually let her.

Maybe put a doggie-gate at the top of the stairs and when she gets out, have your husband come in to the room with you.  Act like you're having a ball, and ignore her.  She'll surely run in to see what all the fuss is about!

Good luck!
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Missy8964

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2008, 09:17:33 AM »

how did you litter train her?
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Brazilnut

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2008, 12:17:57 PM »

This might sound a little crazy...but there's a program for pets out there called "Clicker Training." If you go to clickertraining.com you can watch incredible videos of horses, rabbits, even fish obeying their owners! Basically, you can train your chin by pressing a clicker device (it makes a click-click sound) and immediately give them a treat (or a small piece of one) for good behavior. There are no punishments for bad behavior! :flames: You can make special cues...so if Kara is chewing on something she shouldn't, you could try to train her to come to you when called, OR direct her attention to something else by using Target training. The clicker device cost less than $2, and you can pretty much figure out what to do by reading the articles & watching the videos on the website.

Check it  out...
Link to video page: http://www.clickertraining.tv/subject.html?cat=Free%20Flicks
Rabbit video: http://www.clickertraining.tv/product.html?item=FREE-04
Chinchilla video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1o1YTKKmcEE

PS- Has anyone ever tried this on their chinchilla???
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nemue

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2008, 12:55:15 PM »

I read about clicker training yesterday!  too funny, must be a sign.  I"m going to find a clicker and see what I can do.  Anyone ever trained an animal like this? 

The lady I bought my used cage from told me how to litter train them.  She even gave me a pan.  It's a litter box for ferrets, that hooks on the cage so it doesn't slide.  It's plastic, but my girls don't chew on plastic, so I feel ok about it.  When they peed, I scooped the pee into the litter pan until they always went there.  When the shavings in the pan get saturated, they pee just outside it like a cat does to a litter box!  crazy things.  It took less than a month.  TIP:  be careful pciking where the tray is going to go, because once they're trained to a corner, you can't change it!  When I clean the cage, I just put the pan in the dishwasher, and change the shavings.  There's no scrubbing like there was in the beginning.
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Leslie

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2008, 03:54:46 PM »

two words: play pen.
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Dan

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2008, 05:39:57 AM »

What I do to keep my naughty chin from being bad (He chews the molding in the bathroom a LOT! It looks awful  :flames:) I tell him "BE NICE!" and pull him back..recently he just pulls back when i say the words.
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Missy8964

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Re: When a chinchilla misbehaves
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2008, 04:08:38 PM »

I read about clicker training yesterday!  too funny, must be a sign.  I"m going to find a clicker and see what I can do.  Anyone ever trained an animal like this? 

The lady I bought my used cage from told me how to litter train them.  She even gave me a pan.  It's a litter box for ferrets, that hooks on the cage so it doesn't slide.  It's plastic, but my girls don't chew on plastic, so I feel ok about it.  When they peed, I scooped the pee into the litter pan until they always went there. 


ooooooh, when you said litter train I thought you meant that you taught your chin to poop in a litter box.  Now THAT would have been impressive, lol.  Although urine training is useful as well.

As far as "clicker training", don't even waste your money on a device!  You can use anything that makes a distinct sound - a treat container, your mouth, snapping fingers, whatever. The sound should be unique though, and very distinguishable.   You just have to pair that sound with something REALLY rewarding (their favorite treat) but you must be consistent with it while your chin is learning the association.  During training, the sound MUST ALWAYS signal that the treat is coming in the next few seconds.  They'll catch on to it quickly, most likely within a week.  Also, during training you must not give the treat without the sound preceeding it.  Once they've learned the association of treat and sound however, they should continue to respond to the sound, even if a treat does not follow. (Sort of like how gamblers keep pulling on the slot machine lever, even though they don't win every time)   I work in a laboratory that does behavioral experiments on rats and mice so I use what I learned there on my chinchillas, lol.

Here is just an example of how your chin has probably already been conditioned:  When you pull out the treats to give to your chin, I bet they know whats coming, right?  The treats probably make a distinct noise and then soon after they get a treat.  Now when they hear the noise they get all excited because they know a treat is coming.  Same goes for dustbaths - when my chins hear me tapping on the dustbath, they make a mad dash for it because they know they'll be rewarded if they come.

And Brazilnut is absolutely right, do not use punishment for bad behavior - it will just make your chin jumpy, nervous and stressed. 
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