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[Abishain]

Greetings,

I bought my Chin from Petco. She is 7 months old. It has only been two days and she runs to the cage nibbles at our fingers and jumps on command in the air. Sooo funny. How long before I can allow her out to play in bathroom. She sleeps at night , woke up at dawn and will allow a stroke on her nose. She does not like to be held but will remain at bars of gate  to gaze at you. No barking or signs of discomfort. How long should I keep her in cage?

[GrayRodent]

If she is not afraid of you or being touched or petted or runs away from your hand every time you put in the cage then you're ready to have a run in the bathroom. A dust bath in the bathroom might be good too to start out. If she doesn't like to be petted that is okay too as long as she doesn't fear your hands. Otherwise it can set back the taming process especially when you have to pick her up to put her back. Otherwise just give her another two days and you'll probably see improvement. Definitely start with the nose and you can move back towards the neck and back a little at a time as she gets used to that. Chins that are not socialized typically will tolerate being touched on the back the least. Think like an animal designed to flee from predators.

It sounds like this one is somewhat calm but it can be hard to tame a chinchilla after 7 months if they have not been handled regularly. I had a similar experience with my first chin. He wasn't afraid of people and I started working on him the next day after I got him but it was weeks of hard work before I could hold him more than 20 seconds without him flipping out.

Although she does not like being held it won't hurt to hold her in very short sessions every day. Eventually she will learn to tolerate it and even crave that sometime in the future like mine did.

Also get her used to being held at the base of the tail. If you can have one hand on that tail base it makes it safer and easier to control the chinchilla. When you first do this you probably will get some fur slip so be careful.

Hope it works well for you.

[Abishain]

Thanks for your reply, it was very helpful. She did very well during bathroom run. Can hold her fro a minute but she still rather roam and then jump into my lap. She even comes to the cage to greet the dog. Amazing! I thought it would be months before she warmed up.  Her cage is too small had to order another one, hopping for a smooth transition.

[Jessica Williams]

Play with her right away as much as possible.  She needs to get used to you.