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[flaviana]

I ve had my chinchilla for 8 months, he s a little boy named Gorgonzola. And he s my first chinchilla so i didn t actually know how to act around him and play with him.
 So he never comes to me if i call him, only when he hears the jar of raisins, he takes one and runs away. I thought he just doesn t like to stay with me because i know they re not like cats, who stay in your lap and purr, i know chinchillas are a bit independent and don t like being held in ones hands.
 But he always runs away from me, and there were times i didn t have time to call him or trick him into getting in the cage, so i had to run after him and chase him.

 Do you think i can do something so that he can trust me? I mean after 8 months, could i change his/our habits? Or after such a long time there isn t anything i can do ?

[jmdebb]

hi, first of all, too many raisins is very dangerous.  please only use them super sparingly.  you can use old fashioned oats [not the instant], rose hips, rose buds, unfrosted cherrios and shredded wheat, peppermint, chamomile just to name a few.

never chase a chin, it takes time for them to warm up to you. they don't like to be picked up but you can work with him to get him to come to you.

here something i did with my first chin, it was easy, because i only had him, but i never did it with the others and wish i had.

i worked with treats [but not too many] and every day i would put a treat on my hand, he would come up and eat it, then i would slowly move the treat up my arm until i reached my shoulder [every time i would move the treat up further, he would go to the treat to eat it, but i held my arm still not to freighten him]. to this day [he is about 5] if i put my hands in his cage and do not reach for him, he will come to me and climb on me. but it does take time.. be patient and you will get there.

i'm sure others will come on and tell you how they did it, always more than one way to skin a cat.

good luck, be patient.  they are prey animals out in the wild and they are very afraid, so you need to earn their trust, but it will happen.
best of luck

jean

[BambiLove]

I don't think a chinchilla would come to you if you call him (like a dog). What I did is that i spent a lot of time next to his cage and just talk to him...like hii bambi, how are you? blah blah blah hehe then i would open the cage door and let him come out as he please. I never put my hand into his cage and force him to come to me...well I did once and he bit me until i bleed. My chinchilla would come the door and i would give him an oat in return. Sometimes i'd pet him once or twice until he run away but i never go after him. It's been a year now and we bonded pretty well. Whenever I sleep next to his cage he would come out and go under the blanket and climb all over me, sometimes he would sleep there  you can try the blanket thing, just make sure he has air in there

[dianah]

what i do is stick my hand in the cage, as near the chin as i can before they freak out. to start with, i'd have stuff to give them like a chew or a hay cube (most often than not, they'll come and grab it, if not, i'd just leave it in the cage but as near me as possible) or a few rolled oats (this one's pretty good as they stay near to get all the oats and then they proceed to check you have no more left)

i find that they like hands and are intrigued by them. they will come and nibble away - if this happens, make sure you move your hand slightly or they will bite too hard until they learn just how hard they can bite. same goes for them moving from the nail onto softer bits because even though they've nibbled on a finger before, once they get to the nail, they think the rest of the fingers is this hard.
after a while they will learn you don't have a ridiculous amount of fur and just how hard they can bite and will just gently nibble (so cute!)

and remember that they're all different. one of my chins, spock, actively asks to be picked up but doesn't like to be held (go figure). mae doesn't like to be picked up (she's on medication so she doesn't have a choice) but she loves being held.
and you'll always be unpopular trying to get him back into the cage  

[dianah]

also, if you sit on the floor with your legs cross legged (rather than sitting on your heels, your legs are too high then) during his runaround time, he may pretty much use you as furniture and jump on your legs.

[flaviana]

Hey thank you so much for all the advice. The problem with us bonding while he is in the cage is that he hates being in there, and while in the cage, his only occupation is chewing the bars and getting out.
 I kinda spoiled him and he hates staying in the cage, mostly at night.
 So if i try to massage him through the bars he bites me, and i can t talk to hiim because he s so agitated and nervous 

 I give him 2 raisins per day, is that too much? Also, while i sleep at night and he is loose, he likes jumping on me, and he s nibling on my socks.


 I ve seen some clips on youtube with people calling their chin, like "chinchi, come get your treet" and the little fella comes.

 for example this one : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2moc2sRTKK0

[dianah]

what's his cage like? does he have a lot of things to keep him busy when he's in there? mine have wheels, snugs (love them), tunnels, chews, lots of little ledges to bounce of.

mine bite through bars as well, never when my hand is in their cage or when they're outside. i think they think it's something else.

i would not let him run around unsupervised, ie when you sleep. there's also a danger of overheating if they run around for too long - it depends on the temperature/humidity but i think the general guide is 20 minutes at a time.

2 raisins per day is definitely too much.

mine do come when i call but i think it's mostly because they know me, they know perhaps i'll give them something and they're interested. when we only had chinchi and fluffy, when i wanted to get them back in the cage, i'd say, 'chinchi, do you want a stick? do you want a stick chinchi?' and he'd go into the cage, i'd give him the stick, then i'd say 'fluffy, where's chinchi? where's chinchi gone?' and she'd do a lap around the room, have one last twirl in the bath and then she'd go in the cage where she'd get a stick.
this worked most of the time but of course every so often they'd be enjoying being outside too much and didn't want to go back in or quite often, chinchi would go in, grab his stick and leg it out again
sadly chinchi's gone. we all love him and miss him so much.

[flaviana]

Well he has a gianormous cage, with a little house, a hammock, those ledges to jump on, and a little  tunnel. I  always want to buy lots of toys for him, but where i live there aren t many options , just diferent types of food, vitamins, and a few colored wooden toys for him to chew on. I live in Romania (which sucks btw) and most people here don t even know what a chinchilla is, thus not too many chinchilla toys.

 About letting him out of the cage while i sleep, it s definetly wrong, but he looks so sad in his cage, (i think i definetly spoiled him) that i can t resist. I m like " that s it, you were out for a whole day, now you should stay in your cage ! .... ooooh, ok, out you go ! and here s a raisin too ! *kisses* ".

 Anyways, i m getting him a little friend, so i hope once they ve befriended they ll stay in their cage together , so that Gorgonzola won t be bored anymore.

 Tell me please how many raisins do you give yours? I ve read a lot of thing on the net, people are saying one raisin per week is ok, others give their chinchilla one raisin per day, so i m kinda confused. Anyway, thank you dianah for the advice , thanks very much !

[dianah]

most of the people i speak to (who don't know me) don't know what a chinchilla is!

mine don't actually get raisins at all unless their poo is a little dry and small. my newest chin mae, she's a rescue with health problems, nearly died of bloat/gi stasis a couple of weeks ago. in her case, it was probably caused by combination of things, change of food (even though it was gradual), medication, her stopping eating altogether, then starting eating like a loonie after her dental. however, it can be caused by giving too many treats and even though the little monkey had pulled through (all four vets that saw her thought she would die), it was scary as hell because there's nothing you can do if the treatment doesn't work & it's a very painful condition too.

i know they like raisins etc. but it really is not worth it. i guess it's like parents not letting kids do certain things even though the kids would love it (i'm not a parent but i remember being stroppy as a child) - the chins are like children and you know better than them. his life depends on you and sometimes that means that you have to say no.

could you get hold of some untreated apple tree branches maybe? you'd need to boil them and bake them (i'm sure someone on here would be able to help) but i do find that mine don't really like the wooden blocks but prefer things like little twigs. do the shop sells stuff like willow balls for rabbits/guinea pigs? he could have that too!

a wheel might be a good idea but i'm not sure you can get one where you are as it needs to be solid metal and quite large so he doesn't hurt his back. mine all have flying saucer wheels but they are quite expensive.

maybe you could try to get him out for 20 minutes, put him back, leave him in for about an hour with a twig or something to chew on, then get him out again for 20 minutes and repeat. that way he'll have something to look forward to. he may be stroppy at first but he'll soon learn.
one of my girls gets really stroppy if any of the other chins are out for a run and she isn't but she cannot be out at the same time so tough. she stops throwing a strop after a while.

[flaviana]

Ok , so no more raisins. Apple tree branches i can find, also boil and bake them, that s not a problem. No willow balls at out pets shops, but i think i sau a metal flying saucer of some sort, somewhere, so i think i l buy one for him. I m not sure what expensive means, but i paid 200$ on his cage, so, for me, that s pretty expensive. In any case, he s my whole life and i d pay anything for him, so money is not a problem.

 I ll try all the things you ve recommended and get back to you. Thanks !

 I m also looking forward to buying his new little friend, so i ll be reposting ! Hope they get along.

[dianah]

yay for apple branches! these are the flying saucers i have: http://www.shelfridges.co.uk/flyingsaucerwheel/ and they absolutely love it! they are quite noisy (even though they're one of the quieter wheels) so you may have a few sleepless nights before you get used to it

as for the friend. make absolutely sure they are the same sex. when we got fluffy to be chinchi's friend, they were supposed to be both boys. then fluffy turned out to be a girl (we only found out when there were three babies peeking at us). chinchi was neutered, suffered complications and died two months later after he had a reaction to the anaesthetic during a surgery to remove a puss capsule. don't get me wrong, i love the babies (and fluffy managed to get pregnant before we found them so she later had another gorgeous girl) and wouldn't give them away for the world but, if i could turn the time back and make sure fluffy was a boy and still had chinchi... he was my baby. fluffy was sexed by two breeders so don't believe what anybody says. make sure your boy really is a boy as well. their bits look very similar so it's easy to make a mistake. these are the best pictures i have found:
http://chinwags.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=618

they are pretty much in your face but very clear i find the best way to double check is to gently pull the sticky outy bit away from their bum. if there is a piece of skin between, it will lift (similar to the first picture) and then you have a boy. if there's a vaginal opening, there's no skin that can be lifted.

also, go slow on intros. don't be disheartened if they don't seem to get on. we could not get fluffy and chinchi to keep cool for more than a few seconds to start with. what helped was taking them to a completely different room as we felt that perhaps chinchi felt that was his room. that worked quite well as they both had stuff to explore so they just ran around and every so often they bumped into one another. it took two months to get them friendly but when it happened, they groomed faces for an hour solid <3 a lot of chinchillas get on a lot quicker

[flaviana]

AAAAAAAAAAAWWW, i imagine they were really sweet together .  I ve talked to a girl who s a breeder or something like that and she ll bring a little black chin for me, from another city, so sadly i can t choose him. But maybe it s for the best, cause she surely knows which are  the girls and which are boys. In any case i sure hope she knows.
 I m really sorry for what happened to your Chinchi, i can only imagine how painful it was and how much you miss him. I d die if anything happened to my Gorgonzola.
 
 Anyway, if you have his babies, aren t you worried they ll start making babies themselves? Or do you keep them in separate cages? I thought of getting a girl, but i don t want babies all the time , and i couln t keep them apart.
 For Bruni, the new chin, i d have to buy another smaller cage, at least for a little while. I really can t wait, that girl is bringing him to me at the end of the week. I m counting the days already 

 I was thinking about getting him a friend for a long time, but i wanted a white chin, couln t find a male, so eventually i thought that after all, i want a friend for Gorgonzola , and he doesn t actually care what colour his new friend is So i said i ll take whatever i can find.

[dianah]

well, i thought the TWO breeders that sexed fluffy knew what they were talking about and they clearly didn't. PLEASE check when you get him. or ask her to show you how she identified that it is a boy. and check your boy as well. if you end up with a mixed pair, it's not just your chin you need to worry about. my first litter nearly died because fluffy had mastitis and couldn't nurse. we had to hand feed them for about three weeks until she picked it up again - and that meant every two hours day and night and each feed took at least half an hour.

The two girls live with mum and the two boys had to be separated - even from each other as they cannot be housed together if there are girls present. I thought they'd be ok with attention and having chins next to them but unfortunately ffynn, especially, is getting really lonely and we have decided to take the risk of neutering him. I have discussed this with my vet and they will do additional things like a full course of antibiotics rather than just post op dose. I will be in pieces on the day but I know that he can either be alone and miserable until he dies or i can take the risk and get him housed with the girls.

chinchi was white. the most gorgeous little white boy i have ever seen. i was hoping the baby born after he died would be white but all his babies are beige! i don't mind, i love them!

[flaviana]

Poor little fynn I hope he ll be ok, i m keeping my fingers crossed !

 I tricked Gorgonzola last night into getting in the cage. I forgot about their major disadvantage , being so curious ! So i started played with his food in the bowl, making noises with it, so naturally, after 15 minutes of thinking, he came to see where all the noise was coming from. And then.. zip ! I closed his cage. I fed him some of his food and hay through the bars, and he seemed a little calmer about being in there.
 I ll see how it goes there days.

[dianah]

that's very good! now, i don't know if this works with chinchillas but it works with (most) dogs. if you get him to go into his cage and then shut him in, he'll work out very quickly that that's what you're going to do each time and he'll stop coming in. but, if you get him to come in, don't do anything and he'll go out again a few times and then shut him in at some point, he won't know when you're going to shut the door. so maybe try doing that!

i think that's why he bites you through the bars - because sometimes, food comes through the bars - rather because he's trying to bite you.

well done