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[GrayRodent]

My pet chinchilla, Kulu, is normally a very tame chinchilla. He lets me do pretty much anything to him, likes to be scratched under the chin and arms, can be cradled on his back, rides around on my shoulders, and is not afraid of anyone.

He lives in a big house with two families, two middle-school age kids, and a two-year old. We have an African Grey parrot and my brother has a green cheek conure. His cage is fairly secluded in my bedroom where I work during the day. When my grandparents come to visit he will cuddle with them and soak up the attention. When anyone from my brother's family gets near him he kacks and growls and sometimes he tries to bite and they aren't doing anything to him. When I take him back he acts like nothing happened and just relaxes. When the toddler comes up to him he is usually pretty calm, which I find strange, since she is not always very gentle with him when I let her pet him. The behavior seems to be getting progressively worse and I'm not sure how to explain it. What makes it more strange is that it's not consistent either. Sometimes he's just fine with them. His fur is just now starting to prime out at about 6 months. Could this be a hormonal or territorial behavior or triggered by some smell? Has anyone else encountered this?

[Squirrel_Butt]

Wow that's odd indeed.  I have not encountered this.  I have encountered my chins acting more shy when I have someone over visiting but they don't attack anyone. My guess would be that the chin may smell the scent of a pet on whatever person he is attacking.  the ones that he attacks, do they have a pet at home?

[GrayRodent]

I just took him downstairs where my sister in law's conure lives and introduced them (I think for the first time). He tried to stick his nose in the cage (which would have got him bit) because that bird is not tame. He wasn't phased. I took him back to the chair where I fist observed this and let him crawl around. He didn't seem to be sensing anything there either. The chair was purchased second hand last year by someone who had dogs. I'm going to see if I can make a connection since sometimes bro and the kids visit their relatives who have dogs and cats. For now it's still quite a mystery.

[chinclub]

For him to react to all of them on their approach I am sure it is something he is smelling.  Does anyone in your brother's family smoke?  It could also be their type of laundry detergent, a family pet, a plug in air freshener in their house....   

[GrayRodent]

Next time I see him act like that I will start asking questions about where they've been and see if I can find a connection. I don't think it could be any of the things you've mentioned. We share the same laundry detergent, don't use air fresheners, the only pet they have is a bird that lives downstairs, and I don't know anyone that smokes that we are in regular contact with.

[GrayRodent]

I still can't quite figure it out. He growled and became very agitated around my brother again and he did not even go out that day, had a shower, and he is someone who is very good with animals. My mom's parrot lets him pick him up but not me if that tells you anything. Also he seems to be getting progressively worse and oddly becoming increasingly calm and easier for me and my mom to handle him. It's like he hates my bro's family and is becoming more polarized. I don't get it.

My current theory is that he hates the kids so much that he smells them on my brother and wigs out. At the same time he's still not entirely consistent. I'm not sure why he hates the kids so much. I always supervise them very closely.

[lilchinchilla]

Is it at all possible someone could have hurt him in a particular way, and he is reacting whenever someone is doing the same sort of mannerism which might have hurt him? It might not be the same person but could be mannerisms and scents?

I've also heard of chins being jealous of other people sometimes around their owners. I admit, my husband had one chinchilla years ago, that he basically raised from when she was only 2 days old... She didn't like me or anyone else. Wouldn't come to us, didn't like us (my mother and myself) holding her (she'd make grunts and kick with her feet.).

Yet she'd run to him if he tapped his fingers on the floor, or held his hand out for her to hop on. She would sit on his shoulders for hours at a time, watching whatever he was doing. But if I came over, she was not particularly friendly to me or to anyone else. I got the feeling she was jealous of any interaction anyone else had with him.
I love chinchillas more than anything and never laid one finger on her in any sort of mean way, but just seemed to be some sort of weird jealousy or something going on/possessiveness maybe?

I've heard very rarely, but a few times with other pet owners, of chins attacking their spouses legs when their spouse would sit with them, or attacking/spraying others (females generally) that weren't their owners. It's not common but I've heard of it a few times.

[GrayRodent]

I got my chinchilla from a breeder who was very professional at 3 months old and have had him for about 4 months and he was very calm when I picked him up there. When I have him out I'm usually the one holding him and when others have held him it's always been under very controlled conditions and I've not seen any accidents or mishandling. I think the worst thing he ever experienced was maybe when I was chasing him once and grabbed his leg by mistake months ago and he slipped a ton of fur.

He has lived a very sheltered life here being in a very spacious cage about a foot away from my desk where I spend most of my time. I have to admit it seems too sheltered because he is not exposed to much noise or commotion at all. The kids come in on occasion and they are like little tornadoes. I do what I can to work with them but they are loud and impulsive and I think they stress my chinchilla out when they're around which I think is an important factor. (And I imagine Kulu picks up on my own stress as well) but I don't think it explains everything because he was not always like this. It is still a recent and developing thing.

Perhaps you have something on the jealously thing but that doesn't fully explain why he's fine with other people like my mom and my grandparents. I thought he would resent my grandparents because they just about pet his fur off every time they see him but he seems to really like them. The good news is he hasn't attacked anyone (it came close once) but it looks like I'm going to have to stop letting the others touch him, at least, for a while.

[chinclub]

Maybe it is over-stimulation.  I have found that my chinchillas don't like having a lot of people around.  They bond to me and to my daughter who is always in the chin room.  They don't care much for my husband or my son who both come in enough for them to know who they are but when my hubby helps to clean cages we get a lot of fussing, and carrying on.  Some chinchillas love everyone and never meet a stranger, but most seem to like constancy in EVERYTHING including just one or two people and no more.

I remember thinking that you were very fortunate to have a chinchilla that would let so many people handle it.  Maybe now it is just growing up enough to feel able to tell you it doesn't like it.

[GrayRodent]

That could be it that he's getting older and his preferences are changing like you say. My mom pretty much said the same thing this morning when I was talking about it. I was hoping that wasn't going to be the case. My mom's parrot, Reuben, is like that too and there seems to be a lot of correlations between the two in the way they behave. I will try some things and see if maybe I can see some improvement. Unlike Reuben, though, having too many people around at once may be one of the triggers.