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[cdemo28]

Hey there! My husband and I just adopted our first chin, Martin, this weekend. He was with his owner for 4 years and raised as a baby. he seems to be very friendly but he hasnt bonded with us yet. Any information an help, what should I do so I dont spook him, ways to bond, etc. I want him to love me as much as I love him! thanks!!!

[GrayRodent]

3 days isn't much time for a chinchilla. Here are some tips that I can think of off the top of my head:

Don't let your chinchilla run around outside of its cage until it shows signs of bonding. This would mainly be that it will come to you when you come to the cage. Also when it comes to you be careful about touching him. Start with touching him under the chin and not over the back.

When approaching a chinchilla (same works for birds since they are prey animals) do not hover over them. Do not come at them from behind and touch their back until they are comfortable with being touched on the head and neck and are not afraid of you. This can cause them to startle. Your movements should be deliberate and not jerky or sudden.

Avoid loud noises around them for at least the first week you have them if you can. Loud banging or rattling or hissing or children that yell can be sources of stress. A chinchilla typically will act stressed the first week it has been relocated. Oftentimes it will loose some weight for the first few days when it cuts back on food but there should always be signs of output each day. I would avoid contact with other family pets for a while as well. An bouncy yappy dog can do a lot of damage to a chinchilla's psyche.

Once your chinchilla is comfortable interacting with you in the cage you can let it play with you in the bathroom or a small chinchilla-safe room. The first month or two I recommend doing what I did to tame my chinchilla and that is to interact with him in a shower stall or enclosed bathtub at least every other day for about 10-15 minutes at a time. This method has proven effective for me.

Don't chase your chinchilla unless you have to. Chasing them is traumatic for them and will interfere with the bonding process. This is a big reason to not let your chinchilla roam until it's very comfortable with you. It is more likely your pet will encounter unpleasant experiences outside of its cage where his environment is less controlled.

Keep in mind that chinchillas learn things well but also learn things slowly. They are about as trainable as dogs and have good retention. This is a double-edged sword cause it's hard to break them from bad habits once they've been ingrained. Introduce them to new concepts at the right pace. This would be slow enough so your pet doesn't become agitated and aggressive yet not so slow that it's ineffective. The trick is to read your chinchilla and feel out his limits and try not to exceed them. It has been my experience with two separate chinchillas that you will have to train your chinchilla to tolerate being held and petted. It has also been my experience that once they get over the initial dislike of being handled, as you continue work with them, they eventually crave more of that kind of attention.

I recommend that you keep handling and out-of-cage time to a minimum for the first week. This can make a difference because chinchillas are usually stressed from relocation and aren't really mentally coherent. Some animals need two weeks.

Also chinchillas tend to be active mostly at night after sundown. Until you have bonded with your chinchilla I recommend keeping daylight activities to a minimum unless your pet is fully awake and active. Even at that be aware that during the day a chinchilla might wake up and eat and then go right back to sleep.

I hope you enjoy your new pet and pray everything goes well for you.

[cdemo28]

wow! thanks, that's is a lot of helpful information.

Unfortunately I already let him out of his cage. I didnt want to push him but I read that they need a lot of out door cage time. I did have to chase him as well :/ I only had to chase him in order to get him in the cage however. While he was out he was running up to me for treats and then running under the couch if I startled him.

I chased him into the bathroom and left him in there for about 5 minutes to calm down, then sat in there with him. he jumped on my lap and then on my shoulder and let me pet him...and then jumped on my head and started cleaning himself!! thought that was great!! Then put him back in his cage.

 Last night however, I really wanted to let him have a dust bath, since the last time he had one was when we got him and I know its supposed to be 3 times a week. I put it in front of his cage and he ended up getting out and I had to chase him again. He's still letting me pet his behind his ears and under his chin while he's in his cage and last night he let my husband was able to pet his back and was making payfull noises at him, kind of like a guinea pig.

Also his previous owner had two dogs and he said they would "interact" through the cage and "play" together. I'm not quite sure what that means but we have definitely kept the other animals in another room when we had him out.

We bought a "playpen" type thing, to connect to his cage, and put a wheel and a bunch of toys in there. Our plan is to leave his cage door open and let him come out as much as he wants and then maybe sit in there with him a little.

let me know if that sounds like a good idea, I really hope I didnt traumatize the little guy

[GrayRodent]

That's okay. For one thing it sounds like your chinchilla was tame to start and used to that kind of activity so it probably wasn't that bad. Making those kinds of mistakes can set you back some but it's not irreversible. And believe me I end up chasing my chinchilla quite a bit myself but to him it's more like a game. In my multi-level house it can be a very hard and potentially dangerous game to win! Because he is extremely bonded to me chasing him is not a problem but a chin that is not bonded can become aggressive and fearful if you do that.

Being used to dogs is good to keep stress down but it can be a problem if your dogs get too interested. I have a friend whose dog opened the door to his cage and ate his chinchilla so please be careful. I still recommend interacting mostly through the door of the cage for about five days and just observe his reaction to you and others. This can help form more of bond to you than not doing this. A few days of not being out isn't going to hurt anything.

Chinchillas do make a variety of sounds. Mine will actually imitate the sounds I make at him sometimes. Growling and kacking sounds may indicate aggression or fear. Whining or high pitched sounds are typically good and indicate your chinchilla is very tame and used to people.

As far as the playpen goes I'm not sure if that's a good idea to leave him there unsupervised. Chinchillas can jump very high. A healthy chinchilla theoretically can jump 6 feet straight up and get out of most playpens. Interacting in your playpen is a good thing though and is not unlike my shower stall idea.

Sounds like you're doing well and that you have a nice and tame chinchilla. This is usually not the case with new chins.

[cdemo28]

Everything is going great! the play pen in working really well, it gives him a safe way to be out of his cage and we can slowly get closer to him. He's now letting us pet him all over his head and under his belly and his back. He still won't let us pick him up though. He also isn't making any noises, is that normal? We bought him one of those flying saucer wheels and he really has no interest in it. I don't think his previous owner had a wheel for him so I don't know if he doesn't like this one or if he just doesn't even know what a wheel is. Same thing with a hammock we bought him. Thanks for your input it really helps us out!!

[GrayRodent]

Chinchillas are normally quiet unless they are stressed. They also make a wide range of other sounds when they interact with other chinchillas. A very tame chinchilla sometimes will make these sounds to other people but not always. The norm is a quiet chinchilla that gets noisy when something it does not like is happening so quiet is actually good.

I know that not all chinchillas will take to using a wheel. I think it's less likely to use a flying saucer than it is a regular wheel.

I recently installed a 14" aluminum wheel in my cage. Recommended diameter is 15" to prevent damage to back and joints but my chinchilla is below average size and it fits him. He uses it very little during the day but runs on it a lot at night when I sleep. I know this because I installed a digital counter on it this week to log his average distance. I might get a count of 100 by the end of the day but by morning it's well over 2000. Once it went up to about 5700 rotations (4 miles).

A permanent wheel should not contain plastic parts. The plastic ones are cheap, tend to be way too small, and as you may know ingestion of plastic can kill a chinchilla by obstructing its bowels. They are expensive but for a full grown chinchilla it is great exercise.

I used to have a hammock in my previous chinchilla's cage and he did use it but not often. He preferred to sleep on a shelf. I washed the hammock whenever I would notice hair buildup in it. It was kind of a pain for how little he used it so my new chinchilla does not have one. He has a big marble slab salvaged from an old dresser where he spends most of his time sleeping during the day.