2 tricks for new owners!
1. Someone said something about instinct to chew things being natural chinchilla behaviour. While true, I found that it *IS* perfectly possible to teach a chin what NOT to chew... such as electrical wires and paint. A strong solution of peppers will do this. Treat a piece of wood with pepper solution, let your chin have a NIBBLE ONLY, then take it away. It will learn that pepper is BAD, and hate the smell of it from now on.
Then treat the surfaces you want the chin to not chew.
Chins are surprisingly smart, doesn't take long at all to associate the smell with "tastes bad"
2. If your chin is uncomfortable being touched, try this trick!
All chins love playtime, as far as I know.
Let your chin out to play for a week by just opening his cage or something.
Then for a few days, at playtime, only open the cage partway, and stick your arm in so he has to brush past you yo get out. ... Prepare a good book to read while waiting for him to gather courage.
Let him get used to that... Then try arrNging it so the only way out of the cage is by climbing your hand/arm. Again, be prepared to wait. Zzz.
eventually, you can get it so that your chin will hop onto your hands and let you carry him out of the cage for his playtime. Yay!
... From what I gather, patience is the biggest factor here... Chins are like children... If they feel you are trying to force them to do something, they can be stubborn like heck! If you let them think it's their own bright idea though... Lolz...
