Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[chinmediahd]

A year ago i got my first two Chinchillas Polo and Cherio. I had to travel to meet the previous owners to take them off their hands. Soon as i went into meet the chins i thought there was something strange as they had recently bought a dog at the time and he just kept barking and growing and the heating was way up like a desert. They told me and my mum a story about how they escaped from some sort off dog crate.

A year from 24th November. I still see some traits in both of them. Cherio was always the nervous and scared type but lets me cuddle her now. Polo, thats another story. i used to be able to pick her up and stroke her etc but for some reason she has gone mad on several occasions she has bitten me quite a lot. very rarely she barely grazes me but most of the time she has gone so far that you can see a huge dent in my finger. The amount of layers she has bitten through at times. i didn't think she would be able to do that.

She sometimes jumps on Cherio and pushes her out the way when shes angry but i don't know what to do because i want to keep Polo and if i sent her to an adoption center then the next owner might not be as nice as me and Cherio would be alone.

[GrayRodent]

That's a tough one. Separating chinchillas can be dangerous. Sometimes it can cause depression in one or both and sometimes the affected animal dies, although usually separation goes smoothly. You can try separating them for a week or so, putting them in different rooms, and observing their behavior. Introducing new chinchillas can be very tricky. It is something I don't like to comment on because it's complex and needs to be researched, and unfortunately, is not always successful.
 
I don't think anyone would keep a chinchilla that has those behavioral issues. If she is that aggressive towards you have the option of putting on leather gloves for reaching into the cage, and trying to determine what the triggers are (apparently the animal has been abused). You should be able to socialize the other chinchilla without having any problems. Just treat Polo with the understanding that she will continue to have that problem and stay safe.

[Jo Ann]

   It is such a shame that the previous owners either did not know how to care for their chinchillas or that, even worse, just didn't care.  Should you decide to re-home Polo, the odds are, it will not be good for him/her unless the person has had experience with an aggressive chinchilla and knows how to cope with them.  Being swapped from one home to another is stressful, even when the new home is the better of the two. Rarely are most people willing to care for an aggressive animal.  I  you for taking on this task for your two little chinnies!  Now, that I have said that ... Chinchillas scare easily, forget rarely and are extremely hard to get to learn that there are some humans out there that will not harm them.    You are apparently one of those few that care enough to do so.   

With Polo, it will take lots of time and plenty of patients, then one day, when you least expect it, he/she will respond to you favorably.  When this, or even a hint of it is apparent, reward him with a treat and softly spoken kind words of love.   Be very aware of what Polo reacts to ... good as well as bad reactions.  Reward what he responds to positively and make note to avoid what he responds to negatively and try never to do it again.  Chinchillas usually have several steps for warning you of the danger of a bite from them.  Not all chins go through all steps, and they may go through them quickly or skip a few, if they feel they are in danger ... even if they are not in danger.  It is what they think/feel that makes them react the way they do.  The normal warning signs from the chinchilla to the humans are as follows and usually in this order:
1. They will try to run away.
2. They will try to push your hand away from them.
3. They will fuss at you (high-pitched sharp sounds).
4. Some females will spray you.  (In the wild, this is the way the female would defend her kits.  They can be very accurate up to about 7 feet.)
5. They will nip you firmly, but not break the skin.
If you persist ...
6.  They can, and often will bite, but only because they feel they are defending themselves from potential harm.  They can bite all the way to the bone.  This is extremely RARE, but can happen.   And even more rarely they hold on ... to make them release (but only for this reason) blow into their face.  Do NOT use this as a punishment, but only to protect yourself or another person.

In my 20+ years with well over 500 chinchillas, I have only been bitten 4 times.  I learned quickly, the various steps to watch for that they will use to warn you.  Normally, they want nothing more than to please you, but if you frighten them bad enough or harm them ... they remember it for a very long, long time.  A chinchilla's trust is hard to earn and easy to loose, especially if they have been abused in the past.

1. What might not scare one chin may terrify another one.
2. Chinchillas do not like loud or sudden noises (loud t.v., radio, fighting, screaming, items being dropped, thrown or broken, hitting the bars of the cage, etc.)
3. Never, ever, ever, ever hit a chinchilla ... they do not bite for no reason ... even if you are not aware of it, there is a reason ... be conscious of anything that seems to startle or upset the chin and avoid it or doing it again.  At all times, watch for the signs/chin warnings listed above.  Stop what you are doing and make a mental note of that and what is going on around you and the chin at the time.   Even if it is a dog barking outside the building, this could frighten the chin ... he probably thinks the dog can get to him ... especially if what you were told about the prior owners having a dog that could have hurt or frightened Polo.  The loud barking of a dog near a chin can be very painful to their ears, even if the dog never touched Polo ... it probably scared him half to death.

Always keep in mind how you would feel if some creature the size of a huge building took you away from your family and away from other humans.  If it, even unintentionally hurt you ... how would that make you feel?   In proportion to size ... this is what you are to your little chins.   Love, kindness, good attention and lots and lots of patients can go a l-o-n-g way to make a happy home for all concerned.   

Check out my web site for other ideas and information.  www.luvnchins.com/  and/or e-mail me ... the e-mail address is at the bottom of many of the pages ... look for and click on the typing chinchilla at the bottom of the opening page.   

   Jo Ann

[chinmediahd]

sorry i came back so late to reply i happened to forget the website url haha.

I just realized something important. i have four chinchillas Polo, Cherio, Misty and Ebony. Polo doesn't get along with Misty and Ebony and when she sees them from a couple of meters away she starts to bark and sometimes you can't tell that shes angry and when you go to take her out that's when she grips on tight with he teeth and thanks for the great advice.

[GrayRodent]

I think in this case you might want to be very observant about the circumstances and look for patterns of cause and effect. Of course not two animals will behave exactly the same but there are some things that I've observed having had two different chinchillas in the way of what can cause shyness. You probably have an animal that is unusually sensitive to something along these lines:
Approaching them from above and behind
Wrapping your fingers around their back
Sudden motion or noise, slamming cage door, dropping things around them, vaccuum cleaner noise
Bothering them during certain times a day when they are sleeping deeply
Bothering them when they are in certain places in their cage that they are territorial of
Generally being restrained when held, especially if flipped on their back while being restrained
Accidentally blowing into their face when talking
Getting whiskers pinched or pulled in strange positions (very easy to do by mistake when handling or even getting close to them)
Being handled when the room temperature is high (above 75F) which is potentially dangerous to a chinchilla
Sometimes if I play with him he is more apt to run away if I have both hands in the cage than just one.
Just hoping to add a list that might provoke some thought. I'm sure there's plenty of other things.

I've been able to tame the chinchilla I have now to the point where he'll let me restrain him in any way and for the most part he seems to like it, let's me bother him during the day and is now active for more daylight hours, is less jumpy around noises, and doesn't care about a lot of things that used to bother him. This all comes by working with him, breaking him in slowly to things he is uneasy about, and interacting with him daily. It's a process that takes several months. There are still some things that you'll never change, certain times when they will sleep no matter what, and they have moods too where they just want to be left alone. It's important to learn how to read your pet find out what works and what does not. Keep in mind that chinchillas communicate visually with body language, the way they move, their tail, their ears, and even the position and movement of their whiskers can have meaning that's fairly easy to understand if you just observe. In fact you can see them making inaudible sounds if you watch their breath motions. I've seen this when my chinchilla hears unfamiliar noises or gets stressed from something.

An animal that has been abused will be hard wired to respond defensively when circumstances become similar to what caused it. And I'm not saying the abuse was intentional, it could have been an accident that caused it. Especially if it was a painful experience. If you can't figure out what it is you just have to treat her like an unstable animal and try to cope with the behavior as safely as possible. It is interesting that you observe she grips with her teeth as opposed to biting to break the skin. This indicates to me a degree of tameness already because she differentiates biting and gripping which won't happen otherwise. My chinchilla will grip me with his teeth when I let him groom my hand or arm. Sometimes it's too hard and I will reach around with my other hand to distract him and get him to stop.