Print

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

[Mannybilly1030]

Ok i found a person who has 2 gray year and a half old boys. And hes giving the cage and stuff for free because he has to move by friday or they were going to be put to sleep. I didnt want that so i told him i was to see him tomorrow to pick up the boys and he said ok. So just a quick question if there awake during the time of transporting them to my home, do they get nervous or stressed out? Cause i heard some people they enjoy the tode to there new home and some said they slept the way home and others said theres were scared and barked until they arrived to there new homes. I just wanted to know.


 Another question do chinchillas wake up at 4 or 5 during the day? My aunts wake up at 3:00 or sometimes at 5

[GrayRodent]

Congrats on your new pets. I hope they are tame because it is very hard to tame older chins and sometimes they cannot be tamed very much.
All chinchillas are different. Those that are tame are less likely to get stressed on car rides and being handled. Wilder chins can get very stressed but the most important stress period is going to be the first couple of weeks after they are relocated. They should be handled very little and not let out of their cage until they indicate that they are not afraid of you when you reach into the cage. That can be a couple of weeks. Letting them out will stress them more until they are acclimated to their new environment. During this period withhold treats and watch their food intake and fecal contents for abnormalities.
The most important hazard of car rides is overheating. Do not put them on the floor where it gets hot from the engine exhaust and transmission. It can kill them.
Their sleep wake patterns are variable. If you've ever owned cats then you'll be somewhat familiar with how it works. The difference is that chinchillas are sometimes grumpier during the day and want a more consistent schedule. If allowed to have a consistent schedule I imagine it would be. My chin's schedule is inconsistent and I do pull him out and pet him several times during the day. I recommend the first week that you only handle your pets when they are awake otherwise it agitates them and can leave a bad first impression.
I usually go to bed at 10:00pm and wake up around 7:00. My chinchilla usually acts fully awake around 9:00-10:00pm and stays up I'm guessing until around 12:00 and goes silent. (either that or I just sleep through it) and is noisy again (moving around and chewing) at about 5:00. He will be mostly asleep at about 8:00 am and difficult to rouse in the middle of the day and early evening. Prior to that time he doesn't seem to mind getting waken up. After that time he obviously doesn't want to be bothered. The in between time when he is groggy is a good time to hold him and cuddle because he won't be quite as antsy.

[Jasonred79]

I think it's not the letting them out that stresses them so much as the process of putting them back in! Which stresses out EVERYONE involved.
 
One shortcut I tried and got lucky with to get a chin used to you/ not terrified of you:  Open cage door. Lie in front of cage door. Sprinkle apple sticks and rose hips on your tummy. Take a nap/ read a book/ etc.
With any luck, chins being naturally curious and inquisitive creatures, they'll eventually investigate and come eat the snacks. Eventually labelling you in the "harmless" category.

Oh yeah... that's a major difference between chins and dogs/cats/etc.... you don't go straight from strangers to friends, you go from "potentially dangerous" to "non dangerous" to "I don't mind this person" to "friends"

Whatever you do, make sure not to slide from "potentially dangerous" into "confirmed dangerous" labelling, as chins apparently never forgive such things, or so I've heard.

Oh, also, taking a nap is a two edged sword in the above scenario... probably safer to stay awake, but it could take AGES for a new chin to pluck up the courage to climb on you and take the treats...

[GrayRodent]

Another really good thing to do is put the cage in a place where you spend a lot of time and interact through the door. Chinchillas are naturally curious and will eventually come to you. Until that happens consistently it's best to leave them in the cage as much as possible.

[kageri]

Even most of the rescues handled car rides fine.  Some may have been less happy than others but they didn't bark or move around.  It is a good idea when transporting any small animal to have a solid carrier only as big as the animal.  That way if they spook or something happens while driving they will not bolt in to the side injuring themselves and the carrier will not collapse.  You can get good metal wire carriers from bass equipment (just get a dwarf rabbit sized one) or many chinchilla supply sites.  You can lay fleece in the bottom of a wire bottom carrier if you feel the need.

For awhile I would not open the door at all except for necessary things like filling food dishes and cleaning but hopefully by the time the cage needs cleaned they will have adjusted enough.  Just sit near the cage and feed them twigs, rosehips or most any other rose part sold for chins is safe daily, choice bits of hay, small amounts of sugar free cereal, or a couple pieces of oatmeal (not flavored or quick oats).  You may have to sit there holding stuff for awhile or set it just inside the cage and let them find what you put there.  If you try to follow them around with the door open to give a treat quite often you end up with a spastic chin coming out the door over your arm.  You have no idea how many times I've retrieved my latest one from the closet while trying to interact with him.  He's a complete spaz.  Even the other chins said he's insane and they do not want to share a cage with him.  It's best to leave them confined until they have settled in or you'll only cause more stress.

When they easily take treats and hang around with the door open you can start petting.  When you find where they like pet you can start trying to scoop them up a little.  Many will never enjoy or even sit still for being picked up though.  To transport them to a pen or other room for exercise may always take a little effort or tricking them in to a dust bath container (works for some and others catch on quick).  I would not let them out of the cage unsupervised at any time and I would not let them out of the cage in a main room of the house.  If your cage is somewhere like a spare bedroom that is chin proof you can leave the door open but otherwise they should be transported to a safe area.  Sometimes ours hang out in the bedroom but various problems have led to mostly confining their exercise time to the bathroom where the only problem we have is a wall corner that needs protected from chin teeth.  Also Aime, who eats everything, will chew on the bathroom door when bored or she wants back to her cage.  Aime is the reason the chins spend less time loose in the bedroom.  If there is a possible route to something that can be chewed or even something that can't be chewed but she wants to test it then she will find a way.  When I figure out how she got 5' up on top of a tv to chew on some dvd cases I will have unlocked the secrets of the universe.     I don't think I've found anyone else more than 2' off the ground which is about the distance to jump back in their cages.

[GrayRodent]

Other breeders have stated that chinchillas can jump 6 feet in the air. I've seen mine jump about 4.5 feet when he was 3 months old and very bouncy just jumping in his cage for the sake of being bouncy and touching the roof of his cage. He doesn't do that anymore in his older age but I don't doubt he could. Beware.

[kageri]

Usually though they don't commit to big leaps on to uncertain surfaces.  If they've explored a shelf many times they might make an insane leap on to it and Aika will actually bounce from floor to off the top of her cage to a side and then splat on the bottom.  When they are out of the cage though they tend to cautiously try to stare up over the edge or on to a higher flat surface before jumping and even then they sometimes don't do it with confidence and end up not making it the first time.  Given how tall they can stand to see that makes 2' on an uncertain landing about their limit.  Not Aime though.  She will blind leap on to anything.  The tv is maybe 3' on top of a 4' dresser and somehow she ended up there with no prior knowledge of what she'd find.