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[Dex21]

Hey guys!  I have noticed my little guy Dex is beginning to wake up later and later each day.  He used to be awake and roaming around his cage around 8:00 pm (never later than 9pm), though now he waits until 11-11:30pm to stretch, groom, and roam around his cage ready for playtime.  I will be beginning my career soon and will have to wake up at 5am every day, so I was curious if anyone had any suggestions to encourage my little buddy to wake up earlier so he can still get his out-of-cage playtime 4x a week.

He will be 3 years old in December 2017 and is fully grown, so I am not quite sure why he is waking up so late now.

Thanks again for all your help!

[GrayRodent]

Chinchillas (and all mammals) are sensitive to day-light cycles and activity patterns. If the lamps are on at certain times a day they will consider that the same as morning and night. So consider that. They should have no more than 12 hours of light per day. You could experiment with that. Do not subject them to large sudden swings in day-night patterns. It could be dangerous for them.

I've never noticed any real consistency in my own pets. They are usually most active after I turn out the lights for bed, and in the morning when I wake up, which is not too consistent either, but they get excited when I get up because they get petted and visit each other through the bars. During the day they'll wander around several times getting food and even playing. If I put one in the dust bath the other one always gets excited no matter what time of day because he knows he's next.

[Dex21]

I keep my apartment poorly lit during the day (blinds closed, no lights on) to ensure he has his sleepy time during the day.  In addition he has an opaque blanket covering the top 2 levels of his cage (where he sleeps) so no extra sunlight gets through.  Furthermore, I have the opening of his sleeping house (link below) facing away from the windows to ensure no extra light can get in.  Basically, he has total darkness during the day, though maybe gets around 5 hours of sunlight in total from windows and lamps.  I usually open blinds around 4pm and turn on lights around 7pm.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019VC539A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I do definitely agree that when I am fast asleep around 3-4:00am he will be running on his wheel for at least 30 min to an hour.  Even with a "silent" wheel he will still wake me up haha.

Since he isn't receiving a large amount of sunlight and sleeps most of the (if not all) day, is there anything I can do to encourage him to wake up sooner?  I don't want to have to sacrifice his out-of-cage playtime and furthermore would like to have us both be awake at the same time.

I visit him about 3-4 times once the sun goes down to try to wake him up (giving him pets, simple commands, giving him hay), though he does not seem to want to budge until about 11:00.  In fact it is now 11:17pm and he is still not awake.

[GrayRodent]

I recommend putting lights on a timer 12 hours on and 12 hours off. This should establish a pattern. Maybe. You'll just have to try it. Then you can adjust the cycle. My chins' lights are on a timer.

A chinchilla is going to be active mostly right before sun up and right after darkness. During the day chinchillas usually sleep. For them this will be lights on.