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[HarveyTheChin]

So as you know I just for Harvey but play time is a pain in my butt.  When you all got your first chinchillas how did you get them back into their cages when play time was over.  I put him in the bathroom and he just runs from me.  I tried putting his bath in there but when I go to pick it up and he is in there he just hops right out.  Then he jumps under a shelf in the bathroom and does that little scared yelp they do.  I don't know what to do, because I love letting him run around, but getting him back into his cage I definetly do not love.  And after todays escapades if he was starting to trust me he definetly does not anymore.   

[chinclub]

I don't suggest taking your chinchilla out for play time until he is very bonded to you in the cage.  He should come right up to your hand and jump onto your arms.  Once you gain this sort of trust he will climb on you during play time.  When you are ready to put him up you will be able to scoop him right out of your lap.  And if you do have to chase him a bit you will just irritate him, not frighten him.  If you let him out before you earn his trust and have to chase him, he will become more afraid and may begin biting.  It will be very hard to tame him and bond with him after that.

[sugar_spice]

hi there, i have that problem to sometimes it was alot worse at the begining i would let both my chins out and it would take me and 2 other people to catch them again there like little ninja rabbits!!! lol and they would never come near me. But thats because they did not trust me, They trust me now and when i do let them out i just leave ther cage door open and they go right back in there self and they come over and jump on me and stuff and i owe it all to rasins they work a treat!!! lol

[chinchillagrl06]

Every once in a while my chinnies decide that they are not ready to go back to their cage yet.  So I just grab a towel and toss it over them to avoid having to chase them around. It will usually stop them in thier tracks. 

[HarveyTheChin]

Thanks everyone for your advice.  He doesn't really like raisins often but he loves the dehydrated bananas that come in his food, so I use those for treats now.  I think he is starting to trust me a little, yesterday after I finally got him back in his cage he got on his stoop and let me pet him and today he let me hold him with no fuss.  I just won't be letting him out again until he is comfortable enough around me for play time to be a LOT easier 

[chinchillagrl06]

  I hate to break it to you, but Harvey's food should not have treats in it! You might want to look into getting him on a more healthy diet! I use Mazuri, but there are a lot of other good feeds out there like Tradition, a lot of people even use show quality rabbit pellets. 

[HarveyTheChin]

This was a backup bag my mom got for me....I haven't been using it but I was lookin at the bag to see what was in it I saw dehydrated bananas and I know my mouse loves them when I gave them to her so I figured I would give it a try

[chinchillagrl06]

Okay. Just checking. I want you to have a healthy long-lived chinny!

[HarveyTheChin]

Oh trust me I do as well 

[Leslie]

Hello!

Listen to chinchillagrl06! throwing a towel or a blanet over them is the best idea.  Trust me, you chin will just stop dead in his tracks when you do that and you can just scoop him up.  I had some frustrating chasing experiences until I learned of this trick.  The first day I brought my chin home, he escaped and it took over 90 minutes to get him back in the cage....if only I'd known about the blanket.

Be careful with back-up bags of food....chinchilla's diets are sensitive and they could get sick if you change their type of food all at once.  You should have a back-up bag of the same food you feed him 

[Jo Ann]

Hi Harvey!

   An "Amen" to that, Leslie.  When you change your chin's type or brand of food, it throws his system out of wack!     They can get diarrhea very quickly from that.  Dirrhea can dehydrate a chin.

  " Deluxe" mixes or chinchilla food with added treats is very bad for your chin.  They are like little children ... they will eat the treats and leave the stuff that is good for them.  Also, you want to always make sure your chin food has a mill date (date it was made) and/or an expiration date.  The older food is and the higher the temperature it is stored in will cause the food to break down and you will end up feeding your chin "fillers" which have no nutritional value to them at all.

   Since your chin prefers banana chips to raisins, buy them separately or even better, if you can, dehydrate them yourself so there will be no preservatives added to them.  The more natural the food, the better it is. 

 
Jo Ann

[Jenova]

We've only had our little Cheech a couple of days so we've been experimenting on the best ways to get him back in his cage. He only really trusts my boyfriends (who he belongs to really  ) so it has to be up to him. Cheech has a little spot behind the TV he likes to go to and we realised that if he sits behind there it means he wants a tickle or a little pet. So at first we just used to get him from behind there which was pretty easy for my boyfriend, however we don't want him to learn that we might pick him up from there or we'll never get to tickle him 

So at the moment we are in the process of teaching him to hop back into his cage by himself. We tap his sand bowl which is just inside the door and he eventually hops in. I always think is better for them to get back in themselves because it is a lot less stressful.

[Jo Ann]

Hi Jenova,

   It might be, he is using hiding there as an attention-getter.  Chinchillas love attention and will do most anything to get it when they want it.  Even if it means getting in a dangerous place.

  Please be very careful where you let him play ... chinchillas will chew on anything they can get their little teeth into, even if it is not good for them!  :-[  Including, but not limited to, electrical wires ... and they don't look to see if they are plugged in first ... no crispy critters, Please! 

   Chinchillas are very curious and love to explore ... they can get into VERY small places, so small, sometimes they can't get out.   

We tap his sand bowl

  Please do not use the sand, it is very harsh on their fur.  Chinchilla Dust Bath Dust is much better for him.

I always think is better for them to get back in themselves because it is a lot less stressful.

Very true ... you are lucky that you have one that will do it, most won't.   :-[

 
Jo Ann [/i]

[Lauren_201]

When I first got Berry, I made the mistake of letting him loose in the house, (before I knew you are supposed to hand-tame them before letting them run) it took me almost 2 hours to catch him. "What a pain!" I thought to myself. So I decided that was not happening again. I trained Berry to jump into a cat carrier, (that way I eliminated the need to chase him around his cage to get him out) then I would carry him to the bathroom in the carrier. I think he felt safe in the carrier, whenever our extremely loud upstairs people would bang around, he would run for the safety of his carrier. I would sit in the bathroom with him, and when I was ready to take him back to his cage I all I would do is wait until he went back into the carrier, and then I would shut the door. I am writing this in past-tence, because both my chins trust me and I can let them run around the living room, and they go back to their cage when they want to, no hassle or stress.

[Jenova]

Hi Jenova,

   It might be, he is using hiding there as an attention-getter.  Chinchillas love attention and will do most anything to get it when they want it.  Even if it means getting in a dangerous place.

  Please be very careful where you let him play ... chinchillas will chew on anything they can get their little teeth into, even if it is not good for them!  :-[  Including, but not limited to, electrical wires ... and they don't look to see if they are plugged in first ... no crispy critters, Please! 

   Chinchillas are very curious and love to explore ... they can get into VERY small places, so small, sometimes they can't get out.   

We tap his sand bowl

  Please do not use the sand, it is very harsh on their fur.  Chinchilla Dust Bath Dust is much better for him.

I always think is better for them to get back in themselves because it is a lot less stressful.

Very true ... you are lucky that you have one that will do it, most won't.   :-[

 
Jo Ann [/i]

Don't worry we unplug everything first, remove all the wires we can and then put a rug over the rest. And we do have chinchilla dust, I just called it sand. We bought him from an exotic pet shop and the woman who sold him to us was very knowledgeable. He's got everything he needs as far as we know, we just need to get him a wooden sleeping box because he's using a cardboard one at the moment.

I think he's going behind there just to get attention too  I knew they were intelligent but I didn't realise how intelligent until last night. We have a wooden rocking chair and he was only inquisitive enough to climb it last night and then he went for a quick nibble. We said "No." to him quite firmly and gave his nose a very gentle push away and within two times of doing that he learned not to do it, although we could see him trying to sneak a quick nibble when he thought we weren't looking. 

I'm in love already.