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[Jenova]

A testament to their intelligence.
Cheech was barking and looking downright miserable. Usually if he's like that I'll open his cage, give him a quick tickle and maybe a bit of fruit and when he gets back to normal I'll close the cage again. Well, he's learned. I opened the cage and he went from 'miserable' to alert in a second and jumped right out of the cage. Seems he wanted to play so he tricked me into letting him out. He must have planned it because he jumped right across the cage to get out. He hadn't been able to come out at his usual time because our light fitting has exploded and I can't watch him properly in the dark. He wasn't having any of it. 

[Debbie.nl.ca]

 
Ya cheeky little monkeys.

[Marie14625]

It is amazing how well they train us.  Trixie responds to me moving from my chair..but not Rick..as I am usually the one who takes her out for playtime.  I am learning her poses too.  There is the just sitting there looking pathetic pose..usually if she has gone longer than an hour with no attention..or if has been about 5 minutes since she has eaten, and she feels she deserves a treat.

Then there is the standing up, ears perked...Hey mom, can I go out to play??

[Jo Ann]

They are ingenious at getting attention.  Many ask me how I have trained some of my little ones to do different things.  It is they who have trained me and my husband. 

Chinchillas love attention, so ... they do different things to get it ... they, in turn, teach you ... that when you acknowledge the special thing they are doing, they will continue to do it to get and keep your attention. 

We have one chin that plays dead on top of her hut ...   
a few that will "dance" on their hind legs, twirling round and round ...   
a couple that do back-flips on and over his hut ...   
one that sprays me if she sees my husband kissing me ...   
   one that demands my husband speak to her when entering the room (if he doesn't and he sits down in the computer chair about 7 feet away) she "rains" on his head ... 
several that know how to unlock their cages (we have to double lock them with clips) ... 
one that rattles her supplement container by using it like a drum until I put her supplement in it ...   
one that jumps up on the cage door with all fours and shakes it if I do not give him his food first ... 
Their tricks are indless and precious.

 
Jo Ann

[jmrothermel]

Wow Jo Ann, Im surprised that you have any sanity left trying to keep up with which chins do what!   

Jacqui

[Chin_Vinny]

hehe, i know you have movies on youtube of your backflipping one, but do you have any of the hind leg dancers?

[Jo Ann]

Don't have any film of the dancers, but I'm still trying to catch them ... when my camera comes on, it makes a sound that gets their attention and they quit dancing.  Of course I have two others that do the dance thing as they try to get yogurt off their lips (they don't like yogurt) as they twirl round and round spitting and wiping their little mouths.

Cheech was barking and looking downright miserable.

Got you trained good!   

We have several that we have to double lock their cages ... but, one very defiant one ... she will wait till she sees you watching her and she will grab hold the latch with her teeth, pull it back and up, then turn it loose, opening her cage door.  She gets this smug little look on her face as she makes sure we see what she can accomplish.  She doesn't jump out ... just opens the door and sits there, to let us know she can.

This week, with being very busy moving chins around (40 new additional cages) ... Missy has been a bit neglected, or so she thinks.  She pulled her "dead chin" act, leaving me horrified!  Not on top of her hut, as usual, but in the back of the cage on the floor ... laying very still, on her back, legs straight up in the air as if rigor mortis had set in.  She has never done it on the cage floor before, just on top of her hut.  Frantically I pulled the water bottle and opened her cage door, calling her name.  She jumps up looks at me like      Ha Ha!  I fooled ya!     I've never spanked a chin, but I was tempted ... little squirt scared me out of 10 years of my life.   

With chinchillas, you never a dull day!

 
Jo Ann

[jmrothermel]

Jo Ann, boy that would certainly send your heart into your throat huh?  I can imagine it shortening anyone's life! 

Silly chinchillas, they sure know how to scare us.

Last night I was looking in one of my maternity cages, and I saw the two babies lying together at one end of the fleece tube, but I couldn't see mama (my husband calls her mama) at the other end.  I just wanted to make sure she was okay so I called her.  Now she usually responds to her name but she wouldn't come out.  I knocked on the cage bottom the babies look at me like, "Yeah lady?" but mama's still no where to be seen.  I'm going Mama!  Nope.  My husband walks over (whom she is VERY close to) and says to me - watch.  "Mama" he calls.  WHAM!  Out she is running over to the cage and kissing him.  Scared me half to death!  Apparently she didn't care if I was calling her!

But that whole thing with Missy - I'm just glad she was okay!

Jacqui

[Asikovsek]

 ...gotta love how our chins love to trick us!!....but if you do have a young chin I have them trained on a cooking timer!...I watched a lady on the internet and followed her instructions to train your chins.  And it really worked i was amazed!!!....when I let my chins out to run around I set the timer and when it dings they no to jump back into thier cages and if they listen they get a raisin as a reward.  Dont get me wrong it was a real pain in the beginning, but it is nice now because when they do decide to be bad and jump out of thier cages when they are not supposed to then I just ding the bell and they go flying right back in with the raisin demand on thier faces!!!