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Q & A / Viable playtime options?
« on: December 17, 2011, 06:49:06 PM »
I'm at a complete loss! 
Hi everyone! I'm new here, and new to chins. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting one for probably at least five years and we finally happened on the opportunity to adopt two well-cared for little boys from a woman who was having some unfortunate pregnancy difficulties and felt it best to rehome them. They're about 1 1/2 yrs old and they're brothers. They were treated well, handled often and are generally pretty tame. We also got their huge [bird] cage (3hx3wx2d, roughly – lots of vertical room) so I think they're set up pretty well. We’ve had them for a few months now. I think we brought them home in October.
What we absolutely can not figure out is how to handle playtime. We have one that's more shy at first (also slightly larger and slower), Echo, and one that isn't shy at all but is ALWAYS on the move, Whiskey. We really want to play WITH them. We have four kids and that’s generally how we end the night with them. We get out the boys and we all sit and have some fun being chinchilla gyms. We let the kids play and then my husband I WANTED to let the chins have their own run time while he and I play a game or something before bed. That way everyone gets what they need. But our one guy just won’t stop trying to escape.
We can’t put him in the kitchen because he can use door handles and such to jump up onto the counters. We bought a playpen but that only partially works because it took him all of about ten minutes to realize we’re much taller than the kids and he can just jump off of us to try to get higher. We bought a cover for the playpen but that makes it really dark and cramped in there. I cut up some coroplast and attached it to the top of the playpen (where it can’t be chewed) to make it about 12”-14” taller all around. We tried it without a cover, but again, Whiskey is just using me to try to get out. And I can contain him easily enough by not letting him jump, telling him ‘no’, not sitting too near the edge. It’s just disheartening because that’s all he wants to do.
I feel like maybe he’s bored and wants some adventure (or toys). But anything I give him, he just uses to try to gain height to jump out. We’ve actually seen him use his brother as a step stool to try to get a better jump.
I’ve seen some COOL toys out there and we have tons of little cardboard toys we’ve built but all he wants to do is escape. Eventually he tires himself out and gives up but he spends all his free time just trying to jump out of the playpen. Shouldn’t there be more to life? What am I not giving him?
I hear all of you talking about chin-proofing a room and just letting them roam but I honestly don’t know I would begin to chin-proof our home. Echo got away from me one day and it took me an hour to get him out from under the couch And that’s probably less than a two-inch gap. How are you guys doing this? What materials are you using? How do you keep them from getting under beds, behind bookshelves, etc? I think my older daughter’s room is the best candidate so far but they could still shimmy behind the bed.
I just want to give him enough room that he can enjoy playing and not spend so much time just trying to get away. I see all these chins on YouTube happily in their pens with their toys and ours will just sit there and line up his jumps. You can actually see him working it out in his head.
Hi everyone! I'm new here, and new to chins. I’ve toyed with the idea of getting one for probably at least five years and we finally happened on the opportunity to adopt two well-cared for little boys from a woman who was having some unfortunate pregnancy difficulties and felt it best to rehome them. They're about 1 1/2 yrs old and they're brothers. They were treated well, handled often and are generally pretty tame. We also got their huge [bird] cage (3hx3wx2d, roughly – lots of vertical room) so I think they're set up pretty well. We’ve had them for a few months now. I think we brought them home in October.
What we absolutely can not figure out is how to handle playtime. We have one that's more shy at first (also slightly larger and slower), Echo, and one that isn't shy at all but is ALWAYS on the move, Whiskey. We really want to play WITH them. We have four kids and that’s generally how we end the night with them. We get out the boys and we all sit and have some fun being chinchilla gyms. We let the kids play and then my husband I WANTED to let the chins have their own run time while he and I play a game or something before bed. That way everyone gets what they need. But our one guy just won’t stop trying to escape.
We can’t put him in the kitchen because he can use door handles and such to jump up onto the counters. We bought a playpen but that only partially works because it took him all of about ten minutes to realize we’re much taller than the kids and he can just jump off of us to try to get higher. We bought a cover for the playpen but that makes it really dark and cramped in there. I cut up some coroplast and attached it to the top of the playpen (where it can’t be chewed) to make it about 12”-14” taller all around. We tried it without a cover, but again, Whiskey is just using me to try to get out. And I can contain him easily enough by not letting him jump, telling him ‘no’, not sitting too near the edge. It’s just disheartening because that’s all he wants to do.
I feel like maybe he’s bored and wants some adventure (or toys). But anything I give him, he just uses to try to gain height to jump out. We’ve actually seen him use his brother as a step stool to try to get a better jump.
I’ve seen some COOL toys out there and we have tons of little cardboard toys we’ve built but all he wants to do is escape. Eventually he tires himself out and gives up but he spends all his free time just trying to jump out of the playpen. Shouldn’t there be more to life? What am I not giving him?I hear all of you talking about chin-proofing a room and just letting them roam but I honestly don’t know I would begin to chin-proof our home. Echo got away from me one day and it took me an hour to get him out from under the couch And that’s probably less than a two-inch gap. How are you guys doing this? What materials are you using? How do you keep them from getting under beds, behind bookshelves, etc? I think my older daughter’s room is the best candidate so far but they could still shimmy behind the bed.
I just want to give him enough room that he can enjoy playing and not spend so much time just trying to get away. I see all these chins on YouTube happily in their pens with their toys and ours will just sit there and line up his jumps. You can actually see him working it out in his head.