Print

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

[Dex21]

Hello friends long time no see!  I had a quick question regarding my chinnie, Dex.  He is now 1 year and 9 months old (almost the big 2!), though he has been acting out a little bit.  The three main things he does is 1) as of recent he hasn't been listening to me when he is playing 2) he chews on EVERYTHING (he chews on the wood trim along the room I have him in as well as a metal splash guard on his cage (only when he wants to come out to play)) and 3) he has become a humping menace (only to me).

Not listening: my little buddy seems to be purposely doing the opposite of what I tell him whenever he is playing.  Whenever he is inside of his cage he will respond to commands such as "come here" and "kiss", though whenever he is outside of his cage he is an entirely different chinchilla.  I cannot continue to have him chewing the wood trim (because of angry landlords), so whenever he chews it I say "No" and give him a tiny bop on the top of his head to signal "bad."  His reaction to this will either be to run away (less likely) or immediately go back to chewing the same spot (more likely --> at this point I carry him back into his cage and play time is over).  If he runs away, he will return within a couple of minutes to chew again until finally I carry him inside his cage.

Chewing:  He has many chew toys in his cage to help grind his teeth down (over 10 lava blocks, a bundle of sticks, the occasional apple orchard stick (as a treat), and his timothy hay/oxbow pellets), though whenever he comes out to play he acts completely different.  As stated above he chews the wood trim along my bedroom, however when he really wants to come out of his cage to play he will chew the metal splash guard on the bottom level of the cage!  I am extremely worried about this because I do not want him to chip a tooth or hurt himself in any way so I was curious if you guys had a solution to help me with this chewing issue.

Humping:  He has been an aggressive humper for almost a year now, though he only humps me.  This mostly happens (again) whenever he is out of his cage and playing (building off of the fact that he won't listen to me), and he is as persistent as he is with biting the wood trim.  If I move him off of my leg (or arm), he will come back almost immediately to try again.  I feel bad because he is in a cage by himself and has no companion, however I would greatly prefer if he didn't take his sexual aggression out on me.

I apologize for the long post but these 3 issues have been bothering me for quite some time and I really would love solutions to all of them.  Thank you as always for your help guys, I look forward to reading your responses.

-Bill

[GrayRodent]

Looks like your pet has you trained well.

I wouldn't worry too much about the metal chewing. My chins chew their metal wheels all the time and don't seem to suffer any ill effects. I would say if you don't ignore this your'e training your chin to get what it wants when it chews.

As far as floorboards go that is typical behavior. Not something I deal with because I don't let mine roam around much but you can try to train by pushing him away with your hand each time he comes near the boards. That won't be possible unless you're in a small space like a bathroom. Other than that you're hosed there. Chinchillas are not known to respond to verbal commands. I don't think there's anything that can be done there.

Humping can be stopped. I contend it should be stopped be because chins are habitual creatures and that's not a habit you want to ingrain. Pick your chin up and set him back down. Chins can be picked up by their tails (always at the thickest part of the base) safely but they like support under their feet. If you remove that support and let him hang there for a few (no more than 2-3 seconds) that will completely distract him from that. Usually picking him up for a few seconds (the normal way) and cuddling him is more than enough. This is especially true for a chinchilla that doesn't like to be restrained, but the more you do that the more comfortable your pet will be towards being held. Which is not necessarily a bad thing but the tail thing is good second step, at least until they become desensitized to that. But even then it's still a good distraction.