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Author Topic: new chinchilla very agressive  (Read 1145 times)

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sarahrose080

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new chinchilla very agressive
« on: September 29, 2014, 10:31:33 AM »

My friend just bought a surrendered chinchilla about a week ago from Petco. She's female, not sure about the age, past owners, or how long she was at the store. But she is mean. She lets you hand feed her treats, and once in a while you can pet her, other times she tries to bite or makes a growling sound. She is almost impossible to pick up and move her to clean her cage without gloves on because she'll bite. My friend has another chinchilla (also female). I have one as well (male) the two that we have love attention and love to be held and cuddled and weren't very aggressive when we got them. Any ideas on how to make this one warm up to people or even the other chinchillas? (they all have separate cages, and the male and female we already had get along together great). I have the new one at my place right now because I am home often and can give her more attention or whatever she needs.
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kageri

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Re: new chinchilla very agressive
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2014, 11:37:04 AM »

Time is the only answer.  1 week is nothing to a stressed out chinchilla.  Expect it to take months for them to settle in.  If they haven't had a good home in the past and with things like the stress of a petstore then it could be more like a year before they forget the damage and start acting normal.  Pet carefully when possible, treats, hand tasty sticks, you can use a dust bath container to lure them in and remove from the cage... Just keep showing you are not a threat.
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mb30

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Re: new chinchilla very agressive
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2014, 03:09:17 AM »

I have a female that came from a pet store and i don't think she had a very good life while there. She barely knew how to run properly when i got her. Anyways...it has taken a year and 2 months for her to trust me enough to just stand on my open hands...i wish i could have had her since she was a baby. She has so much character but she is very wild.
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GrayRodent

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    • Chris Hamilton
Re: new chinchilla very agressive
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2014, 05:25:09 AM »

Typically an older chinchilla, older than 3-4 months, that has not been handled, will never get very tame. It doesn't mean they won't make a great pet, it is just you will have to care for them a bit differently. There are ways of conditioning your chinchilla to be held. It is a process that will take months, but just slowly get your chinchilla used to different things, starting with a scratch on chin and progressing towards the back little by little. Then you should be be able to handle her front feet and eventually get her to step onto your hand. You have to go in small steps or you will get bit so your aim should be to go as far as you can without getting bit or causing your pet to panic.

However I do recommend waiting another week or two before trying to anything with her, let her get settled in, and go from there. You won't be able to work much with an animal that does not trust you. Each time you get bit and have to pull away this will reinforce the behavior. But if you do anything at this point to correct it you may end up making your pet scared of you. When the time comes you'll need to pull your chin out of the cage and hold her for a second or two and then put her back in the cage but I don't think she's quite ready for that yet.
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