Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Q & A => Topic started by: HarveyTheChin on June 11, 2006, 04:54:53 PM
-
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. ::shrug:: :doh:
-
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.
-
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 ;)
-
Every once in a while my chinnies decide that they are not ready to go back to their cage yet. :doh: 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. :D
-
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 :::grins::
-
:-\ I hate to break it to you, but Harvey's food should not have treats in it! :o 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. ::nod::
-
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
-
Okay. Just checking. I want you to have a healthy long-lived chinny! :::grins::
-
Oh trust me I do as well :::grins::
-
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 :::grins::
-
::silly:: 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! ::wacko:: 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. ::nod::
::wave::
Jo Ann
-
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 ::nod::) 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.
-
::silly::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! :o
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. :-[
::wave::
Jo Ann [/i]
-
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.
-
::silly::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! :o
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. :-[
::wave::
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 :::grins:: 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.
-
::silly::Yep, they're just like little children ...
A very good friend of mine has been raising chinchillas (refers to them as her 4-legged kids). I told her when she got started, if she could learn their little tricks and how to train them, when she has her 2-legged kids later on, it will be a breeze. rofl You also learn how well they will train you ... just like the chinchillas do! :D
Glad to hear you do use the dust bath dust. ::nod:: With one of the popular dust bath houses you get a sample container of dust bath sand ... so many people think if it comes with it, that's what they should use. :doh:
Jenova, please, don't ever take anything I say personal ... being on a forum ... new comers, even a year from now might read the reference to the "sand" bowl and him "getting behind the t.v. because he wants to be scratched" and think it's OK ... that's why you will see many of us (and I am the worst) ... bring it to everyone's attention, the cautions that need to be added with the statements.
:blush2: I've been caught more than a few times myself ... leaving out a word that changes the meaning completely! Or having to re-state and/or elaborate, on a comment I've made when it was miss-understood.
We're all here to learn and to have fun! :-[
::wave::
Jo Ann
-
Don't worry about it at all. Especially as I am a new owner I could have been doing something wrong so corrections are always appreciated. I am just happy to see people who care so much about animal welfare and I would never do anything intentionally to harm our little Cheech, but if I was I'd always be happy to be told off. :)
-
A dust bath sitting out in the middle of the room is usually enough to lure my chins, but when they are really determined we usually just hang out and sooner or later they come sit on us and we can put them back in their cages. ::nod::
-
I teach my chins words, like up, when it's time to get back. I use a timer so everyone gets their share of time out.
They soon learn that when the timer goes off, I'm going to chase them around the room hollering at them, may even shoo them with a broom, then give them a treat. :D
They do learn. ;)
-
'we usually just hang out and sooner or later they come sit on us and we can put them back in their cages. "
LOL aren't you lucky! Mine would run around like little heathens until they dropped dead before settling down and allowing me to put them back!
-
::silly::Hi!
A dust bath sitting out in the middle of the room is usually enough to lure my chins, but when they are really determined we usually just hang out and sooner or later they come sit on us and we can put them back in their cages. ::nod::
This works wonders when you have one of those little bath houses ... chins love their dust bath, almost as much as a treat!
The more time you spend with them and work with them, the more surprised you will be with what they will do for you! ::nod::
::wave::
Jo Ann
[/i]
-
::) What works for me treats,dust bath and I make a kissing sound and they come running ::silly::
-
My chins also don't come to their cages , so I just wait until they get tired from running and start laying on their side , then I take them and put them into the cage :) (sorry for the language, I'm just learning it :))
-
Chasing our Mika was never a problem. We could just touch her and that would gross her out so much she'd run into her cage and stand waiting in front of the dust bath. If she could talk I"m sure she would also ask for some disinfectant, too.
-
my chins that i have raised are very good with following commands...it the new comers or adoptions that make me have to start all over again...haha....but when one gets it the others will....once they see another chin jumping back into their cage when the timer rings then they start to realize there is a reward for it...if I have to shoo them back into their cage they dont get a reward....its the bargain system...lol
-
You can try adding a timer to his play time. As soon as it goes off catch him and put him back.
I find holding a longish tube in front of them works sometimes too. They seem to be to curious not to go in.
If all else fails yes trow throw the towel over them, put them back and give them a treat.
I use the work up as mine have to get up in their cages.
Some take a while to catch on while others can learn in a couple of weeks.
Routine is the key.
Have a look Training chinchillas (http://pic7.piczo.com/NewfoundlandChinchillas/?g=31790227&cr=7&vsrc=preview)
-
Heh, when I got silver since first day she was super curious about everything. If I balled my hand up and put it in her cage she would slowly come over sniffing then try to stuck her nose into the fold between my fingers and hand. My father set up his computer room to be chinchilla friendly, it's wood floored and constantly kept clean so it is perfect. She goes nuts when we get her out running all over the place like a little grey streak and always gets into places she shouldn't be. I have found that a cat carrier is perfect for catching them as curiousity gets the best of them. Old carpet tunnels are great toys for them as they are long, non inked cardboard, and chinchilla's seem to feel safe in them. As said several times a dust bath can work but if things get desperate I have also taught mine that if I say this phrase "Where's silver?" she should come out to get one of her few treats for the day, Papaya is her favorite.