It was about a three weeks before my chinchilla allowed me to get my hands around him without him jumping away/ freaking out but he was somewhat tame to start with and let me get up to him. It's been almost exactly 2 months now and I am still making progress with mine. He is tame enough now that I can catch him in the bathroom easily but not tame enough to be let into a larger room without having to chase him. (Chasing a chin is always bad and makes them less trusting of you but sometimes you have no choice) I see new behavioral improvements every week in mine with the methods I use. Chinchillas in general avoid being handled but can become tolerant if the right steps are taken. Some animals will take a liking to it but not all. Mine is borderline now. Sometimes when I think there is no hope for improvement in a given area my chin surprises me.
Yours probably hasn't had much interaction and may need to rest for a couple of weeks without much interaction (besides food, water, dust bath every other day, and the occasional treat) to get over the stress of relocation and get used to its new environment. I wouldn't start training/taming until after those two weeks. I started early on mine because he was ready for it. On a chinchilla farm they haven't experienced much inside of their confined cages and will need to be introduced to new things slowly. Too much stress at once can result in digestive upset loss of appetite and potentially fatal illness. Taming will cause a certain amount of stress.
I do most of my taming inside a shower stall and in the bathroom where he is confined and can't get into too much trouble. The shower stall is a very confined area so he has no where to go without me being right there. That is where I give him his dust bath too. Another thing I found is if I let him run there for a while he leaves most of his droppings in the tub where it is easy to sweep up. Then I'll open it up to the rest of the bathroom and he gets his exercise without my meddling. Before he was tame enough to be held I transported him by having him jump into a shoebox or plastic container. A chinchilla will usually explore and go everywhere so he'll usually end up in the container at some point.
Just letting her run around in the shower without trying to handle her is going to be helpful the first week (of training) as she gets used that that new environment and you being there. She'll probably crawl on you and jump on your head trying to get out the top. All of this is good experience for bonding.
I did handle mine in short sessions each day in the shower such as stroked the fur on his back and tail during that time usually no more than a couple of times per session. Mine didn't like it much but over time got used to it eventually.
It took about a week of 20-30 minute sessions before he became tolerant of getting touched. Basically I just let him run around and touched his fur a couple of times per session until he became more and more tolerant. Over time he became indifferent to it and now at certain times he'll stretch out to get petted. Remember that what you do in the shower needs to be re-enforced inside the cage. I could sense mine was compartmentalizing his behaviors so that what happened in one environment didn't happen in another.
A couple of times in the first week of training I did hold him for a few seconds just to get him used to the idea and petted his fur all over. I had to prove that getting handled was the not the end of the world. When you do this expect there to be some fur slip but not too much. If this is done wrong it can be counterproductive so try to read your animal and figure out where to draw the line. Vocal sounds of annoyance like whining are not uncommon. Spitting or growling sounds are bad and can be followed by biting. It's pretty easy to avoid getting bitten once you know where not to put your hand. You still don't want to get close to that line because you don't want to associate aggression/fear with handling but chances are you'll find it by accident at some point. With females you might have to deal with spraying (which is why I wanted a male). Either way just work through it and try not to react quickly to it initially so the behavior won't get reinforced.
It is important you determine what your pet's normal sleep pattern is and try to handle your chinchilla when it is the most alert. Otherwise it will just be annoyed with you for interrupting its sleep and this can have a negative association with handling. Mine can be very aggressive at certain times of day when he is sleeping the hardest and will be very vocal when disturbed while other times of day he'll be right at the door to get attention.
About two weeks of letting him run in the shower stall (with the occasional light handling) and in the bathroom (I sat in the middle of the floor at first and prevented him from chewing floorboards) he acted calmer and allowed me to touch him in the cage. I had to start by touching him on the nose which he was most tolerant of. I had to go in stages every day moving up to the ears and then under his neck. I did this more frequently as he became more tolerant and showed less signs of annoyance. After the third week he allowed me to put my hand under him and at the end of that week I got both hands on and was able to remove him from the cage. He only let me hold him for about 20 seconds at a time before he struggled and attempted to bite.
I had about 2 sessions of this as well each day for a few days (of course letting him go back before he got that mad) and he tolerated longer and longer sessions. Now I can hold him for about 3 minutes before he starts squirming and acting perturbed. He no longer tries to bite even if I keep him restrained past that. He'll calm down for a few seconds and then start struggling again. It is important to prevent overheating especially when being held and struggling at the same time. I only release him inside of the cage during moments when he stops struggling to help discourage that behavior. He is becoming more consistent. It took 3 additional weeks to get to that point and I wasn't sure if it would ever happen but it did. Now I can carry him around without him making a scene.
You should hold with the base of the tail stabilized with one hand. This is the safest and most reliable way to keep your chin from getting loose or injured. Although I didn't start out that way (because my chin was extremely intolerant of being touched there but would allow a different hold that I don't recommend) I had to go back and condition him to tolerate it after he did get loose in the house a couple of times. It took about 7 days of consistent handling before he stopped slipping fur at the base of his tail but now he doesn't seem to care.
During training I kept a very watchful eye on his droppings and weight every day because training does cause stress and you don't want to overdo it. Some days I didn't do anything if I suspected there was any effect on that. (I later found the changes were caused by eating too much wood)
Also use your raisin pieces wisely. You can coax your chinchilla to crawl on your hand or up your arm inside of the cage. This will help prepare her for being handled in the future. When it comes time to hold your chinchilla you can feed it raisin pieces while you are holding it. When I started out I gave 4 pieces or more while holding even though it was a short time and did this every morning for a week.
