How long did it take to bond with your chin?

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Lisse

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Messages
22
Hello,

After lots of trial and error I now have a succesfully bonded pair of chins, my first chin (also in this pair) bonded really quickly with me. After 4 days he would already come up to the cage bars if I called his name and after 1 week when I first put my hands in he imediately jumped on my arms and hands. My new chin (have him 4 days now) is another story, I had to pick him up to move to my dorm after he was home for 3 days and I think this might have scarred him. He will flee everytime he sees me. I have been talking to him, his cage is right next to my couch so he will get used to me being there and let him smell my hands through the cage. I have a feeling he will be much harder to bond with (he is now 3 years old). How long did it take you to bond with your chins and what did you do to bond with them?
 
It really depends on the chin's personality and also the chin's past. I've had over a dozen chins over the years and each was unique, some are more brave others are more cautious, some are more social, others shy or cranky. You are forming a friendship, so it's like asking how long does it take you to become friends with a new person. It can take anywhere from days to years, but normally at least a week to a month. You have to earn their trust it's not normally freely given. They have good memories too, so if they were ever mistreated (even if it was before you got them) that can cause them to take longer to trust as well.

My current two I was holding and had out playing on the first day I got them, and they were around 3yrs old when I got them. It took a few months for them to really actually trust me though, and even now after having them for over 9 years I still have one that is more friendly then his brother. I had another chin that it was like love at first sight and yet others that it took years. Some I never really had a good close bond with, they just simply didn't really like being handled. I could take them out for playtime and stuff like that but they never really came around to being that excited unless I had food or treats.

The best way to bond with a chin is to just be around it and let it see you aren't a threat. Read aloud, sing, talk to them, play with them in the cage, offer treats and chew sticks. One thing that can happen with bonded pairs is that they end up bonding more closely to each other then with the human. So since they are bonded the new one may not ever bond as closely with you as your first one. Since you scared him and kept moving him, I would try just giving him some time to settle. Let him know that being picked up and moved to a new place is not something that happens every few days, lol. It can take some chins up to a month just to get settled into a new place and he just got moved twice in under a week.
 
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