Behavioral change?

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hitchhikingbeetles

New member
Joined
Feb 24, 2018
Messages
3
Hi!
I'm new to being a chinchilla pet parent. Used to be a pet parent of dumbo rats for a long time.
I've only had my chinchilla for a handful of weeks, but pretty much as soon as she got home she was friendly with me and not afraid of anyone, not afraid to sit out in the open and eat her food & watch me. She's six months old.

The past few days she's not been allowed to have playtime per the advice of her breeder due to diahrrea from an attempt to slowly transition her food. She wasn't very happy with me about that.

For about a day now I've noticed her behavior has changed and I'm not sure why. Suddenly she's behaving skittishly and when someone walks in the room, when the TV makes a noise or the dog walks in, she sits really still and then darts into her hidey hole. She always comes back to me pretty quickly after that but I don't know why she started out so comfortable and turned so flighty.

She seems to have had a TON of energy lately too and now that she's allowed playtime again she'll come out and bolt around so fast she's pooped out in 10 minutes. She runs her wheel all night and ping pong's off all her ledges at a million miles an hour.

I don't know her full personality yet since I've only been with her a little while but she does seem unusually frisky, skittish, sassy, and has been nibbling quite a bit harder too. I was wondering if she might be in heat? Has anyone experienced changes like this before?
 
I think the answer lies in "She's six months old." At around 6 months chins go through puberty, and their behavior can have a very definite change just like a teenage human. The can be real brats during that time, and in some cases their personality is unfortunately forever changed. I've had some that didn't change much, and others that went from nice and cuddly to being a moody brat that didn't want to be handled.

The increase in energy though could simply be she is feeling more comfortable in her environment and is able to enjoy herself. It can take about a month for a chin to fully settle in to a new home enough to see their true personality. A six month old chin should be very hyper, literally bouncing off the walls, so that is normal. I would keep an eye on her though, you don't want her playing to the point of exhaustion, that can be dangerous. If she looks to be tiring out it's best to limit the out of cage playtime to just the 10 minutes or so.
 
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