Behaviour during playtime

[Jesseman1]

Recently my chin has started getting very ’argumentative’ during playtime. Playtime hasn’t changed for a long time but she’s been getting quick to anger when she doesn’t get her way. Something as simple as stopping her from chewing on my pants or picking her up to put her away has been leading to angry outbursts and spraying urine. What should I do?

 

[tunes]

You can try trimming her whiskers short. It sounds more like she's trying to be dominant, not so much angry. As for spraying, and I know people will spazz about this, but I keep a small spray water bottle nearby for really bad sprayers (which, thankfully, I don't have very often if at all). They spray me, I spray them. It takes maybe 2 times and mine have stopped spraying. I had one girl, every time my daughter walked by her cage she would rear up and unload on her. I mean, literally soak her. I asked a long time, experienced breeder what to do and he recommended this. It's not about soaking the chin. It's a quick mist (not stream) in their face to let them know you can and will spray back.

 

[Jesseman1]

How much should her whiskers be trimmed? I don’t want to cause any problems for her

 

[tunes]

Leave half an inch or so. I promise you, it won't hurt her a bit as long as you don't cut her face. The whiskers grow back pretty quickly too.

 

[Unicorn777111]

I find that my chinchilla prefers to have me gently massage or groom her whiskers with my fingers. It almost seems to soothe or reassure her.

 

[Rocknrolldoc]

We call this "tired toddler" mode at our house. Over the years we have figured out that if they are overly tired, they get very naughty! For example, recently, my husband had to replace some fence boards and he made a lot of noise in the back yard. The girls were very interested in the noise and wondering what daddy was up to so they did not sleep as much as they normally do all day. Playtime that evening was no fun for anyone because it entailed constant re directing away from chewing all the things they normally don't mess with. We've never had pee spraying or aggressiveness towards us though. Could it be that your baby has had some interruptions and not getting as much sleep as usual?

 

[Jesseman1]

We call this "tired toddler" mode at our house. Over the years we have figured out that if they are overly tired, they get very naughty! For example, recently, my husband had to replace some fence boards and he made a lot of noise in the back yard. The girls were very interested in the noise and wondering what daddy was up to so they did not sleep as much as they normally do all day. Playtime that evening was no fun for anyone because it entailed constant re directing away from chewing all the things they normally don't mess with. We've never had pee spraying or aggressiveness towards us though. Could it be that your baby has had some interruptions and not getting as much sleep as usual?

This is very possible, her cage is set in one of the main rooms on the ground floor with the living room being right next to it. Recently my brother has started turning the volume really high while playing CoD which I’m sure is interrupting her sleep. I notice she also tends to be grumpy when I‘m late for her playtime.

 

[Boxraddict]

CoD can be addictive!