Chinchilla biting

[hazel_sweet]

One of my chinchilla is biting people when they pet him. When I pet him he is fine but my sibling or parent try to pet him he try to bit them or bit them till they bleed. What should I do to stop him from biting?

 

[ljiayi]

Chinchillas and humans require bonding too or else the chin has a possibility of being hostile to strangers. So more bonding time will be required. Also, some chins just aren't the petting or cuddling type.

 

[Pikaia]

Yep, I agree with the post above. Your chin might be stressed/scared when being handled by strangers. They need to get comfortable with strangers and this takes time. Some really don't like to be "pet" either. Tribble kecks when you try to pet him like you would pet a cat (on the back). He likes to be scritched under his neck though My chins have never bit anyone, but I really don't like to have them handled by strangers- especially kids. They are used to me, but excited kids can stress them out.

 

[hazel_sweet]

But my sister sleep in the same room with me and my chinchillas and when I let my chinchilla play outside the cage half of the time my sister is there and when she come home she would talk to them. And this biting habits just started to develope not too long ago. He just started to bite about 3-4 days ago, he use to be fine. Nothing really change.

 

[breevass]

How old is he ? He could just be going through a stage of preference, where he is moody but knows better than to bite mommy ! When we rescued Athena at 6mo old, she was from an abusive home and was in her puberty stage. So she was attacking everything. She still nips at my hubby on occasion, but if she starts to bite or spray at me, I point a finger at her and say no and she barks at me and calms down. You may just have to find something like that that settles him down. Chins are very untrusting and even if someone slightly squeezes them too hard once, they remember and just won't have anything to do with them (how she acts with a friend now, because of this).