nekonyandemy
Member
I let my new chinchilla, Kir, out in the bathroom after about a week of him coming to live with me. He seemed really comfy with me, enough that he'd love to crawl all along my arms and shoulders. He recently started being able to jump into my cupped hands and then I'd lower him down to my lap (he'd almost immediately want to get down and sniff around in my lap and tug on the seams on my pants. So I figured it would be alright to let him explore the bathroom and come to me and climb on me as much as he'd like. It was going great for awhile, he didn't seem scared at all even though I'm sure I appeared much bigger than from inside the cage. But, he found a big gap underneath the bathroom sink where I couldn't reach and we both couldn't see each other. I tried luring him out with treats, he'd come up and grab them and take them back in, but if I were to try to lure him out a little more, he'd refuse to do it and stay in. Sometimes he'd make a little whining noise, it was cute sounding but I assumed it meant he was scared. So I begin panicking, bad idea i'm sure but I had a feeling similar to that of losing my only child. So I go get tools and try to pry the wooden board that was in the way, making a lot of noise. While I did this, he continued to make the whining noise. Eventually I just laid his dust bath out and a couple of broken off pieces of treats and a little hay then when to lay down hoping he'd come out. About an hour or so later I heard him rolling in his bath. So I go in there and as soon as he heard me coming he hopped out and back under the sink. By this time, he has stopped whining when I try to lure him out with treats, but also doesn't come up even to sniff them. So I go to the store and find a saw small enough to fit in between the top of the sink and the board blocking us from seeing each other. Thank God it worked and I was able to get the board out of the way. There was a lot of space and he seemed a little ok once he noticed it was me, but he still didn't come up to sniff me or the treats I tried to give him. Eventually I got him to come out into his favorite wooden house, but in order to get him to come out, I had to follow him with my hand and tap him on his behind when he got to the part where he'd be coming out from underneath the sink in order to get him to move out. After that, I reached in the house and picked him up. This is the part that has me a little worried. He didn't struggle at all. He normally can't stand to be held for more than a few seconds, but I held him close like I always do and he didn't resist. I sat in front of the cage with him for a few minutes, talking to him calmly as I held him and petted/scratched him. After about 3 minutes he got slightly restless and started motioning that he wanted to be let go, so I lifted him into his cage and he hopped around it once then sat and stared at me. He allowed me to pet him again without him resisting, continuing to stare at me. He didn't really move at all or try to sniff my fingers like he usually does. Then he goes into his house that I placed back up on his platform. If I moved, he'd hop out, just in front of the house and stare at me, and he'd let me pet him, with the same reaction as before, just staring and no sniffing. He did this about 5-7 times and he's been sitting in his house ever since which has been about 20 minutes almost (the time it's taken me to register and type up this post.) He's acting pretty normal at the moment, just sitting at the door of the little house, poking his head out a little ways when I place my hand near, and when I try to pet him he sniffs and messes with his whiskers and moves back into the house a little as he does so, which is what normally happened before the incident.
The whole time I was so scared he wasn't going to be able to trust me anymore and/or he'd always be scared of me and hate me, especially when I had to somewhat chase him with my hand to get him out from under the sink, which is why his reaction surprises me to much. Why did he act so calm afterwards and why did he stare at me so hard when I placed him back in the cage? He definitely wasn't calm when I tried prying and sawing that board loose. But as soon as I picked him up, he instantly stopped resisting. I would be very grateful on some ideas as to why he behaved that way and what it meant.
I just got done having cage play time with him. He was able to run around and climb on my shoulder and jump into my hands and lap without being afraid, just his typical shyness, so I'm guessing he's still as comfortable with me as he was before the incident.
The whole time I was so scared he wasn't going to be able to trust me anymore and/or he'd always be scared of me and hate me, especially when I had to somewhat chase him with my hand to get him out from under the sink, which is why his reaction surprises me to much. Why did he act so calm afterwards and why did he stare at me so hard when I placed him back in the cage? He definitely wasn't calm when I tried prying and sawing that board loose. But as soon as I picked him up, he instantly stopped resisting. I would be very grateful on some ideas as to why he behaved that way and what it meant.
I just got done having cage play time with him. He was able to run around and climb on my shoulder and jump into my hands and lap without being afraid, just his typical shyness, so I'm guessing he's still as comfortable with me as he was before the incident.
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