funny barking incident--talk to your chin!

[danilinn]

I've been telling my husband for weeks that chinchillas have to be talked to, and he blew me off. I babble any nonsense I can come up with at Jonesy, but he just quietly watches her. So by yesterday, she'd decided that I was fine to pet her, pick her up, whatever.
I woke up around 4 this morning to her barking. And there's my 200 lb. husband, laying on the floor looking at her and the stick she won't take from him. I shooed him off to the couch and got her settled down, but as soon as I went back to bed, she started barking at him again--by this time, he was just sitting on the couch watching TV. he actually had to leave the room to get her to stop!
The moral of the story, of course, is that he had to lay on the floor by her cage again before work, ungruffing his voice as best he could and prattling away at her while I "supervised".
I've mentioned a lot how unusually fine Jones is with me touching her, and I can only surmise that the endless stream of chatter and lullabies I've kept up since Saturday afternoon has a lot to do with this. I think Andy felt dumb talking to her, but if you were a chinchilla, and someone person-sized just looked at you and never said anything, I think you might get the idea that you were being checked out as a meal!

 

[addictedtochins]

haha my favorite chin baby talk words right now are tay-wool (tail) and wee-wool (wheel)

 

[javachin]

That's pretty funny. I had a lot of barking going on with my newest chin and her first 2 weeks at my house. Every time I'd pick her up and put her back in the cage, the barking would ensue! She finally quit, but it was pretty funny with how sassy she was. Now she just barks on and off for whatever reason.

 

[ChinnyMom]

Guss will bark at me if i come near his cage while he's in his house/box, due to still settling in here. Rhino is a mute unless i'm touching his bum (i get kacked at) or when i'm picking him up, i get what i call a half kack, lol.

 

[liewwan]

Guess you showed your husband a thing or two. Good job hehehehe.

 

[danilinn]

well, after his boss told him off for not bonding with my chinchilla, he managed to give her hay today without incident.
but when i got in from work tonight, she hopped back in her hidey-house and started a squeakier, higher kind of barking than the other night. if i sit next to her cage and talk, she stops, but the minute i walk away, she starts again. i'm trying to figure out if she wants me to sit by her, or if i'm supposed to stay away.
anyone have any thoughts on this? i don't want to scare her more, and i'm afraid she's shutting up and staying still if i'm right there. but i've also heard this sound in her sleep--baby chinchilla nightmare?
oh, help. i don't want her to hate me because i won't leave her alone, but i don't want to ignore her if she's scared and my voice calms her down.

 

[ChinnyMom]

is it kind of like a peeping noise? that's their contact sound.

great site for chin sounds: http://www.chinchilla-sounds.de/index_en.htm

 

[danilinn]

yes, it was much more like the contact sound (after the initial barks when i came in the door).
is that a good sound?

 

[danilinn]

but it was the barky sound when i left the room...probably best not to come back to the cage when she does that?

 

[danilinn]

yep, that MUST have been the contact sound. she's climbed my arm three times tonight, groomed my eyelashes (hoping she doesn't make a habit of THAT), and climbed onto my hand once and my lap once.
it probably sounds silly (at least to someone who doesn't live with a chinchilla), but i felt pretty honored about all that climbing on me!

 

[ChinnyMom]

when i'm sitting on my shins and leaning into Rhino's cage to clean the back corners, he'll come up behind me (he gets playtime during cage cleaning) and pounce on my back, run up to my ear and start grooming it. i always smile from my nose to my toes when he does that )

 

[danilinn]

consider yourself very lucky--Jonesy's new thing is grooming anywhere on my face or head that she can.

 

[liewwan]

Sounds like your chin is loving you like crazy. My chins starts doing the communication sound when they want play time lol. It's their way of saying "let me now mom"

 

[danilinn]

Alena, she is so friendly that i keep thinking i'm misreading her. she really does seem to be an attention hound, though--every time i walk away from her cage when she's not tired, she goes to a spot where she can stare at me, then she comes to the shelf by her door when i give up on my own life and come back.

 

[liewwan]

Awwww, yeah they're little brats most of the time. I've had my girls for over 3 months and they are still testing me:hair:

 

[beccabee13]

My Eve is the biggest attention seeker. She'll make those noises at night if she's heard me rustle around and she knows i'm awake, for her that means its time for company! What's better for burning some midnight oil then to sit with your nocturnal chin and give them some new chew blocks to pass the time? :] funny thing - i played those sounds real quick just to go over them and both my chinchillas adam and eve ran right out of their houses and up to find where it was coming from!

 

[starleomach]

LOL that is too funny I am so Glad you are enjoying her so much. I should have warned you I have very vocal animals here....

 

[danilinn]

Kristy, she's made me happier than i've been in years.

Andy said the other day, "Um, hon, not that I'm complaining, but what's with you being all lovey lately?"
I had no idea what he was talking about, and finally he said, "You KISSED ME ON THE FOREHEAD! You never do [stuff] like that!"

It's true, I am known for acting like a cat and not a dog most of the time, but finally it hit me, and I said, "It started when Jonesy moved in, didn't it?"

Yup. Let her make funny noises and fling poop and even give me a panic attack escaping the cage and I'm still a thousand times better for having her. Thank you so much for putting me together with the most wonderful, manipulative, brilliant little one-eared chinchilla ever.
:hearts:

 

[liewwan]

Dani your overloaded with cuteness by her lol. I did the same when I first got my chins ha.

 

[javachin]

I forgot all about that link with the chin noises. I just played them for my chins and my most vocal boy is having a fit trying to talk back. Too funny.