aznmexaggie
Chinchilla Chateau
I took in a very sad-looking greasy boy in June. He had recently moved to the valley from the Bay Area into a house with another family and a lot of kids, dogs, and an African Gray who apparently got perch-time on his cage (there was bird poo all over the top level of his cage...) Since the move from the Bay Area, he began chewing his fur and became more skiddish and tempermental. His owner just had a new baby and couldn't spend time with him anymore. She said his name was Grumpy.
Sad Grumpy at his old home...
Well, Grumpy certainly does have his moods. He sometimes shows very dominant behavior and will mount my hand pretty aggressively and sometimes he will nip hard but not enough to break the skin. He normally will let me give him scritches for quite a while but then it's like he snaps into his dominant mode and all of a sudden tries to hump my hand...
I've been working with him to get him to stop this behavior. I have a stuffy I try to direct his attention to when he gets in his "humping" moods but he doesn't pay much attention. I am also rewarding him with an oat when he lets me give him scritches and doesn't turn into a nipping, humping chin.
I think it's working. The other day he started tail-swishing at me and I was thinking, "uh oh" but then he grabbed a hay cube and attempted to hump it. It was the funniest thing. Maybe he's finally learning he needs to take out his sexual frustrations on something else!
I was seriously thinking for a while that his name needed to be changed to Humpy...
Here's the cutie boy now. He's getting chunkier and thank goodness, he's stopped chewing and his fur is growing back in!
Sad Grumpy at his old home...
Well, Grumpy certainly does have his moods. He sometimes shows very dominant behavior and will mount my hand pretty aggressively and sometimes he will nip hard but not enough to break the skin. He normally will let me give him scritches for quite a while but then it's like he snaps into his dominant mode and all of a sudden tries to hump my hand...
I've been working with him to get him to stop this behavior. I have a stuffy I try to direct his attention to when he gets in his "humping" moods but he doesn't pay much attention. I am also rewarding him with an oat when he lets me give him scritches and doesn't turn into a nipping, humping chin.
I think it's working. The other day he started tail-swishing at me and I was thinking, "uh oh" but then he grabbed a hay cube and attempted to hump it. It was the funniest thing. Maybe he's finally learning he needs to take out his sexual frustrations on something else!
I was seriously thinking for a while that his name needed to be changed to Humpy...
Here's the cutie boy now. He's getting chunkier and thank goodness, he's stopped chewing and his fur is growing back in!
