Help! Chin hates to be picked up/moved

[Anjftw]

Had my chin for a little over a month. She's a sweet girl and we've bonded well. She loves when she is out for playtime but DESPISES the whole getting-there process...

My girl does NOT want to be picked up. Any time it's attempted by either my husband or I, she scrambles away. This is an improvement as she used to squeak in protest when we had tried weeks earlier.

So we started to use her little dust bath container to transport her to our play area. This had been working, but now it's becoming an issue. She doesn't like to stay in the container to take her dust bath. She'll go in halfway, with her booty sticking out, and do a half roll.

As funny and charming as that is, I want her to get her dust baths. On top of that, tonight was the worst we'd encountered. She absolutely would not get back into the dust bath container when play time was finished. It took great effort to get her back in and safely back to her cage.

PLEASE help! What else can we do??? We're now nervous to get her out for play time for fear we won't be able to wrangle her back to her cage without making it a traumatizing experience for both chin and chinparents alike!

Has anyone else encountered an issue like this with their chinchilla?? If so, how did you handle it and/or fix the situation?

She enjoys it once she's out for play (goes wall surfing and climbs and jumps all over us), but we're at wits end with how to get her to and from. :banghead:

 

[Cuddlebug]

You really do not need to avoid picking her up if she does not like it. She needs to get used to it. When you need to pick her up, just do it. She might get mad, but she will get over it. What would you do if there is an emergency and you need to move her now? Would you wait for her to jump into something so you can transport her or are you just going to pick her up and get her out of there? If you get her used to being picked up, it will make emergencies much easier on her and you. All chins should be taught to tolerate being picked up. Some may never like it, but they can all learn to tolerate it.

 

[Crys12065]

My chin hates to be picked up too. I did the bath house trick for awhile until she figured out my plan and wouldn't go in during playtime! She's a smart one! Now I just wait until she is on me and grab her quickly.
Sometimes I will grab her, give her kisses and scritches then let her go for more playtime as well. This way she doesn't just associate me picking her up with going back in her cage. I don't want her to avoid me if she thinks climbing on me means end of playtime. So I mix it up for her and it seems to work. Though sometimes she is too quick and I have to chase her around the room with a towel to throw over her and catch her!

And The end of playtime almost always means mom gets sprayed by a pissed chin! She DOES NOT like to go back in the cage.
The joys of owning a chin! lol

 

[javachin]

She's still too new. Some chins take months to get used to handling or not at all. You just have to be patient and wait and see.

 

[ChinChild]

I've had Gizmo for a few months now, and he used to bark anytime I'd pick him up. I was persistent though, and eventually the barking stopped. He still scrambles like all **** to remind me that he does NOT approve, but at least he learned that making a racket would not solve anything. I'm hopeful I can eventually curb the scrambling too! Just be consistent and your chin should learn to tolerate it.

 

[Riven]

I'll tell you like I treat all of my animals and recommend. You treat them from day one like you will treat them forever. Otherwise they spend the first month or two "settling in" and then when you start to handle them they are shocked and it's much harder on them then if you just started that way because they don't understand why everything is changed now. If you don't know how to properly hold a chinchilla by the tail you need to learn. It is the safest way as they have floating ribs and holding them like a puppy or kitten can hurt them, causing them more distress.

To tail a chin you simply hold them at the base of the tail with your fingers wrapped around where the fur from the body ends. You can hold the entire weight of the body from this spot. Then gently place the chin over your arm while still holding the tail. This way if the chin goes to jump off it will not get injured, and if it is scared it can hide it's face in the crook of your inner elbow.