How do I get my chin to break a bad habit?!

[katiegpr]

My chin will find the ONE piece of plastic in the cage and chew on ONLY that. She ignores all the wood and attacks the plastic. I was scared that she would ingest it so I took it out. But is there a way to teach her "NO!"? She's very stubborn.

~ Thanks!!!

 

[Amethyst]

Chinchillas chew, that's what they do. If she chews on plastic you have to remove it, if it's a shelf, cover it or replace it with a chin safe wood. There is no teaching them not to chew, it's up to you to make sure she only has access to safe things. It's advised to avoid all things plastic when it comes to chins, most chins will chew on plastic eventually so better to just replace whatever she is chewing.

 

[katiegpr]

Thanks Amethyst. I took it out. Time to go shopping!

 

[jess32247]

The only thing you can do is to remove any plastic in the cage. They shouldn't have plastic in the cage in the first place, for that exact reason.

It isn't hard to have no plastic in the cage, you might have to do a bit of DIY or spent a little money, but you can easily replace any plastic shelves, hay racks, bowls, ect, with wood and safer materials

 

[jbcstratton]

Definetly remove all plastic, give lots of chews and good luck with training them, it's more like "how will they train you"! We are the ones that seem to change what we do more than they will change what they do.

 

[mgonya]

Amen! Mine loves the corner wall. She will try every strategic offense possible to get at it. She can rip a sticker off a bin in a blink. Guess who trained who??

 

[landrk11]

We've all been in the same situation with our chins chewing things they shouldn't. Mine will chew anything she can get her teeth on.

They are spirited little creatures with big personalities.

I think my little girl is part termite. I made the mistake of buying an new hay rack made of wood. Well she ate the rack in 2 days and left the hay. Go figure.

There are a lot of great site links in the header of this site. The items are well made and the vendors are very helpful.

Have fun shopping. I know I always have a blast shopping for Lola!