How routinized are your chins?

[Jawramik]

It recently hit me just how routinized my chin Margaret has become. Normally I'll come downstairs between 7 and 8pm, when I'll give her hay and pellets, clean her litterbox, spot clean her cage, and then spend an hour or so hanging out with her (I check on her in the morning and when I get home from work, but usually just for a few minutes to make sure all is well). Often I'll put her in her playpen and hang out with her in there, other times I'll just interact with her in her cage, talking to her, giving her pets and scratches, letting her climb on me, holding chew toys for her while she chews them, give her the occasional treat, etc.

But every so often (usually on Friday or Saturday, when I don't have to be up for work the next morning), I won't get downstairs for our evening ritual until 9pm or later.....and when I'm late, she comes charging at me the moment I open her cage, jumps on my shoulder, and chatters a bit in my ear. It's as if she knows I'm late and has no qualms expressing her displeasure at my tardiness. The first couple times it happened, I didn't think much of it, but now I've realised that she only exhibits that behaviour when I'm later than usual. When I'm "on time," she's just friendly and happy to see me, there's no charging onto my shoulder and chattering and acting annoyed.

Have your chins become accustomed to certain things happening at certain times? How do they behave when you don't meet their expectations?

 

[Amethyst]

Chins thrive on routine, so it can be stressful and upsetting if you change it up. It can also happen, at least for a few days, when we turn the clocks back at the end of daylight savings time (set ahead so things happen earlier they don't seem to care, lol). It's very common for them to get use to what time things normally happen and often will be sitting and waiting at the specific time, like if they greet you when you come to the room or for playtime or food if you feed at a specific time every day.

My boy will normally go wait by his food bowl around 11pm when I top up his food before bed, even though his cage is right by my desk so I've been here the whole time. Another example, he will apparently be up to greet my husband in the morning (he gets up hours before I do) and will be up again for at least a few minutes when I get up to greet me before he goes back to sleep.

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

My chins have a routine as well
Nimbus sneaks out of his cage everyday when I open the door to clean or feed him (he is a funny little one)

And my girls every morning have to give me nose nibbles (mostly Cloud as Beatrice is still shy)

And my Nigel has to groom my arm everytime I'm in his cage.

 

[MinatoandChili]

It recently hit me just how routinized my chin Margaret has become. Normally I'll come downstairs between 7 and 8pm, when I'll give her hay and pellets, clean her litterbox, spot clean her cage, and then spend an hour or so hanging out with her (I check on her in the morning and when I get home from work, but usually just for a few minutes to make sure all is well). Often I'll put her in her playpen and hang out with her in there, other times I'll just interact with her in her cage, talking to her, giving her pets and scratches, letting her climb on me, holding chew toys for her while she chews them, give her the occasional treat, etc.

But every so often (usually on Friday or Saturday, when I don't have to be up for work the next morning), I won't get downstairs for our evening ritual until 9pm or later.....and when I'm late, she comes charging at me the moment I open her cage, jumps on my shoulder, and chatters a bit in my ear. It's as if she knows I'm late and has no qualms expressing her displeasure at my tardiness. The first couple times it happened, I didn't think much of it, but now I've realised that she only exhibits that behaviour when I'm later than usual. When I'm "on time," she's just friendly and happy to see me, there's no charging onto my shoulder and chattering and acting annoyed.

Have your chins become accustomed to certain things happening at certain times? How do they behave when you don't meet their expectations?

It recently hit me just how routinized my chin Margaret has become. Normally I'll come downstairs between 7 and 8pm, when I'll give her hay and pellets, clean her litterbox, spot clean her cage, and then spend an hour or so hanging out with her (I check on her in the morning and when I get home from work, but usually just for a few minutes to make sure all is well). Often I'll put her in her playpen and hang out with her in there, other times I'll just interact with her in her cage, talking to her, giving her pets and scratches, letting her climb on me, holding chew toys for her while she chews them, give her the occasional treat, etc.

But every so often (usually on Friday or Saturday, when I don't have to be up for work the next morning), I won't get downstairs for our evening ritual until 9pm or later.....and when I'm late, she comes charging at me the moment I open her cage, jumps on my shoulder, and chatters a bit in my ear. It's as if she knows I'm late and has no qualms expressing her displeasure at my tardiness. The first couple times it happened, I didn't think much of it, but now I've realised that she only exhibits that behaviour when I'm later than usual. When I'm "on time," she's just friendly and happy to see me, there's no charging onto my shoulder and chattering and acting annoyed.

Have your chins become accustomed to certain things happening at certain times? How do they behave when you don't meet their expectations?

My chin also has normalized a routine in our life! I wake up at 7am everyday, so he’s usually sitting next to me or on top of me waiting for his food, haha! I remember this one time I woke up at a later time and he seemed to be bothered by me so every morning i remember to wake up on time for him

 

[Binki]

Love the name Margaret for a chin!

And oh, yes, those brats have a Rolex in their brains even if the routine is not related to food or play. I clean my boy's cage twice a day: early morning and evening before bedtime. The early morning one is because during the night he goes for his chews and toys with such gusto that his cage ends looking like a demolition site. During lockdown, while working from home, I started to do the morning cleaning a bit later than usual and he showed his displeasure to the change in routine by peeing on one of the shelves, something he never did before.

And smart as chins are, he soon realized the value of peeing-on-the-shelf as an attention getter (otherwise he is a stickler for the corner at the bottom of the cage) and started using it to convey his displeasure every time I was too slow to interpret his wishes. That or making a mighty noise by grabbing one of the ramps with his teeth and banging it against the shelf. No lack of communications skills there.

I often wonder whether there are any chinchilla 'owners' or we all are just 'chinchilla butlers'.