How to bond with a rescued Chinchilla

[NigelAndPeanut]

I have recently gotten 3 new chinchillas (I now have 4) which I have had for about a month. the male Nimbus loves attention and being petted but not being picked up he also gets spooked very easily. the 2 girls (Cloud and Beatrice) won't let me touch them at all they slap my hand away and run. Cloud however is very curious and will come up to me and put her front paws up on my hand and check things out. The girls don't enjoy out of their cage playtime as they are too afraid they instead get extra fat sticks for mental stimulation every day. they are rescues from craigslist and are 2 years old and originally from a breeder.

How can I make them less afraid?

I have tried sitting with them and just talking softly but I'm not making any progress. it's hard to get them out of the cage so I can clean it (even more so than Nigel who hates being held) as they jump and avoid me. Cloud my white mosaic girl loses little tufts of hair ( not too much) which I believe is a fur slip.
I don't like seeing my Chins stressed over something that has to be done. will this behavior go away in time or is it just how they are?

 

[Jawramik]

I would just try to bond with them as you would any chinchilla (spend time hanging out near their cage, talk to them, open up the door and put your hand in so they can check you out on their own terms, offer them hay, pellets, chew toys, and the occasional treat from your hand) and understand that it may take some time for them to come around. I'm assuming you don't know how their life was before you got them, so they may have already had some bad experiences with humans. It may take some time to earn their trust. Just keep at it, and stay gentle, patient, and consistent.

Do you need to remove them from the cage to clean? I usually just leave my girl in her cage for daily spot cleans (and it was actually easier before we bonded and she was a little afraid of me, because then she'd usually stay away from my hands ....now she's constantly up in my business and it takes longer because I can't just shoo her away from the area I'm cleaning, haha). Even for full cage cleans, if you have a multi-level cage, you can block off the access hole between the levels to contain them, clean the level they're not on, then open up the access hole and block it off again when they enter the section you just finished, and then clean the other level. Then when you're done you open up the access hole again and give them free access to the whole cage again.

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

I would just try to bond with them as you would any chinchilla (spend time hanging out near their cage, talk to them, open up the door and put your hand in so they can check you out on their own terms, offer them hay, pellets, chew toys, and the occasional treat from your hand) and understand that it may take some time for them to come around. I'm assuming you don't know how their life was before you got them, so they may have already had some bad experiences with humans. It may take some time to earn their trust. Just keep at it, and stay gentle, patient, and consistent.

Do you need to remove them from the cage to clean? I usually just leave my girl in her cage for daily spot cleans (and it was actually easier before we bonded and she was a little afraid of me, because then she'd usually stay away from my hands ....now she's constantly up in my business and it takes longer because I can't just shoo her away from the area I'm cleaning, haha). Even for full cage cleans, if you have a multi-level cage, you can block off the access hole between the levels to contain them, clean the level they're not on, then open up the access hole and block it off again when they enter the section you just finished, and then clean the other level. Then when you're done you open up the access hole again and give them free access to the whole cage again.

Thank you for your reply. I will try offering some oats from my hands to see what they do. And I do have a multi level cage but the the boy is on the bottom and girls are on the top so I have to take them out once a week to fully clean the cage. They came to me with the setup they have.

 

[Jawramik]

Thank you for your reply. I will try offering some oats from my hands to see what they do. And I do have a multi level cage but the the boy is on the bottom and girls are on the top so I have to take them out once a week to fully clean the cage. They came to me with the setup they have.

I'd be careful with offering too many oats, as they can cause gas. My chin loves rose hips and rose petals, which I believe are a little healthier. I get the crushed and sifted rose hips (so it's just a bag of small pieces of dried rose hips with no seeds) and bags of dried crushed rose petals. This allows me to offer very tiny (but still tasty and appealing) bits of treats, so I can give treats more frequently without quickly giving too much. And even so, it's best to try to limit treats. I'll also give my girl pellets from my hand, as well as her favourite bits of hay (mine likes the softer leafy bits, but your chins' tastes may vary), so that I can give her tasty snacks from my hand (so she associates me with good things) without having her eat too much junk food (treats). I'll also hold chew sticks for her (mine loves apple and willow wood, but again, your chins may prefer something else) while she chews them, which is another way to get them to associate you and your hands with something they like in a fun, non-threatening way.

Would you be able to set up a playpen fence around their cage? Then you could let them come out on their own without having to grab them, and clean the cage once they hop out on their own. You could also try removing them from the cage by trapping them in a dust bath, tunnel, or hidey house ....though be warned that they'll probably get wise to that tactic once you've used it a few times and it may stop working (because they'll be more wary of entering those things once they've figured out you're going to trap them in it to take them out).

I used to have a beast of a time trying to get my chin between her cage and playpen once she got wise to me trapping her in her dust bath, which is when I started just containing her on a single level of her cage to clean it. But eventually she came to trust me more and now I can just grab her. She still doesn't love being picked up, but now she'll tolerate it long enough for relatively quick transfers between her cage and playpen.

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

I'd be careful with offering too many oats, as they can cause gas. My chin loves rose hips and rose petals, which I believe are a little healthier. I get the crushed and sifted rose hips (so it's just a bag of small pieces of dried rose hips with no seeds) and bags of dried crushed rose petals. This allows me to offer very tiny (but still tasty and appealing) bits of treats, so I can give treats more frequently without quickly giving too much. And even so, it's best to try to limit treats. I'll also give my girl pellets from my hand, as well as her favourite bits of hay (mine likes the softer leafy bits, but your chins' tastes may vary), so that I can give her tasty snacks from my hand (so she associates me with good things) without having her eat too much junk food (treats). I'll also hold chew sticks for her (mine loves apple and willow wood, but again, your chins may prefer something else) while she chews them, which is another way to get them to associate you and your hands with something they like in a fun, non-threatening way.

Would you be able to set up a playpen fence around their cage? Then you could let them come out on their own without having to grab them, and clean the cage once they hop out on their own. You could also try removing them from the cage by trapping them in a dust bath, tunnel, or hidey house ....though be warned that they'll probably get wise to that tactic once you've used it a few times and it may stop working (because they'll be more wary of entering those things once they've figured out you're going to trap them in it to take them out).

I used to have a beast of a time trying to get my chin between her cage and playpen once she got wise to me trapping her in her dust bath, which is when I started just containing her on a single level of her cage to clean it. But eventually she came to trust me more and now I can just grab her. She still doesn't love being picked up, but now she'll tolerate it long enough for relatively quick transfers between her cage and playpen.

I will look into getting a playpen thankyou and I didnt know oats could cause gas I will limit furure uses of them as treats

 

[Jawramik]

My girl also like lavender and chamomile flowers as treats. Just make sure any herb or flower treats are dried and organic, and that you don't offer any treat too often. You can get that sort of stuff at health food stores or order them online pretty inexpensively. Humans like to use them in various recipes and herbal tea blends, so they're not hard to come by.

There's a great list of herbs and plants that are safe chin treats (in moderation) floating around on here. I thought I'd saved an image of it, but I can't seem to find it. I'll come back and post it here if I can find it. Oats are probably okay in extreme moderation (like maybe a single oat per week per chin), but there are some better, safer options.

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

My girl also like lavender and chamomile flowers as treats. Just make sure any herb or flower treats are dried and organic, and that you don't offer any treat too often. You can get that sort of stuff at health food stores or order them online pretty inexpensively. Humans like to use them in various recipes and herbal tea blends, so they're not hard to come by.

There's a great list of herbs and plants that are safe chin treats (in moderation) floating around on here. I thought I'd saved an image of it, but I can't seem to find it. I'll come back and post it here if I can find it. Oats are probably okay in extreme moderation (like maybe a single oat per week per chin), but there are some better, safer options.

I will definitely look into those thank you

 

[Jawramik]

Here's that list of safe chinchilla treats:

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

Here's that list of safe chinchilla treats:

Thank you

 

[Binki]

Sometimes it just takes patience and loads of it. I have a rescue boy who was abandoned for being uncuddly and bloody minded and it took ages for him to become friendly (never cuddly, though) and now he is even clicker trained!.

At the beginning, at play time I wheeled his cage to a corridor, sat on the floor and opened the cage door; soon he was exploring and one day jumped on my lap for treats, Dried organic rosehips cut in thin slivers with kitchen scissors make (in very limited quantities) a good treat; same the dried petals, as Jawramik suggested. Some like dried nettles too.

Sometimes it helps to get flat on the floor and let them, literally, walk all over you. This may sound silly but my breakthrough came when I started 'listening' to him: chins chatter all the time so learning what their sounds mean helps a lot. That said, it also helps to remind oneself that chins are the biggest eccentrics of the animal world and each one of them is an oddity in a fur coat.

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

Sometimes it just takes patience and loads of it. I have a rescue boy who was abandoned for being uncuddly and bloody minded and it took ages for him to become friendly (never cuddly, though) and now he is even clicker trained!.

At the beginning, at play time I wheeled his cage to a corridor, sat on the floor and opened the cage door; soon he was exploring and one day jumped on my lap for treats, Dried organic rosehips cut in thin slivers with kitchen scissors make (in very limited quantities) a good treat; same the dried petals, as Jawramik suggested. Some like dried nettles too.

Sometimes it helps to get flat on the floor and let them, literally, walk all over you. This may sound silly but my breakthrough came when I started 'listening' to him: chins chatter all the time so learning what their sounds mean helps a lot. That said, it also helps to remind oneself that chins are the biggest eccentrics of the animal world and each one of them is an oddity in a fur coat.

Thats amazing that your Chin is clicker trained! And I will give laying on the floor a try with Nimbus today and later with my girls after I get a playpen

 

[julianjones827]

Do you have small dogs

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

Do you have small dogs

No I have a more medium to large dog but he does not go into my room as he is scared of the chinchillas

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

UPDATE

My girl Cloud now makes happy squeaks at me when I'm near her my other girl Beatrice is easier to catch for cage cleaning and lets me pet her a little but is still very skittish and shy. And lastly Nimbus lets me pick him up with less difficulty and jumps and climbs on me durring play.

 

[Jawramik]

UPDATE

My girl Cloud now makes happy squeaks at me when I'm near her my other girl Beatrice is easier to catch for cage cleaning and lets me pet her a little but is still very skittish and shy. And lastly Nimbus lets me pick him up with less difficulty and jumps and climbs on me durring play.

Yaaay, I'm so happy to hear that! It sounds like they just needed some patience and consistency, which I suspect is the case with most chins. They don't give their trust freely, but they're pretty smart, and can be won over once you prove to them that you're worth trusting.