My female Mosaic sprays, is there a way to stop it?

[hughesSMFD]

As I'm sure you can guess from the title of this thread, my Mosaic female Chin sprays sometimes. Well, it used to be sometimes. Now it seems like she is spraying a little more often and it is begining to get annoying. Not only from a cleaning standpoint; but three times now I've been in the line of fire when she's sprayed. (two of those times I got blasted in the face) :vomit: Go aheadand laugh, god knows my girlfriend does! :hilarious:

And it's not like she's fighting with her cage mate, illowfight: they're always sleeping together and getting along famously. :kiss: They don't fight at all. All the times I have witnessed her spray, they weren't fighting. Her cage buddy may have gotten in her way somehow when they are jumping around the cage, or bumped into her and she will turn, rear up and spray.

So aside from the obvious solution of sperating them, which I don't think either one of them would like, is there anything I can do to get her to stop spraying? I doubt it, but I thought I'd ask.

 

[Brandon]

It sounds like she may be anxious or nervous, therefore using her spray mechanism where and whenever she can. How long have you had her for? If you got her recently, she may be nervous and will need some time to settle.
Other than that, I can't really think of a way from stopping a chin from doing the natural.

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

Oh don't feel bad! We have a girl here who has deadly aim. My youngest son 11 yrs old and much wiser now, thought it would be cute to blow in her face while she was in her hammock cackling at him. He blew, she aimed and he got not only a face full of pee, but can probably tell a few of you what it tastes like!
I didn't know this girls temperment when I got her so ended up pulling her from breeding. She's still a equal opportunist and will spray at anyone she sees as a threat. I wish I could say there is a way to stop it, but not even I have found a cure...

 

[greychins]

Hughes... Bryan Hughes? Is this "Missy" we're talking about? Sorry if I have the wrong person. But if this is Missy - when she was here, we tried EVERYTHING and she never stopped spraying...

I have another female that sprays occasionally, but she only sprays when you're really aggravating her, so if she's spraying, you're generally asking for it....

In the event you're not the person I'm thinking, when we had Missy, our mosaic female, she would spray for seemingly no reason. Her cage mates were covered in pee stains, and she really didn't like us. We'd walk past her cage and she'd turn and spray. We'd reach for her and she's spray. We'd put food in the cage and she'd spray. She'd change the cage and she'd spray. You get the idea. She got me in the mouth several times. Iccccck. Besides the fact that she eventually ended up injuring her cagemates, part of the reason we got rid of her - her *sarcasm* wonderful personality and spraying made us less willing to try her with our other chins....

Good luck...

-Ashley

 

[Rickman]

I had a rescue that sprayed - donned rubber gloves and let it ricochet back at her, about 3 times, and she quit! That was also when I started LifeLine 2 - 3 times a week, which calmed the whole herd quite a bit, but can't say if it helped or not!

 

[ABBY W.]

LOL I love that idea! It would be kind of satisfying to see my spraying chin get a little back (but I'm not vindictive at all) But then it would be fair since she has gotten me more times than I can count, several times in the eyes (which REALLY stings!)

 

[cherylslittleangels]

When my little sprayer, Eve, does it, I just ignore it and act like it doesn't bother me in the least. I just continue what I'm doing and don't even flinch (but I'm especially careful to try and make sure it doesn't get in my eyes). I think that now that she knows that it doesn't have any effect on me, she doesn't do it no where near as often as she used to. She mainly saves it for other chins who cross her path and they usually run away.

 

[hughesSMFD]

Hughes... Bryan Hughes? Is this "Missy" we're talking about?

Hi Ashley

Yes its Missy I'm referring to. She doesn't do it a lot in the grand scheme of things. I guess it is just at weird times when she does do it. And what I mean by that is; she has become pretty tame since she's been here, so when she does rear up like she's going to spray at me I'm like "what the $#&%?!?! I was just scratching your chin a couple minutes ago!" I can pick her up with almost no problem, scratch behind her ears and her chin (which she loves) etc. And when I have everyone out playing together, she sometimes will even step into my hands when it's time to get her out of the cage.

So the times when she does rear up doesn't seem to make much sense. One minute she has no problem with me touching her, and then a few minutes later when I'm reaching into the cage to pick something up or put food in, she'll spray at me or rear up and aim in my direction. Weird huh?

But I do like the suggestion of wearing rubber gloves so she gets hit by her own spray. I'm going to give that a try!


Hope all is well in IN.

 

[greychins]

Ya that is kinda odd. Mood swings maybe? Haha.

One of my chin-friends in NY said she used to wipe the spray or flick the spray back on the chin. Apparently her chin stopped spraying. Just another thought for you....

All's good here, can't really complain; everything good by you?

 

[hughesSMFD]

Everything is good. I've got 5 chins in my herd now and I'm picking up another female on Friday. (hopefully) Keep an eye on www.youtube.com/hughesSMFD for updated videos Now that I want to try the rubber glove tip with Missy, there may be a video up pretty soon of me testing the suggestion on her!

 

[greychins]

Sounds good, saved the link for updates.

 

[Adrian J]

i heard from a breeder once that if you use a spray bottle with water and shoot it into the cage and not at her but near her this eventually makes them see that you are in control as they are trying to be territorial, i tried this with one of my females that would spray and it worked she doesn't spray anymore yet she is still somewhat aggressive at times

 

[lessthansign3]

Mine only sprays when I try to handle her. She hates being picked up in general, although she loves any other sort of attention (petting, jumping all over me, etc.). It's understandable, being that chinchillas are prey animals in the wild and being picked up feels like a hawk or eagle snatching them, but it sure is annoying for when I *need* to pick her up! I guess I'm used to dealing with it, though, since rabbits are pretty similar in that respect (though, thankfully, they don't have the ability to projectile urinate like the chin does )

I have a little fleece puff dog toy in her cage that I use as a shield when she tries to spray me. If she hits, I simply wipe my hands off on a towel or wash them and then use the shield until she runs out of ammo!