my wonderfull chinchilla

[lola]

now id like to go on saying how she always behaves and how she loves everyone...... but id be lieing. shes almost four year old. i baiscly have a fn except on the bottom and top only one open and the fn is a little bigger. i got her from a breeder. i try not to give her treats because i was told not to but shes also reallly energenic. hear a couple metal sound and i go to check on her. the thing she has on the shelf so she doesnt get her feet caught she knocked into her food bowl which i refilled yesterday. she also is like a rhino / lion. she has a bad habbit of charging or pouncing as people walk by or if a hand enters her cage. also shes been barking at me a lot latley as i just sit outside of her cage and she just stares at me and barks. id say i had her roughly 3 weeks. any advice oh and shes already escaped twice first time she got to explore my entire basement while i was sleeping and second time while i was cleaning cage. to my knowlage she shouldnt be able to escape anymore

 

[Laurie]

Just be patient with her. Chins are territorial and she's protecting her cage which is why she charges like a rhino when someone passes by her. You need to spend more time talking to her and sitting with her. I know it seems like a long time but 3 weeks is not very much time at all for her to get used to you.

 

[liewwan]

I agree with above. If you have an fn cage, you can open one of the doors and just talk to her or put your hand out to see if she comes to you.
Treats are ok as long as it's given in moderation. Check the forum and there are great treats that are chin safe.

 

[rainey]

I have that cage, you have a "fiesty ferret" cage. I thought it was an FN too until I actually bought an FN! Was she escaping out the top window thing? That's happened to me before, now I just don't use the top at all because I've forgotten to close it more than once and it's really unsafe because the room she's in now isn't chin-proof.

Anyway, yeah just give her lots of wood to chew on and plenty of hay to keep her busy. My female who's in the fiesty ferret cage acts pretty similarly actually except she doesn't bark or charge, she just has a ton of energy and gets mad at me if she can't be outside of the cage all the time. I know you're not supposed to let chins out for the first month or so because your chin needs to get used to you first and learn to trust you, but when I got my girl I ended up letting her out at the end of two weeks because she was very unhappy and her previous owner had let her out a long time every day. She's also my only chin who will go right back in her cage when she's done playing, or if I need to get her in earlier than that, I can just put her dust house down and she'll go right in. She trusts me to let her out, and I trust her to go back in when its time

Just give her time and she'll warm up to you. Safe treats you can give her (1x/day) are a piece of plain shredded wheat , a plain cheerio, a pinch of old fashioned oats, or you can buy other safe treats on the stores ppl have on this site (rosebuds etc.).