New Sound?

[DramaMama]

So for the most part, any chins that I've had/taken care of up until this point were fairly silent dudes. In fact, the only sounds I've ever heard out of any of them were a grinding sound that Edgar makes when he wants something, and the barking sound that my friend's chinchilla made once when I was chin-sitting.
Today I got a new chinchilla (1 year old) from a woman who had bought him for her daughter (typical story- she wanted someone to cuddle and he would have none of that, so she got a bunny and the poor chin hasn't been out of his cage in a month). As soon as I got him home I opened his cage and let him have a good hour and a half run around my room until he got straight up exhausted and retreated back to his cage where he paused for some scratchies and a nap. I gave him a few new chew toys because the one that he had he seemed fairly disinterested in and after looking at them suspiciously for a while he took right to them. I replaced his icky looking hay with some fresh stuff and dumped most of the rabbit food that they had been feeding him and mixed real chin food in with a little bit of the rabbit food (I didn't want to cause a shock to his system, but as soon as I did it he fished all of the rabbit food out, threw it around his cage, and devoured the chinchilla food). Thats basically anything that's changed in his life recently.
Then, out of the blue he started making this sound. He sounds exactly like a doggie squeakie toy (like, at first I thought my dog was actually sitting outside my closed door with her toy before I remembered that she was in bed). It was loud enough that my boyfriend could hear it through the phone when I was sitting across the room. Basically what's happening is he's emitting three to five loud squeaks, pausing for a couple of moments, and then doing it again. After about three repetitions of this I went over and sat by his cage. He stopped for about half an hour (until I moved), then started again, and then stopped (without me moving) and I haven't heard it since. I've tried to look it up but most of the sites require me to view the files through seperate programs and this laptop is a piece.
I'm not really concerned so much as I am curious. Does anyone know what this sound means or have they heard it before?

 

[Brittany_Lynn]

Does it also kinda sound like a guinea pig noise, only louder and more drawn out? I think you're referring to the "I'm lonely" sound. Mork makes the sound when he wants me to come over and see him, and if that doesn't work he will shake the bars of his cage really loudly. Sometimes they also make that noise if they're-for lack of a better word-horny. Mork does it and then finds his cuddle buddy and tries to make little stuffed animal babies with it, or something, and Rodya does it when he can smell Sonya in her cage above him. Rodya does it only as an 'I'm horny' noise.
Mork is young, and he started doing it about a month after I got him. Because your Edgar is also young, it may be a combination of the two, and he may just be starting it now because he's going through his teenage phase. Or, he loves all the attention you're giving him and doesn't want you to go get a rabbit and replace him :impatient:, so he's reminding you that he's there and he loves you.

 

[addictedtochins]

Yep, he's training you to to come running to him and give him love and attention. Aww, so sweet

 

[Pleiades]

If it's the 'lonely sound' (decoy sound) like Brittany said, it usually sounds like the regular 'contact' quiet 'cheep' noise, only it's several...like "cheep cheep cheep cheep cheeeeeeeeeep"- one really long drawn-out one at the end. That's just him wanting attention, probably! Mine did it all the time when I slept in the same room as them, but wasn't paying them any attention (sleeping). This is a very soft, mellow noise though.

If it's loud enough for your boyfriend to hear through the phone though, it might be barking. Some chins have differently pitched barks and can sound much different than your "average" barking noise. If he's barking, he's probably not adjusted to the noises in your house yet or something, but I wouldn't worry about it...he'll get used to everything eventually.

 

[DramaMama]

Does it also kinda sound like a guinea pig noise, only louder and more drawn out? I think you're referring to the "I'm lonely" sound. Mork makes the sound when he wants me to come over and see him, and if that doesn't work he will shake the bars of his cage really loudly. Sometimes they also make that noise if they're-for lack of a better word-horny. Mork does it and then finds his cuddle buddy and tries to make little stuffed animal babies with it, or something, and Rodya does it when he can smell Sonya in her cage above him. Rodya does it only as an 'I'm horny' noise.
Mork is young, and he started doing it about a month after I got him. Because your Edgar is also young, it may be a combination of the two, and he may just be starting it now because he's going through his teenage phase. Or, he loves all the attention you're giving him and doesn't want you to go get a rabbit and replace him :impatient:, so he's reminding you that he's there and he loves you.

I'm not sure about the guinea pig thing. Guinea pigs are one of the very few rodents I've never kept as a pet, fostered, or been around extensively. The shaking the bars makes me think that this is the same sound though. If you've ever picked up a one of those dog toys where you squeeze it and they squeak (a sound I'm more familliar with, as my dog loves to get them, and tear them apart in record times to get the squeaker out), he sounded exactly like that. He did eventually start shaking the bars to the cage, so I'm assuming it has something to maybe do with the fact that he was showered with attention from the minute that I picked him up until the minute that I tried to go to bed (And I would never never replace him with a bunny! Now that I've started with them I'm a chinchilla girl for life!).
Also, This is Mojo, not Edgar. I've had Edgar since he was about 3 months old (and I just realized that he's almost a year now! How time flies!). The only sound I've ever heard Edgar make is a grinding sound to communicate with other chinchillas or in response to me talking to him and a squeaking noise that sounds similar to a sneeze almost when someone tries to pick him up out of his cage and he doesn't want to be picked up (usually he's eating or running on his wheel or otherwise) but both are very quiet sounds so it definitely startled me when Mojo started making this decoy sound.
After the second round of the sounds hoping to get my attention back (because he did stop the first time when I went over to his cage and started talking to him) Edgar actually went to the edge of his cage across the room and started talking to Mojo with his usual teeth grinding sound. They proceeded to chat the night away.

If it's the 'lonely sound' (decoy sound) like Brittany said, it usually sounds like the regular 'contact' quiet 'cheep' noise, only it's several...like "cheep cheep cheep cheep cheeeeeeeeeep"- one really long drawn-out one at the end. That's just him wanting attention, probably! Mine did it all the time when I slept in the same room as them, but wasn't paying them any attention (sleeping). This is a very soft, mellow noise though.

If it's loud enough for your boyfriend to hear through the phone though, it might be barking. Some chins have differently pitched barks and can sound much different than your "average" barking noise. If he's barking, he's probably not adjusted to the noises in your house yet or something, but I wouldn't worry about it...he'll get used to everything eventually.

With the way you've described it (cheeps), it definitely sounds like it was the decoy sound. I did chin-sit for a friend once and her chinnie liked to bark and this is a very very different sound, less defensive and more attention grabbing.

Thanks so much everyone who replied to this thread! Now that I know Mojo wasn't crying out in pain or anything (not that I ever really got that jist with the way he was playing earlier) I can rest easy.

 

[Stackie]

Sounds like the warning bark to me.

 

[harbingerofdoom]

Sounds like the warning bark to me.

agreed if its short, sharp and sounds like a dogs squeak toy...
herb and eva make this exact sound when they are not happy about whatever is going on outside their cage. i pretty much confirmed this to be an "im pissed off" sound when i stuck my hand in there while they were doing that once and eva ducked for cover behind herb and herb lunged at me and tried to bite.


.....good thing i pay attention and im quick lol

 

[ABBY W.]

Your description does sound like the warning/alarm call. Likely, he is a little nervous about the new smells and sounds around him.

 

[mognyoda19]

Yeah, my one chin Mog has a deeper warning bark, but Yoda really sounds like a dog squeeky toy, so I think it is a warning bark. Especially since you said he barked every time you moved, then stopped when you stopped. My chins only barked the first two nights I got them. You probably don't hear it much anymore because he is getting used to his new surroundings.

 

[Pleiades]

I only have one chin who barks and that is when he's asleep having nightmares, the other one only does those little perturbed grunts, but I haven't even heard those in a while. Chin noises are so interesting- I wish they were more well understood/ documented. I am aware of this site, but like you said, if your computer's giving you trouble, I don't know how much help that will be to you....

 

[caiti]

I have always described the barking noise chins make as sounding exactly like a dog squeak toy. It does sound exactly like that. And usually they'll do a few repetitions of it and do another set a minute later. Or they can just do one "set". Once my girl was barking in the middle of the night and it woke me up and scared me so bad I gasped very loudly and scared her in turn stopping her mid-bark. We basically scared the crap out of eachother haha. She was like ssqqquuueeea--AH WHAT ARE YOU DOING MOM?!?!?

 

[DramaMama]

Haha. Thanks guys. Whichever it is, he likes to try and wake me up with it and through my night (with tiral and error) I've discovered that he'll only be quiet for Bach or my voice.