Puberty signs?

[karicola]

I feel as if I've been posting way to much in the past week or so, but as a new owner I'm still trying to learn everything that I can.. I have a male chin who is about 7 or 8 months old. I have read that chins usually start hitting puberty around 1 year old and I'm curious if there are any major changes/ signs I should be looking out for, or what I should expect when he hits puberty. Also, if there is anything I can do to make him more comfortable, etc. Thanks !

 

[Minccino]

Your chin is probably starting to hit puberty now. I believe it's between 7-10 months old.

My Elijah is about the same age, he's pretty rowdy. He humps my feet when I walk around with him in the room. He humps my arms too, when I reach into his cage. -_-

To avoid him using you to "pleasure" himself you can provide him with a safe fleece stuffed toy.

 

[Godofgods]

i never rly had an issues with my boy in that age range. All my chins hated a stuffed toy so that was a waste. Some love them love tho, just not mine.

Humping thing could be a puberty thing, but it could be a dominance thing as well. When my first boy was taken in he was several years old. And he was hump crazy with us for a while. But he hasnt done that in years.

 

[Dreamlite]

Puberty can be as early as 3 months old or as late as a year old. It varies per chin. He may already have hit puberty. Most of what people see in males is the humping behavior but not all males will do that.

 

[aznmexaggie]

I often see my 4-5 month males start with dominance mounting and humping of their cagemates. A couple weeks ago, I had a female in heat and her mate was repeatedly breeding with her. I had two 4 month weanling boys in a neighboring cage and that neighboring female being in heat sent them into a mounting/chasing/humping frenzy.

Sometimes, they'll do it to your hand. Lol

 

[Chinups]

I want to mention that we used to give our chin a stuffed toy and fleece bed to cuddle and sleep with. When he hit puberty and started to hump them, he developed a hair ring on his penis and it was traumatic to remove (he was our first chin). We took them away and he hasn't developed any since. We'll probably try again later and keep an eye on him to see if he tries it again (he was so cute when he played with his toy and slept in his fleece bed).

Anyway, just wanted to give you another point of view on the toys. He also tried the humping thing on our feet, but we trained him out of it. Every now and then he also tries to hump my hand, but now that I recognize when he's getting worked up, I tell him to cut it out and he's learning to stop.