Quirky Chins?

[brittiny]

Every night, the last thing my boyfriend and I do before we go to bed is open the chins cage for goodnight scratchies. This is when I noticed a habit of my ebony, Morgan Freeman. Like I said, we do this at night so between 10-11pm is the only time he'll do this.

Dr. Death peers at me from the peek-a-boo window of their hut: "Night, Mom."
But Morgan Freeman rushes to the door. He's not interested in the scratchies or anything I have to offer at this point. He is on a mission. He is LOOKing for something.
My rubberband.

All my life I've had lower-back length hair so I've gotten in my own habit of always carrying an extra ponytail holder on my right wrist-just in case. Morgan Freeman noticed this one day at playtime and has since made acquiring said holder for himself. It's awefully cute.

Once my hand is in the door he'll smell my fingers, giving a few nibbles, but once he thinks I'm fooled he'll push my fingers away with his tiny paws and try to climb over my hand to get at my wrist.

Now if my rubber band is there he'll tug and nip and chew and yank at it, but nothing happens. I worry about him chewing it so I never let him.
Recently, I started switching my rubber band to my left wrist before I even open the door.:thumbsup:

Morgan Freeman is neither fooled nor impressed by my antics:impatient: and quickly pushes my right arm away searching for my left. When I don't give him my left hand he'll accept my right hand back to re-investigate my wrist, he sniffs it before deciding to gently nibble at the exact place the line for my rubber band would be.

:hmm:I wonder why he does this. Could it be he's just got it in his head he wants my rubber band? <This is what I first thought, but now that he continues to sniff and groom at the place where the rubber band should be I'm beginning to wonder if he does this because it might hold the scent of my hair?

Dunno. He's a weirdo.

Do your chins have bad habits or are they quirky, too?

 

[Chibigirl]

I'm always cold so I'm almost all of the time wearing a sweat shirt with a hood. And of course on these shirts are the strings to tighten the hood around your head. Well Beaker was quick to notice "hey there are hanging things moving in my face when i jump in your lap!" So she went right for them, she will jump up on my legs and start talking to me and grab the strings and pop them right in her mouth. Since she started doing this I got worried she would swallow a string or something so I tuck them inside my shirt before out of the cage time (although sometimes I forget and then she's very happy). But when I do tuck them in she will put her paws up on my stomach/chest and grunt at me and sniff around for the strings. She does this without fail every day, when she realizes they're not there she'll go back to her business but she makes sure to check every time she comes back to my lap.

 

[Chubi32]

I let my chins run around in my dining room with a baby gate up for play time every night. I have 4 chins alltogether and 3 of them will let me pick them up pretty easily when playtime is over but the ONLY way to pick up my boy Bently is when he sees playtime is over and I stand up he runs behind the trash can so I have to reach both arms around the trash can to pick him up. I don't know why he does this- he must know that when he runs back there he's trapped? It's strange.

 

[Whimsy]

What a fun thread!
I have a weirdo chin who likes to sleep in the upper corner of her extra large macaw cage. Not so strange yet, right? Well, when she settles in, she holds the bars between her teeth and falls asleep that way. She looks like a baby with a pacifier!

 

[brittiny]

pop them right in her mouth

That's what I'm afraid will happen if I let Morgan Freeman try to play with the rubber band. It's fine that he snaps it on my wrist from tugging, but I don't want him to get a good nip one day and slice through it so that it pops in his face.

That's why I either switch wrists or take it off.

But he is NOT happy when he can't find it. :neener:

Now Jeremy can him all he wants (except Dr.D...he likes me more, but shhhhh don't tell jeremy :kiss

Chubi32 we let our chins play in the kitchen(between the counter and island where with jeremy and I on guard) at night after everyone else has gone to sleep. More then once has a chinnie tried to make their way behind the trash. We bought this cheap closet from Big Lots and it has about 5 in cap under it which they'll try to get under.

It's funny--if Jeremy's lil brother is guarding the doorway from the kitchen to the hall where their cage is they'll bombard james. It's like, "Oooo a weakness in the defense!! Charge!" The kid (13yrs) plays football and baseball. Isn't he supposed to know how to block and catch?

Whimsy that must be too cute!

 

[Sesame]

I'm in a similar situation with Chibigirl... Though Sesame then proceeds on climbing all over my shoulders and neck looking for the strings. She then sees that I've tucked them in and then pulls them out on me! I usually have to call my boyfriend over for back-up when this happens. Btw, chin fur is not tasty... lol

 

[brittiny]

:laughitup: Sesame that's funny. Chinchilla fur does not sound yummy.
I, too, often have to call for backup. When both of them try to exit the cage and get on my shoulders to hide in my hair.
That is not fun.

 

[Chibigirl]

lol Sesame, Beaker jumps all over my shoulders and head but so far she hasn't found out how to pull them out, or even where they went. Shh don't tell her. Although I took my contacts out for a little while so i had my glasses on so she jumped up on my shoulder and kept trying to take my glasses off my face. :impatient:

 

[brittiny]

chibigirl your chin was probably trying to say, "mom, I can't see your face with this in the way! Help!"

 

[Sesame]

hmm... I also have a few scuffle marks on my glasses too!

Yeah, Sesame sometimes likes to jump right where my collarbone is to try and get my attention if I'm fiddling around on the DS (right now, I'm very hooked on playing those Ace Attorney games!). That crafty little chin!

 

[kendra]

haha this is cute, ferdinand is a pony-tail band chewer as well! It's hard to hide it from him

He also has taken to hopping out of the cage every night into my lap to cuddle, ok that's not weird unusual, but if I try and pick him up either to go back into his cage or to let him run around and play he's taken to kacking at me like crazy! Cuddle time isn't over until he says! (btw, if I'm not inside his playpen but watching from outside he's perfectly happy and playing around, he's not sick- just a major cuddler)

 

[cindyv3737]

What a fun thread!
I have a weirdo chin who likes to sleep in the upper corner of her extra large macaw cage. Not so strange yet, right? Well, when she settles in, she holds the bars between her teeth and falls asleep that way. She looks like a baby with a pacifier!

That is how Shelly sleeps too!!!! She could care less about her house. She always climbs to the top shelf and holds the bars in her teeth. Sometimes I will see her tail stick out too.

 

[Chub_Chub]

My Ziggy found a "ouchless" hair band (the rubber bands covered in thread) on my bedside table once and took off with it in his little mouth. Then the booger was turning it in a circle in his mouth without taking it out, testing for the best place to chew it! He really thought it was a toy or something Silly little dork. So now I have to hide my hair bands so he doesn't steal them. I think he liked the rubbery texture and wasn't sure what to do with it. :thumbsup:

 

[Brittany]

Do your chins have bad habits or are they quirky, too?

I've owned 5 different chins, and they've all been content to play in the area that I give them...accept Lily. She's always pushing the limits and I've learned QUICKLY that there is a difference between chin-proofing and Lily-proofing. Just when I think I've given her a safe environment she finds some new way of getting into trouble.

She's lived and played in the same room for almost a year and within the last few weeks she has acquired a taste for the walls. That's right not the baseboards (I covered those long ago) but the actual wall. :hair: :banghead:She has PLENTY of healthy chewing choices in and out of her cage but during play time she just ignores them. I now have panels of fleece along the walls like some people might have wall paper. The first time I let her out after this newest improvement she ran around looking for some place to chew, you could see her getting frustrated when she realized she'd been fooled :neener:

 

[brittiny]

Brittany, I'd sleep with one eye open from now on if I were you. Lily's going to make you pay for outsmarting her.:thumbsup:

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

If it's been (in HIS opinion) too long since he's had a dust bath, Mr. Whiskers does this cute behavior where he jumps from the cage to my lap and then does some really fast pawing at my chest, like he's in his dust bath. He then rubs his little face and whiskers on each side on me like he's dusting. I can't resist it, it's so cute, so he usually gets what he asks for!!!

 

[shubbles]

My chin goes into my room and propels himself off the all, with his back legs and launches himself onto the table and then goes behind the blinds and looks out the window and when I block the kitchen with a baby gate, he jumps onto a small table and then jumps over the fence or when he gets tired jumps up onto my bed goes in between two pillows and i think falls asleep And when i play the harmonica, which I'm not good i just blow, he then puts his little paws on the cage bars and listens intently to me play. Its like i have an audience.

 

[Ippo456]

One time when my chin was out, he discovered a rubber band, He'd taken quite a liking to it. I think it might be that Morgan Freeman & my chin like the texture of rubber bands?

 

[brittiny]

Perhaps we have a case of chinnie rubber band hoarders?

 

[Dustbunnies]

Solution?

That is cute about your chin looking for your hair band. What if you made fleece scrunchies out of them and that way it would be somewhat safe for him to play with? As long as you don't leave them in the cage he should be fine (supervision toy only). Just a thought!:hmm::wink2: