Shy chin

[TheSurvivor]

I was just wondering if I should worry about this.

We've got Scrat and Gizmo for 2 weeks now (still waiting for a camera so I can have some good pics of them, but they're both adorable)
Scrat's a very active chin, running around, climbing on our arms and shoulders ... I even expect he'll let himself be picked up from the cage soon without any hassle.
Gizmo however is a different story. late at night and early morning he'll make it up to our hands sometimes but not much further, and most of the time he just sits quietly in their cage sleeping.
sunday night I had to spend 15 minutes trying to get him out of his cage so I could clean it, wouldn't be coaxed into the carrier even with the dreaded raisin of doom) and I still feel horrible about chasing him through his cage. He did run around the playpen afterwards for about 15 minutes but then just hid under a willow bridge. And most of the time he just seems very sad.
Other than that he seems ok, I see him eating (pellets as well as hay) and drinking, he'll come up to us for his daily treat (I try to have siome variation, currently have dry spaghetti's, dried rosebuds and johannis bread)
I'm hoping I'm just being impatient and overly concerned here but I do worry as I want to do right by our 2 new friends. (who, on the bright side bonded after 2 or 3 days and usually can be found cuddled up together)

 

[ChinnyMom]

he may just be one of those chins that takes more time to get used to you. when i was babysitting a chin for a week before i got Rhino, that chin seemed to 'insta-bond' with me and i was able to handle her, pick her up, give scritches, etc within the first day or so. with Rhino, it took a bit more time until he was comfortable with scritches, and he still doesn't like being picked up (but that may just be his attitude/demeanor), but will calm after i hold him for a moment.

any way you could clean the cage with him in it? i know i'm able to do most of Rhino's cage while he's in there, sweeping shelves, changing the litter pan, and general tidy up, i just don't wipe anything down with a wet cloth when he's in, just to be on the safe side as far as moisture/fungus problems happening. if your cage doesn't get a full cleaning for a little while, but your chin learns to accept you better, then IMO that's not too bad, eh? just go slowly and talk to your chin the whole time.

 

[TheSurvivor]

I'm hoping he'll just take a while to adjust. And I'm currently looking into asking a friend to make us a few fleece liners for the cage for easier cage cleanup to replace the bedding.

Despite a lot of research in advance I only found out about the fleece possibility by logging on here but it should make all of our lives a lot easier (ours and Scrat & Gizmo's)

I do the whole talking routine, calling both of them by their names when I'm addressing them as I read they can recognise that.

I'd just hate for the poor guy to be unhappy. We've been in love with them since we picked them out at the pet store (not that we had much choice as the kits they had were only a week old, they had one more pregnant chin and the others were apparently all male/female couples that they didn't want to break up and I'd rather not breed)

 

[TheSurvivor]

Gizmo seems to be getting a bit better again, he still spends most of his time looking sad and sleepy, but around 3am last night he seemed to be waking up and I'd have Scrat on my shoulder and Gizmo moving up to halfway my forearm

those 2 just couldn't be more different.

Also they were making a funny noise. I was looking it up on the sound resource and I guess they heard it from the computer cause they both at some point started running around in their cage and making a lot of noise I should've paid more attention to which sound triggered that