Stubborn...

[Bigt1238]

I have had my chinchilla for little over 8 months now. In my personal opinion he is stubborn! He absolutely despises being held. Even the occasional hair ring check is made nearly impossible by his outright stubbornness and refusal to being held. He seems to like play time coming out of his cage on his terms, though he really just likes to run around and doesn't come over to me too much. Is there something i am maybe doing wrong? Is there a great way to bonding that i am just unaware of? I am kind of at a loss for what to do...

 

[addictedtochins]

I don't think he is being stubborn, sounds just like a normal chin....Be careful handling him, their little ribs are like toothpicks and break very easily

 

[Cuddlebug]

Most chins do not like to be held, though many do leran to tolerate it.

 

[Bigt1238]

Well, today we did a hair ring check. So when we were having play time, about 45 minutes in he came over to me, and i gingerly picked him up, which he was definitely not happy about. Anyway after about 5 minutes he stopped squirming so much and kind of just sat still, which was a major difference from when we have done it before. I think he just wanted it to be over, and frankly I don't blame him. Anyway everything went fine, and he did have one, so I took it off. Overall though it was a breakthrough i think then from the past.

 

[SookiFace1]

You just described my Sookie!! In the cage shell do scritches, be loving, etc. The moment t comes to getting her out of the cage or holding her, she turns into a ferocious beast! Just last seek she FILLED my husbands hand with pee when he did manage to grab her so I could clean her cage! Catching her after playtime was always a mission!! Meanwhile my new baby is extremely cuddly, loves to be held, etc.

Instead of fighting it, I took it as her personality and tried to work with it. I always open a certain door when it's playtime and let her get out herself.
I stopped giving her treats except for the one piece of shredded wheat I was going to use to teach her to get back in the cage herself. I'd do the kiss sound, slowly show it to her so shed associate the sound with the treat and shed come running. I then slowly placed the treat on her shelf in her cage, tapped the shelf with my finger and said "home". She completely blew me off and only went to explore where the treat was after I walked away from the cage the first few times.. After alot of practice to my surprise the rebellious chin automatically goes home when she's tired to get a treat. She also seemed to be mire comfortable sitting on my lap or being near me during playtime, when before shed steer clear of me.

It just takes patience and bribery. From experience trying to force this chin personality type to do anything without some TLC will not break the behavior at all, it only made her more defensive when I did have to interact with her (vet visits, etc)

 

[jess32247]

That sounds like a normal chinchilla to me, about not liking to be held. My girl hates being held or even being pet on her back, so I don't hold her unless I have too. I don't want to stress her doing it!

She's a very sweet chinchilla still, but she has her preferences like anyone else and I respect that.

Snookiface1, I can so relate to it being a mission to get my chin back into her cage! She's gotten better though over time, she happy hopes in and out the whole time she's out for play time. I just close the door whenever she goes in. Before though it was a nightmare! Glad you've gotten your chin to go in without much of a problem!