paradiseoncall
New member
Hi everyone, I am new here but I have been reading this forum for a while. I haven't had need to post until now.
I took in a female chin (unknown age, but allegedly less than one year old) from a neglectful situation back in November. She was in a tiny cage with an unsafe wheel, horrible food, cage had never been cleaned, and her owner was a heavy smoker so she reeked to high heaven.
I knew nothing about chins when I got her, and the original intent was to find her a nice home (I just wanted to get her OUR of that situation). However she completely charmed my husband and I, and within two days we decided she'd be staying.
She seemed to bond to us very quickly, and loved her out-of-cage time and her ear scratchies.
For the past two weeks or so now, though, she has taken up biting. She does not draw blood but she does puncture the skin. The bites never happen when I am doing something to deserve them (at least, not in my opinion); we are usually playing together fine for a while when she just hops over and grabs my finger or toe HARD, and won't let go until pried off. She acts like I am a big treat.
The bites usually happen during out-of-cage time, but she has done this in her cage as well.
She has never urine-sprayed, and she does not act afraid of me. In fact, if I get up and leave afterward she seems kind of sad... and if I come back over to the playpen she will hop close to me as she can to solicit ear scratchies.
Needless to say, this has gotten me quite down about our relationship. She was such a sweetheart the first month we had her. She would do her little grooming nibbles but they were so gentle that I did not discourage it.
We do have two dogs and one of them can be kind of a punk to her. They have no contact but my chin's out-of-cage time is in a large ferret playpen, and I've caught the bad dog rushing the pen and startling my chin. Thing is, when the chin first came home she was fearless of the dogs, and would actually try to play with them through the bars. So I'm unsure if this is the cause of her sudden biting. To my knowledge, nothing has happened; the dogs ignore her 99% of the time. (The dog rushing the playpen happened a while ago.)
The only other thing I can think of is that we have the cage in the livingroom, which is a high-traffic area (for us). We have no kids--it's just my husband and I, and our two dogs--but the TV is on and we sometimes eat meals in there. I put her in the livingroom because she seemed to *like* watching us and getting attention every now and then when we walk by... but maybe it's too much? I never even considered this until I started researching and learned that chins are easily stressed and don't like daytime traffic... but like I said, it never seemed to bother her before.
Lastly, she definitely seems more depressed and skittish to go along with this biting. Last night she took forever to come out of her cage, and that's not like her.
She has a large cage with lots of chewies, a hidey hut, hammock, Chin Spin, and she eats Mazuri pellets. She gets a dust bath twice a week.
Thanks for any help! I am so upset and frustrated that she might not like it here, or like me any more. I want the best for her.
I took in a female chin (unknown age, but allegedly less than one year old) from a neglectful situation back in November. She was in a tiny cage with an unsafe wheel, horrible food, cage had never been cleaned, and her owner was a heavy smoker so she reeked to high heaven.
I knew nothing about chins when I got her, and the original intent was to find her a nice home (I just wanted to get her OUR of that situation). However she completely charmed my husband and I, and within two days we decided she'd be staying.
She seemed to bond to us very quickly, and loved her out-of-cage time and her ear scratchies.
For the past two weeks or so now, though, she has taken up biting. She does not draw blood but she does puncture the skin. The bites never happen when I am doing something to deserve them (at least, not in my opinion); we are usually playing together fine for a while when she just hops over and grabs my finger or toe HARD, and won't let go until pried off. She acts like I am a big treat.
The bites usually happen during out-of-cage time, but she has done this in her cage as well.
She has never urine-sprayed, and she does not act afraid of me. In fact, if I get up and leave afterward she seems kind of sad... and if I come back over to the playpen she will hop close to me as she can to solicit ear scratchies.
Needless to say, this has gotten me quite down about our relationship. She was such a sweetheart the first month we had her. She would do her little grooming nibbles but they were so gentle that I did not discourage it.
We do have two dogs and one of them can be kind of a punk to her. They have no contact but my chin's out-of-cage time is in a large ferret playpen, and I've caught the bad dog rushing the pen and startling my chin. Thing is, when the chin first came home she was fearless of the dogs, and would actually try to play with them through the bars. So I'm unsure if this is the cause of her sudden biting. To my knowledge, nothing has happened; the dogs ignore her 99% of the time. (The dog rushing the playpen happened a while ago.)
The only other thing I can think of is that we have the cage in the livingroom, which is a high-traffic area (for us). We have no kids--it's just my husband and I, and our two dogs--but the TV is on and we sometimes eat meals in there. I put her in the livingroom because she seemed to *like* watching us and getting attention every now and then when we walk by... but maybe it's too much? I never even considered this until I started researching and learned that chins are easily stressed and don't like daytime traffic... but like I said, it never seemed to bother her before.
Lastly, she definitely seems more depressed and skittish to go along with this biting. Last night she took forever to come out of her cage, and that's not like her.
She has a large cage with lots of chewies, a hidey hut, hammock, Chin Spin, and she eats Mazuri pellets. She gets a dust bath twice a week.
Thanks for any help! I am so upset and frustrated that she might not like it here, or like me any more. I want the best for her.
