Mary writes:
I am getting a silver colored chinchilla from a breeder. I wanted to know if chinchillas run too fast when you let them out of their cage such that you can't catch them to put them easily back in to their cage. I also wanted to know if they scratch you. Can you train them to go to the bathroom in a certain place like a cat with a litter box? Will they go to the bathroom wherever when they're not in their cage or will they go back in their cage to go?
Thanks for your help.
Our response to Mary:
Chinchillas are pretty quick on their feet and evading capture. They also like to bounce off of walls to quickly change directions. Very entertaining. Back to your question. You will have trouble catching them if they are in a large room. At first, it is best to have them run around in a small room until they become comfortable with you. If you chase them every night they will probably become afraid of you all the time. It's also a good idea to let them out of the cage at the same time of day and put them back in at the same time of night. After doing this for a while our chinchillas run in to the cage on their own.
The don't scratch and rarely bite. Ours only bite when our fingers have the smell of raisins (their treat).
They can't be trained to use a litter box like a cat. They will do "number 1" in a litter box with shavings in their cage, but "number 2", which is dry and pellet-like, will happen all over the place.
Entries (RSS)
October 5th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Christine,
The droppings will never step and it has nothing to do with being nervous. It's just they way chinchillas' digestive systems work.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
We recently got a chinchilla. He is 1yr old. I would love to let him run around for a little while but it is very hard since he does leave droppings EVERYWHERE. Is this b/c he is still nervous? Will he stop if I continue to let him out? I have been letting him out in our bathroom lately for a short while.Do people who let them out just deal with the droppings everywhere or are they trained to go back in their cages to poop?
Christine
September 24th, 2007 at 5:30 am
Although I have never had a chinchilla intentionaly scratch me, they do have nails. If they decide to use you as a launch pad you may get scratches from where the jumped off, or landed. They are not deep and you can hardly feel them, but I get them all the time.
Also to anyone with a chin run around ball. They can be VERY VERY dangerous. A chin can overheat very quickly inside one of those balls, they have terrible ventilation. A friend on another forum recently lost her chinchilla due to over heating while playing in the ball. Also I have seen pictures of chins with missing toes because the got them trapped in the "ventilation slots" and the chins toe got ripped right off. Not a pretty sight. Run around balls are just not safe!
September 24th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Hi Micki
I just found this web site tonight, so I'm not sure how old your post is, but I will share my secret with you to get Chins back into their cage. (You are correct to worry about chasing her, undoing the trust. Chins, in my experience, seem to have great memories and once you've scared or stressed them, it takes a while to rebuild the trust.)
The secret to getting a Chin to do something i.e. going back into their cage is bribery! HaHa. My Chin does not have unlimited access to her bath, and if there's anything a Chin loves almost as much as raisins…it's their bath. So she free runs in the Chin-proofed bedroom with me each evening, and when I'm ready for her to return to her cage, I simply place her bath on the floor next to me. Sometimes it takes a minute or 2, but that's about as long as she can resist. Once she's hopped into the bath, I slowly and steadily lift it to her cage door (keeping my hand over the opening of the bath of course). When she's done with her bath, she hops out into her cage and promptly begs for her reward for being a good girl…a banana chip. She's happy and stress free and I'm ready for bed.
By the way…my Chin is in love with our Seeing Eye dog and vice versa. And in case you find that hard to believe….here's a link to their slide show. While this is extremely rare and not something I would recommend others try….it works for them! Enjoy!
September 11th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Micki. The only thing I can say she can learn it does take some time she needs to get use to her new home as well give her time and you will see that she could be free and return to her cage when she does come back to her cage to drink or eat give her a treat they love raisins. My 3 chin run free they know when they did to go back to the cage. The run free at night and when they know I am up they come out and I give the a raisins then they go in the cage. I never lock the cage up unless I am going out. But this is been this life since day one. Chin are so smart they do learn just give her some time and you will see. MY chins are all so letter trained that took me six monthes to do so things do come to them it just takes time. I hope this helps you in some why if you need any thing else just let me know.