Do their tails come off?

[GahhItsLee]

I am listening but honestly my chin never has a chance to get out and anyway he comes right to me if i pick up the dust bath but yea i get where your coming from and i understand what everyone means about how to hold a chinchilla

 

[RDZCRanch]

Lee...I don't intend for my chinchillas to get out. Their cages are always closed etc. I don't leave doors open while I go to get food or anything like that. I still get escapees now and then. Chinchillas are extremely intelligent creatures and if there is even the tiniest possibility of escape...they'll find it and get out. They can pop doors open, bend or contort wires, flatten their bodies, push out litter pans, and a number of other things when they feel like getting out. It's not a sign of a bad owner to have a chinchilla escape...it happens to the best of us. They are sneaky little critters when they want to be, lol.

Also...If you grab the tip of the tail..the tail itself won't come off but there is a possibility the skin will come off and essentially "de-glove" the chin's tail. The chin's tail, still, does not fall off.

 

[GahhItsLee]

Oh I see..
So i figured out how to grab him correctly
Its kinda like when you grab a kitten by the back of the neck

 

[brenda]

The end of the tail can break off if they are not properly handled or are caught roughly. My husband was trying to help me catch one that escaped about 5 years ago and he grabbed her tail as she was running by and he ended up with about 2 inches of tail in his hand and no chin.
As long as you hold them at the base of the tail, right near their rump, you will be pretty safe.

 

[tunes]

Yep, the tail "can" break off, as Brenda described. Had it happen here as well about 8 years ago. It didn't seem to bother her once it healed (she's still here today) but we were pretty shaken up. She got under a bed, and my daughter tried to hold onto her tail while she struggled and it tore right off. If you have that happen, let go immediately. The chin will come out again eventually.

So yes, you can break the tail off, but you won't if you hold her correctly.

 

[GahhItsLee]

Yea I dont like holding him by the tail but i guess it is needed sometimes
Thanks for telling me how guys

 

[Leowyldemi]

the only thing i ever heard about anything like that is when i first got silky i was told not to grab her by the end of the tail, or she would skin slip, like a gerbil, since i have no reason to grab my chin by the end of the tail, i've never had this happen to me, and have no desire to put it to the test(had a gerbil do this when my daughter was young, he got his tail stuck somehow, and he skin slipped to get free, it was a nightmare)

 

[Ippo456]

I am listening but honestly my chin never has a chance to get out and anyway he comes right to me if i pick up the dust bath but yea i get where your coming from and i understand what everyone means about how to hold a chinchilla

My Tubby, the escape artist, has managed to figure out how to escape out of a cage that looks something like this (but mine has wire ramps) & his new cage, which is a Feisty Ferret cage (similar to a Ferret Nation cage).
He gets mad when he knows it's his playtime but he hasn't been let out yet. He'll try every possible way to escape.

Another question: do chins have to get used to being held by the base of their tails? I have once tried to hold them by the base of their tails but they wouldn't stop squirming & that makes me feel bad.

 

[Olallie]

They dont get used to you holding their tails. They actually dont like it very much. The only reason you hold their tail is for security, like if your holding them and you dont want them to drop to the floor. My ricky hates it when i even touch his tail , so i just dont. but he's a very good chin anyway.

I do have one question tho. Do they get arthritis in the base of the tail? I used to always hold rosco by his tail for grooming, but my twin pointed out on his last x-ray he might have some arthritis. I have heard popping in the joint area, but just wondering if you guys have experience this.

 

[CerLynn]

In my experience, I would say both of our boys actually have gotten used to us holding their tails while we carry them. They didn't like it at all when we first started doing it, but they're both pretty good about it now... Koko can get squirmy sometimes, but Kenai really couldn't care less (except of course when he is trying to jump somewhere and his mean mama is preventing him from doing so )) I do think it has a lot to do with how comfortable the chin is with you in the first place.