Wall of text, just wanted to share my first 2 days of chinxperience with you...
As maybe some of you have read, after lots of reading and looking up, talking about it with my gf, looking around for a vet and supply stores that could provide me in my chinneeds, my GF and I decided to get 2 chinchilla's.
At first we got a cage, a ferret nation (pretty cheap, around €130 on an ebay-ish kinda website).
After that we had contact with a breeder, we decided to buy an white ebony (4months old, male) and an dark ebony (2 months old, male).
Since I heard stories about 2 month old chins that escaped Ferret Nation cages (although its weight is at 264gr now) I decided to make sure nothing went wrong and we decided to make the cage a bit more secure, we will get the wire off in about a month when he is big enough
The chins got introduced by the breeder, and it didn't take long. Ofcourse, some people will protest, but according to him they got along just fine, and I must say that untill now they like to be together all the time so...
This is how they look
This is Lemmy the 4 month old
And this is Ozzy, the 2 month old
yesterday when I went to get them, they were a bit shy. they were used being handled but the 1hour cardrive, the new cage, people and environement ofcourse gave a bit of stress. Their cage was allready well prepared with fleece, self made 1" kill 'n dried pine shelves, chewingsticks, fresh hay... You name it, it was ready for use!
They just sat there the whole day... I was allready worried a bit since I thought that they would at least go and explore the whole cage, but they just passed time sleeping.
In the short periods of time they were awake I saw them pee (in a bowl with aubiose - hennep shreds), eat, drink and poo (and ofcourse eat that last one again so they could start all over). So even though I was dissapointed that they weren't very curious at first (I know they are nocturnal but... meh...), I was very happy that they found everything they needed in there.
Every further contact like going to the cage was not really appreciated and resulted in a few nervous hops and sitting together in a corner.
This morning I woke up, realised i dreamed a few awkward things about the chins (been busy with prepping a lot, would explain it being on my mind even at night) and I rushed to the cage to ensure my dreams were only that. Since the little one didn't escape, fleece wasn't littered with fur, an no wounds caused by a loose end of wire were detected I could relax and observe them a bit.
Not much happened, but the pootrails in the cage and the hay that was missing gave me an idea about their nightly escapades...
Today I went to our city park and went straight to the little office that houses the department that occupies itself with maintaining the park and surrounding woods. I showed them the "safe wood list" and to my surprise they were very willingly to help me, showed me the correct branches that were freshly cut off this week and gave em away for free.
Once home I cooked them and baked them in the oven for a few hours, tomorrow they will have new toys to play with
So after all the baking (4 at night) just before I wanted to go to bed, i saw lots of movement in the cage. I went to sit on the floor before the cage and opened the doors. Lemmy (the oldest) came to me instantly and nibblet my hand for a bit. He softly stepped up my hand with 1 paw, and went back and forth a bit. Then the second, third, and all of a sudden he was standing on my hand.
A sec later he jumped back in but still! Ofcourse I tried repeating it a few times, and every time he got on my hand a bit faster. I tried holding him a bit further away from the cage and closer to me (remember, i was sitting on the floor) and all of a sudden he made a sudden move, i moved aswell as a reaction and it made him hop under the cage, on the shelve where all the food and stuff is.
I can say to you -ladys and gentlemen- that at this point I felt really bad, my stomach got upset and i got sweating instantly... I like the little fellows a lot and want to do everything by the book, bounding step by step, later on playtime, but without rushing anything.
And this was it, I instantly remembered horrostories from forums about chins hiding, to be found days later or not at all, silly accidents of chins hurting themself by fleeing in panic.
By now you are probably thinking "geez this guy is a nervous mofo!" but I can assure you, it's just cause I care so much that it makes me so stressy about situations like this.
I tried luring him with his sandbath, a treat, gently calling him and tapping on the shelve. He moved allright, only not in my direction.
Without moving too much, i managed to get my hand close to him wihout him hopping away, and he gently putted 2 paws on my hand, wich gave me the time to scoop him up and get him in his cage without to much stress.
After that I gave him a quick pat and a small treat as a reward for not making me chase him at 4 in the night.
I agree, wall of text, just wanted to tell you that, how small or obsolete this little adventure of mine is, to me it shows that my chin allready trusts me a bit, and I think thats a lot in merely 2 days. I credit the breeder aswell ofcourse since he handles his animals aswell, but me being able to touch them and hold them that fast is in my opinion a small sign that I started on the right pace with them and I think the foundation of trust has been made...
Maybe it's that, or maybe I just underestimate the curiosity of my 2 little friends and it's a thing that won't happen a lot, I leave that to your experienced opinion (I would really like to hear your comments).
As maybe some of you have read, after lots of reading and looking up, talking about it with my gf, looking around for a vet and supply stores that could provide me in my chinneeds, my GF and I decided to get 2 chinchilla's.
At first we got a cage, a ferret nation (pretty cheap, around €130 on an ebay-ish kinda website).
After that we had contact with a breeder, we decided to buy an white ebony (4months old, male) and an dark ebony (2 months old, male).
Since I heard stories about 2 month old chins that escaped Ferret Nation cages (although its weight is at 264gr now) I decided to make sure nothing went wrong and we decided to make the cage a bit more secure, we will get the wire off in about a month when he is big enough
The chins got introduced by the breeder, and it didn't take long. Ofcourse, some people will protest, but according to him they got along just fine, and I must say that untill now they like to be together all the time so...
This is how they look
This is Lemmy the 4 month old
And this is Ozzy, the 2 month old
yesterday when I went to get them, they were a bit shy. they were used being handled but the 1hour cardrive, the new cage, people and environement ofcourse gave a bit of stress. Their cage was allready well prepared with fleece, self made 1" kill 'n dried pine shelves, chewingsticks, fresh hay... You name it, it was ready for use!
They just sat there the whole day... I was allready worried a bit since I thought that they would at least go and explore the whole cage, but they just passed time sleeping.
In the short periods of time they were awake I saw them pee (in a bowl with aubiose - hennep shreds), eat, drink and poo (and ofcourse eat that last one again so they could start all over). So even though I was dissapointed that they weren't very curious at first (I know they are nocturnal but... meh...), I was very happy that they found everything they needed in there.
Every further contact like going to the cage was not really appreciated and resulted in a few nervous hops and sitting together in a corner.
This morning I woke up, realised i dreamed a few awkward things about the chins (been busy with prepping a lot, would explain it being on my mind even at night) and I rushed to the cage to ensure my dreams were only that. Since the little one didn't escape, fleece wasn't littered with fur, an no wounds caused by a loose end of wire were detected I could relax and observe them a bit.
Not much happened, but the pootrails in the cage and the hay that was missing gave me an idea about their nightly escapades...
Today I went to our city park and went straight to the little office that houses the department that occupies itself with maintaining the park and surrounding woods. I showed them the "safe wood list" and to my surprise they were very willingly to help me, showed me the correct branches that were freshly cut off this week and gave em away for free.
Once home I cooked them and baked them in the oven for a few hours, tomorrow they will have new toys to play with
So after all the baking (4 at night) just before I wanted to go to bed, i saw lots of movement in the cage. I went to sit on the floor before the cage and opened the doors. Lemmy (the oldest) came to me instantly and nibblet my hand for a bit. He softly stepped up my hand with 1 paw, and went back and forth a bit. Then the second, third, and all of a sudden he was standing on my hand.
A sec later he jumped back in but still! Ofcourse I tried repeating it a few times, and every time he got on my hand a bit faster. I tried holding him a bit further away from the cage and closer to me (remember, i was sitting on the floor) and all of a sudden he made a sudden move, i moved aswell as a reaction and it made him hop under the cage, on the shelve where all the food and stuff is.
I can say to you -ladys and gentlemen- that at this point I felt really bad, my stomach got upset and i got sweating instantly... I like the little fellows a lot and want to do everything by the book, bounding step by step, later on playtime, but without rushing anything.
And this was it, I instantly remembered horrostories from forums about chins hiding, to be found days later or not at all, silly accidents of chins hurting themself by fleeing in panic.
By now you are probably thinking "geez this guy is a nervous mofo!" but I can assure you, it's just cause I care so much that it makes me so stressy about situations like this.
I tried luring him with his sandbath, a treat, gently calling him and tapping on the shelve. He moved allright, only not in my direction.
Without moving too much, i managed to get my hand close to him wihout him hopping away, and he gently putted 2 paws on my hand, wich gave me the time to scoop him up and get him in his cage without to much stress.
After that I gave him a quick pat and a small treat as a reward for not making me chase him at 4 in the night.
I agree, wall of text, just wanted to tell you that, how small or obsolete this little adventure of mine is, to me it shows that my chin allready trusts me a bit, and I think thats a lot in merely 2 days. I credit the breeder aswell ofcourse since he handles his animals aswell, but me being able to touch them and hold them that fast is in my opinion a small sign that I started on the right pace with them and I think the foundation of trust has been made...
Maybe it's that, or maybe I just underestimate the curiosity of my 2 little friends and it's a thing that won't happen a lot, I leave that to your experienced opinion (I would really like to hear your comments).
