training help

i want to train my chinchilla
which reward for this ?? i have carrot and rose hip
if i give my chinchilla 5 6 rose hip everydays for training that ok ?
and i have to feed him carrot he's like it

chinchilla_ks said:

i want to train my chinchilla
which reward for this ?? i have carrot and rose hip
if i give my chinchilla 5 6 rose hip everydays for training that ok ?
and i have to feed him carrot he's like it

Click to expand...

Chinchillas should not have fruit or vegetables of any kind.. rose hips are ok but only 2-3 a week at the most.

so ? only can train 2 3 time for a week ? 4 days let him play time only ? 2 3 time train could he learn trick ?

chinchillas should not have carrots at all for eating, training, whatever. no carrots.
i would not give my chins 5 rosehips every day. maybe a few pieces of crushed rosehips. you could also give 1 or 2 old fashioned oats. but not more than that daily.

chinchillas really dont do "tricks". they are not a dog, they can not give you their paw.
what are you trying to get your chin to do??

they prefer to run and jump in a safe enviroment with minimal interacation. they like tubes and boxes and a fun play area. search play areas on here and you will get some great ideas.

i agree with the others, chins should not have veggies or fruit.

Michelle, there is a few videos of somebody's chin on youtube that is trained to perform tricks. thinks like stay, spin, high five. very cute videos! and if i recall correctly, the chin's owner is a member on here?

you don't need to reward with a food item every time an animal does something right during training. a scritch under the jaw (if your chin likes scritches) would be just as good. positive reinforcement is something the animal likes/enjoys, and doesn't necessarily have to be food.

I have to agree with Michelle, a chinchilla should not be "trained", you might want to consider getting a puppy if you want to train a pet.

Claudia

As the others have said, no fruits or veggies ever.

In general, chinchillas aren't an animal that you would train. I think they can learn certain routines, but to try and train a chinchilla would certainly mean a lot of time and dedication. But I agree with above, if you want to train, positive reinforcement is a great idea, and a lot of chins love to be scritched behind the ears or under the chin/chest. My chin almost drools with pleasure when I give her scritches, lol.

When I taught Henry to come when called (he's really good at it now, I only have to say 'Henry' quietly in the right tone of voice and he's there in a flash, even if he'd been out of sight under the furniture ), I used rolled oats and shredded wheats broken up into small pieces. I believe NayNay (who has clicker trained her chins) uses their pellets (chopped up) as a reward. Here's her channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NayNaybeluga

I think that most kinds of animals can be trained, and rats certainly can so why not chins? They're intelligent enough, it might just perhaps take extra patience. It's obviously important to keep the sessions short, so you're just training for a few minutes at a time (if they don't want to pay attention, they won't, anyway), and make use of natural behaviours that they do anyway - you're not going to get them to do something that is unnatural to them. I would like to work more with Henry, I've taught him a few things, and think it's helped strengthen our relationship. I've found context especially important, even more so than with my dog, and also that they're motivated as much, if not more, by their natural curiosity than by food.

thanks for sharing the video. but personally i dont think that is training a chin to jump.
she is using a clicker after he jumps. if the chin was trained she would click than it would jump. if i sat on the floor with my chin and put my arm out pretty much every one of them would jump over it......without a clicker or treat. its just instinct.

i know i saw a member here post some cute tricks and i am sure it took a lot of patience & repititon. they are smart little critters but i agree postive reinforcement and occasional small treats like an oat or something is the way to go.

now i want to go home and play with my chinnies!!

from my reading, the clicker is 'clicked' as soon as the animal does the desired action or behaviour, not before.

you can definitely see that the chin in the video associates the clicker with something good (food) after jumping over her arm, so there is some condition training going on there with the clicker, even if the chin doesn't seem to be jumping due to a command.

the girl in the video also admits to using raisins.....its not a huge deal but i wouldn't take her that seriously if she doesnt even know that he shouldnt have raisons.....just a thought from an outside observer

Most animals can be trained, though some take far more patience than others. Take for example animals in movies. It is possible. I don't necessarily think that video is a good example though, since it does seem pretty clear that she clicks after/during jumping rather than clicking and then he jumps.

You should not however, be using any fruits or vegetables. If you really want to use food as a motivator (though I agree positive reinforcement is just as good and from my experience recommended by trainers), you can simply use their pellets or hay. Then you don't have to worry about upsetting the digestive tract. My boys love to be hand fed and honestly, they love hay more than anything.

Irishsk8r66 said:

the girl in the video also admits to using raisins.....its not a huge deal but i wouldn't take her that seriously if she doesnt even know that he shouldnt have raisons.....just a thought from an outside observer

Click to expand...

She does know they can't have many raisins, that's why she mainly uses pellets. I think she just uses a raisin very occasionally, as a one-off reward once the chin performs the behaviour exactly as she'd wanted.


Yup, that's right, in clicker training the click is used after the desired behaviour, or one close to it, is performed. The click is positive reinforcement rather than a command - it's like saying 'Well done, that's right'. It's used rather than just verbal praise or a treat alone as it's a more consistent and distinctive signal, and it's easy to quickly click the very instant the desired behaviour is performed, so the animal is clear which behaviour is the one being reinforced. Otherwise, by the time you'd got a treat to them, they might be doing something else, and you'd instead end up accidentally reinforcing that behaviour rather than the one you wanted - by clicking before giving the treat they know which behaviour it was that got them the food reward. Once the animal understands what you're wanting them to do, a verbal command and/or hand signal is added, and the click gradually phased out (you can see her using verbal commands and signals in some of her other videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ojKuMmw7Y). Clicker training does require the animal to actively try to work out what is required.

Just want to echo what has been said about the correct use of clickers...the click is supposed to come at the moment of the correct behavior, NOT BEFORE. The clicker is not a remote control, it is a training tool that marks a precise moment where the animal did something correct and that a reward is coming. I clicker train dogs for a living, and am constantly battling these misconceptions about clicker training. As with everything else, those who don't understand the process don't help the cause by passing on poor information.
Having said that, clicker training a chinchilla is entirely possible. People clicker train chickens. Pretty much any animal can learn a simple behavior.

Amphy64 said:

She does know they can't have many raisins, that's why she mainly uses pellets. I think she just uses a raisin very occasionally, as a one-off reward once the chin performs the behaviour exactly as she'd wanted.

Click to expand...

but chins shouldn't eat ANY raisins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=724becYYHYs

everybody watch

Hello! Am new to chinchillas and all this sort of stuff hadn't occured to me (I mean, I'm trying to teach them a routine of play-bath-food so they know what's happening, but that is as far as I was going to take it). My question is - do the chinchillas actually enjoy such extreme activity? Please don't take offence at this question, I really don't know! The videos have surprised me a lot! Many thanks!

Amphy64 said:

Yup, that's right, in clicker training the click is used after the desired behaviour, or one close to it, is performed. The click is positive reinforcement rather than a command - it's like saying 'Well done, that's right'. It's used rather than just verbal praise or a treat alone as it's a more consistent and distinctive signal, and it's easy to quickly click the very instant the desired behaviour is performed, so the animal is clear which behaviour is the one being reinforced. Otherwise, by the time you'd got a treat to them, they might be doing something else, and you'd instead end up accidentally reinforcing that behaviour rather than the one you wanted - by clicking before giving the treat they know which behaviour it was that got them the food reward. Once the animal understands what you're wanting them to do, a verbal command and/or hand signal is added, and the click gradually phased out (you can see her using verbal commands and signals in some of her other videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ojKuMmw7Y). Clicker training does require the animal to actively try to work out what is required.

Click to expand...

fanofdmb84 said:

Just want to echo what has been said about the correct use of clickers...the click is supposed to come at the moment of the correct behavior, NOT BEFORE. The clicker is not a remote control, it is a training tool that marks a precise moment where the animal did something correct and that a reward is coming. I clicker train dogs for a living, and am constantly battling these misconceptions about clicker training. As with everything else, those who don't understand the process don't help the cause by passing on poor information.
Having said that, clicker training a chinchilla is entirely possible. People clicker train chickens. Pretty much any animal can learn a simple behavior.

Click to expand...

I'm so glad there's a forum where I can learn things like this that I never knew. I guess it makes sense, but I'd never really thought about it. Thank you for clearing up misconceptions!

Rachel said:

Hello! Am new to chinchillas and all this sort of stuff hadn't occured to me (I mean, I'm trying to teach them a routine of play-bath-food so they know what's happening, but that is as far as I was going to take it). My question is - do the chinchillas actually enjoy such extreme activity? Please don't take offence at this question, I really don't know! The videos have surprised me a lot! Many thanks!

Click to expand...

Rachel, considering what I know about chinchillas, which isn't vast and obviously is mostly based on my own two and what I read here, most chinchillas enjoy out of cage playtime and are rather energetic. It seems to me as long as the playtime wasn't solely training time and they got some actual playtime as well training wouldn't be too bad. I know my boys run on the wheel all the time and when they have had playtime they seem to do less activity because they are so busy poking around.

Thanks Diana! I did not know that. Definitely need patience and time to train any animal.

Jenn said:

but chins shouldn't eat ANY raisins.

Click to expand...

While I don't ever give my own chin raisins, I know a lot of people do give raisins, though, and appear to still have healthy chins? Of course, I know some do overdo it (definitely only think they should be a very, very occasional thing, if they're going to be given at all, and of course there are healthier treats available) which isn't good, I agree. I just wouldn't want to consider someone a bad owner and dismiss what they're doing with their chins simply because they give the occasional raisin. )

That chin is so cute, chinchilla_ks, thanks for the link. Giving 'kissies' was one thing I never had to teach Henry, he does it on his own - didn't half surprise me the first time I bent down to give him a kiss on top of his head and got a smack on the lips! Why did no one warn me that chins do that?! :laughitup: Little ratbag looked so smug, too.

Hello, Rachel, good question. Hmm, I think they probably do, as I wouldn't think they'd pay any attention if they weren't interested, they're pretty good at ignoring you when it suits them, at least. I don't have much experience of training chins, but I know when I taught Henry to come when called, curiosity was an equal if not stronger motivator than the small treats I used (ie. What is my crazy human doing now?), I got the impression he thought of it as a game. They're very intelligent, so I guess it just counts as another kind of mental stimulation - as long as you're only doing it for very short periods of time, a few minutes at most, and not trying to get them to do something they're not comfortable with, or if they're not in the mood.