A mean chin :'(

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Buddy

Buddy

<--My little soldier!
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
221
My chinchilla has suddenly started biting me! She's been through a lot the past month- vets and back constantly.
But since she's getting better she's took up the habbit of biting me whenever she doesn't get her own way.
When she was ill she got everything she wanted. If she wanted to lay on me all day then she could.
But now, she bites if I don't let her do something. She's normalish. She'll sleep next to me or on me. It seems when she was ill we've kind of bonded? (She seems to like me a lot more anyway) :S Why is this? And why has she got the sudden urge to be a spoilt brat? :(
 
She's just dominating you. You jerk back when she bites = she wins. If you don't want her to be dominant over you don't jerk back and blow on her face, a quick puff usually does it. Yea, she'll probably go pout or throw a hissy fit, and it isn't an instant solution. She'll always fight for dominance in the relationship because that's part of her personality.

Somebody always has to be the leader with herd based animals. If you don't, they will. Many are just more subtle about it and it never escalates to nipping. :))
 
Ditto. The biggest thing is to not let her think she gets the best of you or what she wants. Or it will continue.
 
Don't back down and wear gloves if necessary. She will figure out that biting is not getting her what she wants and will stop doing it.
 
I agree, she's saying "Now I feel better, I'm ready to be boss!" Hopefully with some persistence, you be able to convince her that - you- one who provides food and shelter, is actually the boss of her!
 
If I get a nibble that's a little to rough, I kack just like they do to let them know that "that's NOT OK". Works for me. :thumbsup:
 
just wear gloves and don't react to the bites or let her get what she wants - for you to go away.

blowing in their face? hmmm..... not sure if chins talk to each other this way...... i know i wouldn't do it. you have to 'talk' like a chin to get the point across. kacking back is an excellent idea!
 
Saying a firm "no" actually gets my girls to stop doing most things. My current issue is the girls trying to chew on the outside of their dust house which I won't allow since it's plastic. If they do more than a couple test nibbles I say no. If they persist after a no or two I remove the bath. My girls are still very young so both of them nibble a bit. Pixie will actually bite sometimes if you prevent her from doing what she wants to do. Like when I block her from escaping the house she'll bite the hand in her path, same with if I am holding her and she tries to escape. She doesn't always do it, but definitely has tried it. Normally it's not hard enough for it to actually hurt so I just ignore it. Sometimes when I'm petting them they'll nibble or bite me as well. I also make sure to wash my hands especially after eating before visiting with the chins. Once I made the mistake of eating a banana and then petting them. They both very much wanted to eat my hands since they felt they might be hiding banana! I don't feed them bananas but apparently... they love the smell. So, my advice is to ignore it, wear gloves if needed, and be firm. Personally I don't think blowing in their face is a good idea. Might just make them hate you.
 
When my girl is being bad, I do a kack kind of like what she does. She understands and goes and does something else right away. It took me a while to find something that she would react too, a stern no didn't do it, but a kack does!
 
I try to kack like Chia does when she bites me, but my immediate reaction is to pull away. She does it mainly when she wants out, so when she bites me I close the cage door and walk away. I also found that when we're having playtime and she does something she's not supposed to, I can tap on my leg 3 times and she'll stop. It's pretty consistent, and I think I may have developed a habbit of doing that a couple times and then getting up to pull her away from what she's doing if she hasn't stopped, without really realizing I was doing it.

I'm not sure about blowing on her face though... That seems kinda mean?
 
Sheena, you closing the cage and walking away is exactly what your chin wants you to do. don't 'scuttle away' any more. just don't react to the bites at all. wear gloves if need be.

my Rhino will get right indignant about me petting him on a certain shelf (top back left cage corner) if he's up there and wanting to hop across the top of his fleece house to the other shelf. he'll grab my hand and bite HARD. i just say 'no no' and continue petting him, he usually gets the point that momma isn't going to back away any time soon.
 
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