Ann Vole
Member
I have not had the opportunity to do any serious training efforts with chinchillas but have trained a number of other rodent species in the past. YouTube shows some cool tricks by these other species but looking for chinchilla training, they were just doing boring stuff. Chinchillas have amazing physical abilities so I am excited about getting a large room dedicated to loose rodents set up again and train these chinchillas. I am asking for links to videos of amazing chinchilla tricks you may know about. For other rodents, African Soft-furred Rats (ASF), Multi-mammate mice, and Natal Rats are all names for the same species. These little guys are nasty for biting but very quick to learn tricks (as evidenced by YouTube videos and my own experience with them). Gerbils and jirds were also easy to train with their long-range vision and how they would actually watch you (also the key advantage for ASF). Another question is treats. The three above-mentioned rodents eat high calorie diets so there are lots of treats available but for the diabetic degus and related chinchillas, there are only so many treats you can give them without risking a sugar-high. Nuts are lower in sugars but still rather high in fats. what would you suggest?