Chin hates his cage?

[Vitti]

I've had a chin now for a couple of months, he's 6 months old. In the evenings we leave his cage door open and he generally has free reign of the apartment. We close all doors (to the bathroom, bedroom, utility room etc.) and it's quite chin-proof. He runs around for hours, sometimes spending 6+ hours out of his cage, only going back in for food or water. When it's bed time for us he gets very difficult to work with. He'll sense we're trying to get him back in his cage and he'll run away from us a lot and avoid us (usually he hangs with us and jumps all over us). Lately just to make it less than an 30-minute job I've started letting him take a dust bath and moving his dust bath to the cage, but this isn't healthy as he's started to distrust the dust bath and be weary about entering it.

Tonight he threw a huge tantrum when I got him back in his cage - he chewed the bars of the cage a lot and tried to squeeze through, he tipped hay out of his cup on purpose and started throwing it, he purposefully pushed a chew block from the top shelf down to the ground and he jumped around crazy in there trying to get out until he eventually sat and sulked, looking sad.

Why does he does this? Why does he hate his cage so much? I've posted a picture below. He has hay, food, water, chew blocks, an igloo and also a wheel saucer, but he doesn't know how to use the wheel (I think it confuses him).

Any advice would be great!

Here's a pic of his cage with him in it:

 

[javachin]

6 hours is a lot of time for him to have free range of the house. He's acting that way since you're not allowing him freedom and his behavior is completely normal. He's trying to see if he can get a reaction from you, that would let him be out again. No animal wants to be caged, so its understandable. I would cut down the area he's got access too and make play time on your terms so he can learn who's in charge.

 

[Huffnpoof]

It sounds as if your boy is having fun with his freedom and just needs some training.

First, I would stop using the dust bath as a method for getting him home. As you can already see, he's starting to associate it with something negative and he'll still need to dust in the future.

My chin is trained to "go home" on command (well, most of the time). Chins don't like us "chasing" them. So I taught her she could avoid chasing after I said "go home" by going to her cage. Her cage then became her safe place.

Keep in mind each chin is going to learn at a different pace. It's best to break it down into steps and initially train this in a smaller area.

First I said the words "go home" then start walking towards her. The minute she turned towards her cage (even if she intended to run past it) I stopped walking and turned around. Each time I said "go home" I'd walk after her until she moved closer and closer to her cage. She's learning that by moving towards her cage, the big scary thing stops following her. This may take some time of you walking around the apartment after your chin- but he will eventually start to associate his cage with a safe area. Over time, I can now say "poof go home" and stand up and my girl runs back to her cage.

Of course, this method isn't foolproof. They are animals, and sometimes they refuse even if they know exactly what you want. When that happens, I still have to chase her down. I also happen to have discovered that my chinchilla loves the guitar- so when she heads home I play it as a reward. I also don't always shut her cage door when she does go home, granting more freedom as an instant reward for going home.

Keep in mind that my girl will still run up and sit on my lap when she's out. She also will hop on my back if him laying on the floor, sick her face in mine, and let me pet her. We have a great relationship. I think having that very clear phrase "GO HOME" allows for a distinction between "I'm going to be chasing you until you're back in your cage" and "I'm here to hang out".

Sorry for the long post. Just thought I'd share what's worked for me. Also keep in mind that until a certain age, kits should be only allowed out for very short periods of time, if at all. I'm not sure what the age is, but I know a member had issues with his baby after he let her out for too long. My girl is around 8- so I don't worry about it as much.