Chinchilla constantly scratches cage

[Rinny41887]

I've had my chinchilla, Marvin, for about two months now. He's been getting used to me little at time. Every day, few times day especially at night he scratches at his fleece liner and tosses all his sticks and toys EVERYWHERE. His litter pan shavings end up everywhere and he even goes as far as tossing his food out of his bowl. I take him out in his playpen for play time but this still doesn't elevate his what I call tantrums? He actually gets worse when I put him back in. He has a two level critter nation cage with plenty toys and wood. Is there any explanation for him acting this way? Is it common? never owned a chin before. Btw he's 7 months.

 

[Stackie]

The playtime is actually probably what's causing his tantrums. I used to have a chin that would bite excessively at his cage bars when he wanted out, and actually ended up breaking an incisor. Does he have a wheel? A wheel could help him get out of some of his energy.
If you are really bothered by the behavior, I would start limiting playtime. Though it may seem mean, chins really don't need the out of cage time. When I got busier and unable to give my chins as much out of cage time, my cage biter was very mad at first but eventually got used to it and the bar biting actually stopped. Otherwise you may just have to put up with the tantrums and hope he grows out of it.

 

[Rinny41887]

Yupp he has a wheel and he does go on it. I guess I'll try limiting his play time. It seems that he just doesn't like going in his cage and throws tantrums because he wants out. I hope he grows out of it.

 

[ChinChild]

Our younger chin Mojo has behaved this way since he was about 3 months old; he's a wild man, always full of energy and despite having quite a pampered cage he always wants to be out getting into trouble! He'll run circuits around his cage, bite & tug on the cage bars (some of the finish on my FN bars are completely gone now), throw toys around, FLIP his hidey house completely over, dump his litter bowl, etc... and that's after having over an hour of playtime. Even when we go out of town for a few days and he doesn't get playtime, his behavior does not change. I feel your pain, we're hoping it's just a phase!

Here's a few pics of him mid-tantrum:

And the 'all too proud of myself' look he gets afterwards:

 

[Godofgods]

love that second picture lol

 

[scottf]

LOL is that an upside down chin throwing a tantrum