Chinchilla wagging his tail!

[Pippin]

Hi, hello! New to this forum site. :> Not entirely new owning a chinchilla, just never seen this behavior from them before. I only have the one, his name is Pippin. We call him Pip! I got him from a pet store, I know, shame on me! But they said that he had been in there for about 2 months and everyone kept adopting out the babies and it broke my heart. Anyways! I believe he is 6 months old or around that age, he's not very big and looks like he has a lot of growing to do! I've had Pip for 2 weeks now, and he seems to be very content. We're learning his schedule of when he wants to play and letting him come to us. Well, around 7:30 this morning, he was awake and sitting by his cage door. We usually take that as, "Hey open this door! I want out to play!" Well, I decided to open the door, and he did his usual sniff my hand, run around, jump on my shoulder and back into the cage. Then he was letting me pet him. Then he started wagging his tail from side to side and making little squeaks! And a few hours before this, he decided to "charge" at my hand. As though he was playing and with the same squeaks. At first, I thought he was annoyed, but when he's annoyed or had enough, he just runs to the lower level of his cage.

Everywhere I have looked, it said that they do this when they want to mate. But other posts about it have been about two or more chins involved. Pip is the only one I have. He's not vocal either, he's very quiet. Very sweet boy too. So really, I'm just wondering why he would wag his tail and make squeaks at me for petting him. Surely he doesn't think I'm another chinchilla? Was he asserting dominance? He has never bitten any of us, does his little nibbles, but has never seemed angry. Any insight would be great!

 

[Pepperpot]

Your chinchilla is becoming aware of his personal sexuality and the tail wagging and chattering behaviour is the result. All my chins are male and several display this type of behaviour during feeding and playtime, especially my very large tan boy who insists on humping me regularly .

 

[Minccino]

Mine twirls his tail like a helicopter propeller while he humps (or gets picked up) lol

 

[Cuddlebug]

I have seen chins wag their tails when they are "in the mood" or angry. It does not matter that you are not a chin. They will still try to hump you if they feel like it.

 

[TnkTaingTal]

I have all girls

I have two pairs of females. The two hate the other two. I always took the tail wag as a sign of excitement. Both good excited and bad excitement. Usually when i see them do it, they are in the dust bath. I have also seen them do it when they are near a chin they don't like. The most recent tail wag was the other night after Tainga got a new cage. After she settled in, she was sitting on a shelf and staring into space and would wiggle her tail, stop a minute and do it again. Its adorable.

 

[Pippin]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the responses. He didn't seem upset, he was letting me pet him, and usually when he doesn't want me to touch him, he'll run to other parts of his cage in protest. He hasn't done it again though.