Dreaming behavior?

[SelahDad]

Hello everyone,

My wife noticed some interesting behavior from Selah, our 6 week old female chin.

She was sleeping on her side, with her eyes closed and making whimpering noises and running motions, almost like a dog might.

My wife says she was worried, and woke her up, only to have her behave perfectly fine when awake. No signs of pain or distress, and took some food from my wife's hand.

We are really new first time chinchilla parents, so this might be really common, but it's new to us.

Was this just dream behavior?

 

[SelahDad]

Edit - Selah may not be 6 weeks old. She's a juvenile, but I don't remember what the lady told us when she said how old she was.

 

[LYChinchillas]

Chins definitely can dream, so perhaps it was! Some chins will be more vocal than others. Given your chin is healthy (not losing weight or suffering an injury), the squeaking and barking can be characterized more like a personality trait or merely dreaming. I'd suggest monitoring behavior and consumption as usual and perhaps take to weighing your chin at regular intervals just to objectively track growth and overall well-being. I have a post all about weighing and other How-To's at www.LYChinchillas.com - tips can also be found in CnH thread searches!

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

sounds normal to me. I had one who often slept on her back with her eyes OPEN. She scared the heck out of me many times. Worst of all she was a very sound sleeper and I had to slightly poke her to see if she was alive. Then she would wake up and look at me as if to say 'lady what is wrong with you? Can't you see I was sleeping?"

 

[tunes]

Sounds like she's just being a chin.

I wanted to add, I am guessing she is at least six weeks old, hopefully a little older. Kits should be with mom at six weeks (sometimes eight, depending on growth). I personally usually won't sell a kit at six weeks. I generally wean at 8 weeks and then keep them for a couple weeks to make sure they are eating, drinking, peeing, pooping, and growing well.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

wow - I didn't catch that - that she was supposedly only 6 weeks old. I don't sell until they are at least 10 weeks old. When I wean at 8 weeks I will weight them every day to make sure they are growing.