Go...In...Your Cage...NOW!

[Lulilac]

My two boys get out of cage time nearly every evening. Sometimes I get home late but they still get play time. However, they want to play a lot longer than I want to stay awake watching them. How do I get them to go back into their cages?

Barnaby is such a good boy. I just thump on the box I have in front of his cage door and he runs over to it, hops up on it and then goes into his cage.

Hugo is my bad seed chinchilla. If he doesn't go into his cage of his own volition by the time I'm done, I try to gently 'herd' him towards his cage. He loves to tease me by leaping up on the 'door step' of his cage, pretending he's comtemplating entry and then leaping off and dashing in the oposite direction. He is extremely fast! If Chinchilla herding doesn't work, I end up having to catch him: often by the base of his tail because he is too wiggly and strong to be caught any other way. Catching him is not easy and can be stressful for the both of us. Some nights, it seems impossible and I just want to say to heck with it, but I know letting him stay out all night could result in chewed wiring and fried chinchilla. : (

Also, Hugo knows all about the dust bath house trick and won't go inside if I'm within reaching distance.

Any thoughts? :?

 

[ChinnyMom]

what i've been doing is teaching Rhino the verbal command 'cage'. this is accompanied by shaking his treat container right at the open door of his cage. he's getting the idea that when i say 'cage' he is to go back in and get his treat. it's working quite well!

 

[Chub_Chub]

I feel your pain, Lulilac.. I have a chinny imp who does the same things. One thing I have noticed about him is that he will get into boxes that have other holes or are roomier like a soda box, but will not get into more smushed ones like cereal boxes for carrying him back to his cage. But this little guy is the same one who will escape if given even a milliseconds chance to do so. So yeah, we do a lot of chasing with him, unfortunately. It makes me feel bad but I already get so little sleep to begin with. I think he's too smart for his own good.

 

[Siany]

What me and my bf used to do was gently herd them over by their cage, then we would say "cage" and they go in and we give a treat No hassle at all now they have gotton used to it and all my bf has to say is "cage" and Lola will go in and we still have to herd Dotty a little bit as well. We try do keep to the same time and give them an hour every night, i think its more of a routie now and they are used to it

 

[Airyn]

"Go home" followed by a treat is pretty effective for all of mine. I have doggie stairs that I move away from the cage once they're out and back to the cage once I want them home too. I'm sure that helps. Of course, they're always bound to be stubborn, but they learn pretty quickly when they don't get that treat!

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

When I first got Mr. Whiskers and he stopped falling for the old bath house ploy, I started playing a little game that I called "Catch and Release".

While he was out playing, I would "catch" him and give him a treat or a snuggle for a second and then "release" him to continue playing. I would do this several times during his playtime. He finally learned that being caught didn't ALWAYS mean the end of his playtime.

I like the idea of associating getting the treats with "going home".

 

[Cuddlebug]

If all else fails, you can throw a towel over the chin, then just walk over and pick it up.

 

[Crys12065]

I have the same problem with Delilah. It is a nightly 5-10 ritual of chasing her around the room trying to catch her for bed time.

 

[Lulilac]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I've tried to train Hugo to associate the shaking sound of his bag of oats with getting a treat in his cage. He is willfully NOT learning this trick. I guess he's a work in progress.

 

[mishellyshel]

i have a couple little buggers that like to play hide & seek. since i have a pvc tube and a big capri sun box in their play area they usually run in there and i scoop it up covering both ends with my hands. i also have a build a bear cardboard carrier in there with a nice thick piece of fleece on the bottom (cause they pee & ruin it!) and some of the boys just go in there and i pick the whole thing up.

 

[ChinnyMom]

have you tried shaking the oat bag right inside the door of his cage? that's what is working best for Rhino these days, and he just runs straight to the treat container, which is just inside the cage. Then again, Rhino is VERY treat oriented, lol!