How exactly does the average chinchilla act?

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GahhItsLee

Lee
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
425
Location
Upstate New York
I know there are some crazy lovey chinchillas and some crazy aggro chins.
I know some hate people and some can run around a house and just always follow you. Im curious how the normal/average chin acts. My best boy sits on my shoulder, comes to the cage door when i open it, has no problem with me picking him up doesnt fight it or anything. The other two i have comes to the door when i open it but absolutely hate being held although i can pet them. None of them will hang around me when there allowed out and i could never allow them to free run in the house like some people do... So how would the average/normal/stereotypical chin act?
 
The norm with chins is that they really don't like to be held. You will always have some cuddle bug chins, but in this house they are far and few between. :p
 
Part of the average chins behavioral pattern includes zooming around, exploring their environment, interacting with each other and any humans around, and bouncing off walls. It also includes squeezing into impossibly small spaces and going to sleep. It surprised me to realize that the "average" chin will explore every nook and cranny that it is physically capable of exploring, if left for a short while. (The lazy chins are less proactive about exploring.)

I'm not sure that you can fully appreciate this unless you let them run around outside their cages. And at least for me, watching their out-of-cage behavior, and interacting with them outside of their cages is one of the more rewarding things about being around chins.

If you don't want them to have the run of the house, you might consider designating a single room as their playroom. You could chin-safe only that room so they could run around there safely.
 
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I've been wondering the same sort of thing. Wally seems so abnormal compared to other chins and isn't at all what I expected (I'm not complaining, she's better). 90% of her outside play time is spent snuggling with me purely by her own choice. She'll bounce around the room for two minutes and then jump into my lap and squish under my arm for 20 minutes until she's totally pink-eared. She'll leave to bounce and cool off then come back for another 20 minutes. Weirdest thing ever.

But yeah, aren't chins supposed to dislike warmness and cuddles and squishes? That's what I expected anyway and was pleasantly surprised to learn Wally LOVES snuggles.
 
From my short time experiencing chinchillas, I'd say the "average" chin acts like the two of yours, and your best boy would be the exception to the rule.
 
Flea acts like your other two. He is not really big on being held and he only climbs on my shoulder so he can jump back into the cage. He will not even tolerate being held for scritches, but loves them when he is in the cage.
 
i think just like people they are all a little different. the spectrum is pretty wide for their personalities and behaviors. some of which is based on their past. i have some chins that are totally chill, others are total spazzes. some are litter trained, others pee everywhere. some like to be held, most do not. but they do like the love. and when i come into the room, they all poke their cute little heads thru the bars.........usually looking for some treats or scritches or maybe just to say hi.
 
I think my chin behaves differently, based on whether she is alone or has my company. She loves to sleep in her maze and I can also hear her chewing on it and tearing it apart from the inside, lol. She really isn't too active at all if she is on her own. If I'm with her, she becomes much more active. I sit in her pen with her, and she'll spend part of that time sitting on my lap and cuddling with me. The other part of the time she'll be running around her pen, exploring, popcorning if I really get her excited, takes her dustbath, etc. But I agree that chins have different personalities, and you won't find two chins that act in the same manner. You have to become familiar with what is normal for your chin...how your chin acts on a daily basis, how active he is, how much sleep, how much he eats, and drinks...it should be somewhat routine on a daily basis. If your chin then begins to act differently than what is normal for him, then you can become concerned.
 
I do let my chins out for playtime just so everyone knows. Well i havent let them use the bathroom in a few days but usually they get an hour in the bathroom everynight. The last few days theyve gotten around a half hour on my bed playing with me
 
All chins are different. Shelly acts different on some days than other. She is grumpy if I get home later than normal. She will also get pissy if I cut her playtime short. It all depends on the chin. For the most part she just wants to run and play. Shell won't sit with me until she hits about hour 2 of her playtime. I've always given her 2 - 4 (sometimes 5 on weekends) hours of playtime each day. Just know that they are all different.
 
I've got over 70 chins here and the only "average" between them all is some measure of insanity.

Average chinchilla will chew and poo. Amen.
 
Out of my four boys, not one of them is average! They all express their personalities so strongly and that is how every chin is that I've ever met. It's almost like saying how an average person acts, they would be boring ;) Each one of my boys is loving, I could say that's average, but they all show it in different ways. One of them loves being held. One of them likes belly rubs. One of them likes scritches behind his ears. One of them spazzes if we try to pet him! One of them loves sitting on my shoulder, one on my foot, one on my lap, one as far away as possible! They all love different treats, different woods, different sleeping places. I can only imagine how having over 20 chinnies would show such drastic differences. I agree with Tab though, we can agree that they're all slightly insane :dance3: It's why we love them!
 
Lets see...

All three of our boys dislike being picked up, but are generally OK with being held/carried as long as they aren't restrained. We have to be careful with two of them since they summarily lack a fear of heights and WILL jump unless they see a more convenient way down. They all like bouncing off walls when freerunning.

Two of them have to be pried out of the dustbath; one barely flips once before he runs out (usually). Two of them will jump off the bed immediately from any angle, the third will stay on it and watch TV. All of them are more or less pee-trained for their litterbox, though one of them will consider any hay pile a "small litterbox" (wood hay rack was necessitated by this!). He also does NOT like anyone going anywhere near his ears.


So, agree with the above--there are some behaviors that are certainly more common than others, but aside from chewing anything/everything with an accessible edge and then excreting it (everywhere they can hide it), chinnies seem to all be their own unique selves.
 
I feel like this is pretty comparable to asking how an average person acts...
 
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