3 months ago, my wife and I adopted our gorgeous hetero ebony chinchilla, Jon Snow, when he was 8 weeks old. We've done everything we could think of to be good parents: we converted an extra bedroom into a chin-proof playroom, I built him a four tiered cage that's 2'x2'x5' with a hammock, plenty of toys, a wooden house, etc., and we try to give him lots of care and attention. His cage is next to the TV, but he never seems to mind the noise.
A lot of information about raising young chins seems to advocate a very slow and cautious approach to bonding, but my wife and I didn't do this. We handled him, gently of course, immediately: carrying him from his cage to his playroom, picking him up and holding him to us regularly, etc. He doesn't particularly like to be picked up, but he doesn't fight us once he's in our hands. If I reach out and point my index finger in his direction, he'll crawl/hop over to it and rub his nose against it.
2 or 3 weeks ago we started letting him run around the house under our supervision. We'd open the cage door and let him run around our living room and even up the staircase and into the upstairs hallway. We close all the upstairs doors beforehand, because he really likes to hide behind and underneath dressers and beds. The problem I'm worried about is that whenever it's time to put him away, we have to chase him around the room. It's very difficult to catch him with just one of us; usually that involves eventually directing him upstairs into the hallway where he can be easily cornered.
I never realized how traumatic chasing him could be. It always sort of seemed like a game. He would breathe hard afterwards, but it seemed normal after all of the running and jumping. He never cries or squirms after we catch him and lets us pet him gently once he's in our hands. But after reading a lot of information on this and other forums, I've learned how damaging chasing him can be to the bonding process.
I'm not really sure what to do now. He REALLY likes running around the house. When it's not time for him to go back to his cage, if we're sitting on the couch he'll run over our feet and even occasionally jump onto the couch and stare at us. If we let him out for only a short time and put him back, or if we don't let him run around at all, he'll come to the front of the cage and stand up and put his front paws on the door. But I'm worried that the whole experience, particularly rounding him up to put him back in the cage is detrimental to bonding with him.
Is it possible for a chinchilla to see chasing as playing, or is it instinctual to find this threatening? Should we stop letting him run around the house, even though he really seems to like it? Is it possible to balance his view of us as the big, mean, furless things that chase him and make him go back in his cage with the view that we're also his loving, attentive parents?
A lot of information about raising young chins seems to advocate a very slow and cautious approach to bonding, but my wife and I didn't do this. We handled him, gently of course, immediately: carrying him from his cage to his playroom, picking him up and holding him to us regularly, etc. He doesn't particularly like to be picked up, but he doesn't fight us once he's in our hands. If I reach out and point my index finger in his direction, he'll crawl/hop over to it and rub his nose against it.
2 or 3 weeks ago we started letting him run around the house under our supervision. We'd open the cage door and let him run around our living room and even up the staircase and into the upstairs hallway. We close all the upstairs doors beforehand, because he really likes to hide behind and underneath dressers and beds. The problem I'm worried about is that whenever it's time to put him away, we have to chase him around the room. It's very difficult to catch him with just one of us; usually that involves eventually directing him upstairs into the hallway where he can be easily cornered.
I never realized how traumatic chasing him could be. It always sort of seemed like a game. He would breathe hard afterwards, but it seemed normal after all of the running and jumping. He never cries or squirms after we catch him and lets us pet him gently once he's in our hands. But after reading a lot of information on this and other forums, I've learned how damaging chasing him can be to the bonding process.
I'm not really sure what to do now. He REALLY likes running around the house. When it's not time for him to go back to his cage, if we're sitting on the couch he'll run over our feet and even occasionally jump onto the couch and stare at us. If we let him out for only a short time and put him back, or if we don't let him run around at all, he'll come to the front of the cage and stand up and put his front paws on the door. But I'm worried that the whole experience, particularly rounding him up to put him back in the cage is detrimental to bonding with him.
Is it possible for a chinchilla to see chasing as playing, or is it instinctual to find this threatening? Should we stop letting him run around the house, even though he really seems to like it? Is it possible to balance his view of us as the big, mean, furless things that chase him and make him go back in his cage with the view that we're also his loving, attentive parents?