New chin is too smart and quick for me

[aakopec1]

A week ago I took in a chinchilla who's owner didn't have time for him anymore. At this point I can pick him up to go to playtime pretty easily but the little energy ball never wants to get picked up to go back. The first time I brought him out to his play space the old hand over the dust bath trick worked. Then he learned to never go more than half way so he can dash away before I get him. I tried to lure him with treats but after one failed catch attempt he wont go after them.

I did manage to grab him one of the times he got close. I don't want him to start avoiding me during play time. Poor little guy wants nothing more that to get out of his cage to play and stay there but I have to go to work at some point ><. Little guy was out for 45 minutes last time and promptly passed out when I got him back to the cage. I've got him a bunch of new chew toys and tunnels for the cage and a wheel is on it's way. Hopefully the wheel with give him something to do aside from begging to come out.

Until then, and if that doesn't do the trick, anyone have any tips for catching him? I'd like to take him out to play for half an hour before work and half an hour before i got to bed but I can't afford the time for him to not want to let me take him back in. any tips?

 

[obcsed]

You can try cornering him and throwing a towel or piece of fleece over him. He will soon catch on to that one too though. I know you have a separate play area for him but if you can rethink and rearrange things so he has access to his cage during playtime, it can be pretty easy to herd them back into the cage.

 

[chiaismypet]

I had that problem to. After I gave up on trying to catch her she just went back in herself.. I guess she didn't like me to tell her when she needs to go back.

 

[ahitchcox]

i have this same problem with my chinchilla. He's a few years old but we've only had him for 4 months. I let him out almost every night but have trouble getting him back in his cage. We got him from a friend who had him for about a month. They got him from a breeder, according to the breader he used to belong to a teacher who kep him in a cage in a classroom, so I can only imagine how tramatic his life used to be. It was probably very noisy, he was probably constantsly being handled, and probably wasn't let out of the cage.

He's caught on to every trick I've used to try and get him back in the cage. I used to be able to lure him in with a cheerio but that doesn't work now, he completely ignores the cheerio. And now with the dust bath he only goes halfway in. I always leave the cage open with a ramp but he almost never goes back in on his own, he has stayed out for over 2 hours several times. A lot of the time he will stop running around and just sit on the bed post, but I still can't lure him in the cage. I've had to resort to sitting on the floor next to the cage and hoping he decides to go in, and then I am right next to the cage and can close it before he can come back out.

I've manage to catch him with my hands twice in the last week, but he doesn't like being held and this isn't a reliable way for me to catch him because eventually he will stop coming near me.

I'm running out of ideas, I think I might have to get some chicken wire or something and use it to fence him in/corner him and the pick him up that way. This probably won't work either because it doesn't take much movement before he takes off.

 

[aakopec1]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. I'll invest in a playpen or something this weekend that I can set up around his cage. I do hope i can eventually bring him into the bathroom to play. I built him a playpen that I place over the tub and he loves it, but it'll I'll only be able to reluctantly use it on weekends if he never lets me put him back. Maybe I'll chin proof the hall way and find a way to heard him back to the playpen and cage.

 

[Gumby and Elmo]

Can you wheel him plus his cage into the play area, if you cage have casters, I've set up the play area surrounding their cages, my chins will go back on their own when they feel tired.

 

[lindachin]

hi all i found using a pet carrier and telling my 2 play time over they go in the carrier and i dont have to chase them took a while by using there favorite treat (currents in tiny tiny bits so they still only had half each) it worked now no more chasing there happy im happy

 

[aakopec1]

I can't wheel his cage over, but I can invest in a playpen.

I'll also pick up a pet carrier and give that a try

Thanks for the tips

 

[Amphy64]

Does anyone have a chin they can catch? I'm very jealous if so!

The only way I can get Henry back is to try to put boxes to create a route back to his cage and herd him back. Needless to say this is not ideal, he'll dart out again if I'm not careful when I go to close the door, too (so I have to watch when I close it or he'd get caught in it). He doesn't fall for the dust bath trick, he doesn't fall for bribery with rolled oats or a rosehip, he can jump over four foot to zigzag over the furniture away from me, and he can hide under the furniture for hours (when we move I'm going to make sure his new playroom is pretty much entirely clear).

A playpen is probably indeed the best bet, at least for those times when you don't have much time to catch him. Good luck!

 

[aakopec1]

Thanks Amphy and you bring up a good point For as many times as I've read tips and tricks like using the dust bath and treats- I don't hear a whole lot of first hand accounts of those things working long term.

Looks like I posted this twice. Oops! I had to log in after I tried to post the first time and I thought it didn't take. I didn't realize there was a review period for new posters.

 

[fuji9991]

I sit indian style and when she leeps into my lap I kinda surround her with my arms and stand up as I scoope her underneith. Of course I don't do this everytime she is in my lap or she would catch on. You have to kinda use your whole body to catch them and you can only do it if they are in your lap or if you are croutched and they leep on your thigh.

If you get a large flease you can go underneith it and she will so desperatly want to get in there with you to explore. Once under the fleace they can be easy to catch too. A large fleece blanket is like an instant chinchilla cave and trap.

 

[Godofgods]

since my chins cages are in the play area, i used either a ramp, or used my two legs kneeling down to make a ramp, for them to get out of the cage with.

It took a little bit but i used the ramp and a treat to train them to go back in the cage with. Once they were lured up the ramp and into the cage i gave them the cheerio. After a while as soon as i placed the ramp down, they knew what it meant and usually went back in on there own.

It worked for 4/5 of my chins. The one it didn't work on was just because she is so scared of everything. She didn't want to venture over to the ladder. Half the time she wouldn't even come down in her cage to come out.

 

[Burnt Offering]

I let my two Chins out every night. They LOVE their cage and after 30-45 minutes of running around like crazy they almost always run into their cage on their own and flop down and go to sleep right away. Occasionally one will even fall asleep under the kitchen table as she simply ran out of steam before she could run back to her cage. Its hilarious. She will just be laying there flat as a pancake sleeping like a rock. In rare cases if one just is reluctant to go back in her cage I simply just walk towards her and gently start herding her towards her cage. This is like a trigger and she will run straight away into her cage. I have been lucky so far and haven't had to resort to catching them.

 

[ahitchcox]

I'm jealous of the people that have a chin that gets tired after an hour and goes back in their cage on their own to sleep. I swear, if my chin had his way he would stay out all night. He does start to get tired after a while, but instead of going back in his cage to sleep he prefers to just sit on the bed post. He can be sitting there for ten minutes, but if I try to lure him back in the cage he won't go in. Even though he gets to a point where he gets tired and just sits somewhere, he would much rather do that out of the cage than in the cage.

Last night I could not get him back in the cage, I tried everything (bribe with a cheerio, dust bath, put stuff in his cage) and he didn't come close to going in. The only time he pays any attention to a cheerio is when he's already in his cage and he now only goes halfway into his dust bath. I've tried to be patient and just sit next to the cage so I can easily close it if he goes in, but he never goes back in.

The only way I was able to get him in last night was I used the folding metal wire playpen fence I have set up to keep him from chewing a dresser to corral him so I could catch him. That did not go well at all. Once he was fenced in he kept jumping straight into the metal bars, that can't be good for him. And I'm afraid he'll get hurt when I pick him up that way, his legs could easily get caught between the bars.

I'm really running out of ideas and patience and I'm starting to think of turning him in to a rescue or trying to find an experience chin owner.

I don't know, maybe there's a problem with his cage. It's not a ferret nation cage, but it's got a bottom level, a metal ramp going up to a shelf which has another metal ramp going up to another shelf. The cage also has a wooden ledge along with two lava ledges.

 

[fuji9991]

I am fortunate enough to have the space where I set up a bedroom to be a chinchilla room. The walls are lined with untreated pine board so there is nothing she can chew on that would be harmful I have lots of carboard forts for her to explore. So she has a 4 level cage that she lives in but I never close the door. When I come in the room she is usually in the cage and comes out for playtime. When she is done she goes back in her cage and I leave and come back later for more.

If she had a chinchilla computer she would probably post, how do I get my human to leave the room when I am done playing.

 

[aakopec1]

That must be one happy chin, fuji ^_^ You have me reconsidering chin proofing the whole room he is in and blocking off the kitchen and hallway with gates.

Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble ahitchcox >< I took my Meucci out this morning- okay, he managed to get out of my lap, and I though he pulled some of the same stuff. He was clearly tuckered out but he kept resting in his choice spots until I got too close. Towards the end of an hour-his did go back in, with some reluctance. That room isn't chin proofed so I got a cardio workout making sure he stuck along the edge of the room that is safe.

 

[Burnt Offering]

ahitchcox, is there a chance you could post a picture of your cage setup? Its possible there is something we might be able to suggest to help. Maybe there is something in his cage that he just doesn't like. The reason I ask is because my chins LOVE their cage. You can tell just by their actions that they see it as a real safety net and would almost be there than anywhere. Now don't get me wrong, they live to get out and play but even during playtime they run in and out of their cage numerous times as if to make sure its still there. And when playtime is over they are more than happy to go in on their own. Rarely do I have to do anything but go over and close the door. This is a picture of one of my Chins. This is after playtime and when she got tired the length of time it took her to run back into her cage slam herself down and lights out I can say without exaggeration was no more than 5 seconds. ITs possible there is something you are just not seeing with your cage that could be causing him to not want to go back in. Just a thought.

 

[ahitchcox]

Burn Offering, two pictures of my cage are attached, please let me know if you see anything that you think might be making him not want to go back in his cage. He loves to sit on the lava ledge and also sits on the wood shelf on the top. He also spends a lot of time on the top metal shelf at night. During the day he spends most of the time on the very bottom level. We have never seen him go in the house so I am thinking of taking it out.

That is a marble slab underneath the ramp and the bottom level of the cage is metal bars that are space about 1/4" apart. Underneath the bars is unscented cat litter to try and minimize the odor from his urine (which I don't even know if it helps, his cage starts to stink after 2 or 3 days but we clean it every week).

The third picture is how I leave the cage open when he is out. I put his little carrier on the floor and he used to jump on that and then walk up the ramp. He does briefly go back in his cage within the first couple minutes of me letting him out, but he comes right back out and obviously a couple minutes a day isn't enough play time anyways.

Thanks for the help. In the mean time I am down to what might be my last method to get him back in his cage. I have a couple big flat pieces of cardboard, tonight I am going to try and trap him in a corner and pick him up that way. He will probably freak out, but at least he won't hurt himself by jumping into the cardboard.

 

[obcsed]

I have two suggestion which might make the cage more interesting to him. First and easiest to do is get a cheap fleece throw and put it on top of the cage and let it drape down the back and sides. That will help him feel more secure in the cage. Second, invest in a bunch of wood shelves. Toss those now in the cage along with the ramps. Give him lots of different levels to keep him interested.

 

[ahitchcox]

I'll try both of those ideas, thanks.