Prevent biting

[Hekuchan]

Hi All!

I hope everyone is having a good day. We have a temperamental female chinchilla that my fiance and I have had since she was young. We rescued her from a family that had picked her up from a pet store back when she was around 1 1/2. She is now 7 1/2 years old. We love her so much but recently she has been biting my fiance pretty hard. He has always taken extremely good care of her. She has her own room and we will sit on the ground with her so she can run and play. She usually gets cranky by the end of playtime. We can tell because she will run fast towards him kind of like lunging. She usually nips his arm or leg. She has never drawn blood but I can tell she is trying to keep him in line. We understand that chinchillas sometimes nibble to show affection but we can tell that this is happening out of anger. She has always been kind of a brat who lashes out when she doesnt get her way. Is there anything we can do to show her biting is not right? We always say "no" but I highly doubt that will be effective.

Thank you so much!!

 

[Cass C]

I wouldn't consider it keeping him in line as much as telling him that she wants to go back in her cage now. There really isn't a way to prevent biting, however you can keep your bare skin away from her, perhaps lure her into a carrier to put her in and out of the cage. My male chinchilla bites when he really wants out or to go back into his cage during playtime so I use a carrier to transport him and he has started going in the carrier when he is done.

 

[Hekuchan]

She can easily get into and out of her cage whenever she wants but I see your point... trying to condition her to show us that she wants in. Sometimes she is like a little kid who doesn't know what she wants. Maybe she doesn't realize she needs to go back in and takes it out on him. Thank you for your advice

 

[Woodsmoke]

My guys have a set of wooden children's steps that so they literally walk up the into the cage when they are fed up... don't know if that would help? Otherwise yarp cover up I guess

 

[LGarl]

Could is be low blood sugar after exercise? I know it can make people very cranky and snappish. Maybe time her when she's out to see what her exercise threshold is and then you can plan to put her back in her cage just before that time is up.

 

[Chinups]

Hi! This thread is a month old, so maybe my suggestion might be too late:
If you approach this with a training mindset, the logical step to take to "untrain" your chin is to shape the new behavior you want. In this case, you should try cutting playtime short before she gets cranky and bites. Otherwise, the negative reinforcement is giving her what she wants. So, I suggest, just stop playtime a little sooner and put her away with praise (because she didn't bite). Keep doing this and she'll learn that biting is not necessary at all.
I've tried a similar teaching approach with my chins (for other behaviors) and it works. It also works on other animals and people too!