Taming The Wild Beast

Well, not so much a wild beast as a new chinchilla living in a new and unfamiliar environment.

When first getting your new chin home, there may be a period of adjustment that will be necessary for your new friend to settle in to his new home.  Even though chinchillas can be quite friendly before leaving their former homes, they may not be as friendly when they arrive in their new environment, but do not despair, your new friend may just needs some help to adjust to you and his or her new home.

The first thing that has to be considered when you are planning to get a new chin, is the cage.   People are always asking how big should a chin cage be.  Well it has been our experience over the last 9 years, as well as the experience of LAM Chins , that chins should start off in a small cage when they first arrive at their new homes.  Generally 18"x24" is a good size cage to use to help your chin adjust.  One other consideration with using a small cage at first is, a lot of chin breeders, us included, give a warranty period with their chins, which covers you, the buyer, incase a chin should be found to be defective.  I find it is best to keep the chin in a smaller cage for observation for any signs of illness or defects, so that the chin breeder can be contacted right away.  Sometimes putting a new chin in with other chins will make it hard to make a judgment whether the chin was defective before it was shipped or was injured in some way by the other chins in the cage.

The new chins cage should be setup very simply at first.  Don't run right out and buy lots of toys or a wheel.  These things can just prolong the adjustment period for you and your new chin.  All the new chin needs is a feed bowl, a water bottle, and a place for hay or cubes.

Now that the cage and it's contents have been established, it is time to introduce your new chin to his or her new home.  Place your new chin in his or her home and watch to be sure that the chin knows where everything is and has no problems moving around the cage.  If all seems to be going good for your new chin now that he or she is in it's cage, then give it some time and leave it alone for a bit.  chins like to explore their new surroundings but may not be comfortable doing this with someone watching.  

Now that your chin is familiar with it's new home, the next step to adjustment is to just have a normal routine with your chin everyday.  Feed, water, and hay your chin and talk to your chin while doing this, but do not force your chin to come out.  If your chin comes to you, try to scratch him or her under the chin or behind the ears.  Don't be overly concerned about noise around your chin.  By this I don't mean blast the radio at it's cage, but just do your normal routine that you would normally do.  If you vacuum, then run the vacuum.  Chins adjust to new sounds really well and it is best to start with new sounds, right off.  Chins that are never introduced to normal household sounds, tend to be more nervous.  

So, now you have your new chin and you have established a routine.  You ask, "How long should I keep my new chin in this small cage??"  The answer depends on how you think your new chin is adjusting.  If after 2 weeks your new chins seems to be interested in coming to you and lets you scratch or pet him or her, then it may be time to consider a bigger cage.  A bigger cage is not a necessity, but some people prefer a bigger cage for their chins.   If your chin will not come to you or  does not want to be touched, then consider keeping him or her in the small cage for up to 2 more weeks.  Most chins start to become friendly after 2 weeks.  Usually all the cin needs to know is that you are here to take care of it and that it can trust you, then it will come to you.

This page was not designed to discourage prospective new chin owners from buying chins, but to help them understand some of the steps that can be involved in having a friendly chin.  The chins that we ship from here have all been tamed with the above methods and 90% of them are just as tame when shipped to their new homes so these methods will not have to be employed, but not all chins are friendly when they arrive and the above methods prove to work quite well in most cases.

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Shawn