by Siobhan Shier

Created on: February 03, 2009

There are two basic things you need to remember when socializing your chinchilla: food good, loud noises bad.

Chinchillas are a fluffy, ultra soft rodent which almost went extinct in the 19th century because of fur coats. They make excellent pets for people who want a quiet, hypo allergenic animal who still likes to have attention paid to it. With the right type of handling, Chinchillas can be wonderful and affectionate pets. They are nota recommended pet for families with small, loud, grabby children.

Gaining a Chinchillas trust takes patience and perseverence. If everytime you come over to the cage you just grab them they are not going to want to be around you and will become difficult to train. Kindess, slow movements, and food are the key to convincing them that you are not going to eat them or kill them to make a hat.

First step:

Food. Wait until your Chinchilla has finished off its food and is starting to get hungry. Instead of immediately filling the food bowl back up, put some of its food on a spoon, stick your hand or elbow in the cage, and have the spoonful of food sticking off to the side so that the Chinchilla has to get closed to you to get a bite. Make a kissing sound, or someother recognizable, repeatable sound that isn't harsh or loud. Don't give them the food until they come and get it. Repeat until the Chinchilla has no hesitation running up and getting close to your arm to be fed.

Second step:

Move the spoon on to your arm so that your Chinchilla has to put its food and some of its weight on to your arm to get to the food. Repeat until it becomes comfortable, remember to make your kissing sound, then move the food a little farther so it has to put more of its weight onto your arm. Repeat, repeat, repeat. If your arm is skinny you might want to fold your arm and use your elbow instead so that the Chinchilla has a firm, wide base to stand on and feels comfortable.

Goal:

The goal is to eventually have your Chinchilla run out of its cage and on to your shoulder before it gets fed every time. If you remember to make a repeatable, non abrasive sound, eventually you'll train the Chinchilla to run up on to your shoulder every time you make the sound, whether there is food or not. This will allow you to get the Chinchilla out of the cage without having to reach in there and grab it.

After that the rest of the training involves food and loud noises. Say you want to train it to run on the couch and not jump off. Let it go on the couch, put little bits of raisins at different points so that it feels comfortable, and hover. The second it jumps off the couch make loud noises, yell, clap your hands, and chase it back on to the couch. Stop the noises the second it gets back up. This process is easier if there isn't a coffee table or anything that it can hide underneith instead. Also having some pillows or a plastic tube from its cage that it can hide in on the couch will help.

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