Training chinchillas: how to tame and train an animal

Nowadays there is an established opinion that it is impossible to train a chinchilla and it does not respond to it. However, they forget that she sits in their arms and many respond to her name, and this is training, only in a simpler form. In fact, a chinchilla can be trained to other “teams”, you’ll just spend a lot of time on it and it’s not a fact that a harmful chinchilla will do anything.

Some owners train chinchillas every evening, simply because they like it and it has become their hobby, instead of the Internet and TV. I’ll say right away that commands like sit, lie down, give me a paw and voice won’t work here, this is not a dog for you. Rodents are built a little differently, so they can be trained a little differently. In this article you will find information about what you can teach a chinchilla at home, training techniques and what problems the owners of these adorable animals face.

What can be taught

What is the easiest way to teach a chinchilla:

• Get used to your hands
• Teach her to sit on your shoulder
• Respond to your name
• Go to the toilet in a designated place
• Several verbal commands such as: “come to me”, “no”, “home”, etc.
• Sit on the scales

And on this list are skills that many people doubt are possible to train. But nevertheless, with enough effort, you can teach the animal:

• Gopher pose - chinchilla rises on its hind legs when asking for treats
• Kiss – you can teach the animal to kiss you when you bring it to your cheek or lips.
• Walking only on the hind legs is difficult and takes a long time to learn; rarely does anyone succeed.

Each animal has its own character

Before you begin training, you should study the character and temperament of your animal. Yes, yes, chinchillas, like people, differ from each other: among them there are fluffy choleric people, sanguine people, phlegmatic people and melancholic people.

Sanguine people are the most amenable to training: they quickly develop positive (“Come to me!”) and negative (“You can’t!”) reflexes. Choleric people perceive positive signals well and react poorly to negative ones. Phlegmatic people learn longer than others, but their skills are better reinforced. The most difficult thing to work with is a melancholic chinchilla.

When training, you should also take into account the natural characteristics of furry animals. They are by no means predators (like cats and dogs). Therefore, mechanical influence is perceived worse than rewards (scratching, treats, compliments).

Rules for training chinchillas

Before you train a chinchilla, you need to make sure that it is ready for this. Otherwise, you will only cause pain and suffering to this fragile animal.

To start training a chinchilla at home you need:

• Provide her with normal living conditions.
• Regular feed, hay and water.
• Quiet and peaceful room. Especially during training, so that there is no running or screaming.
• The temperature in the room must be correct so that it is not too hot or cold. If the temperature deviates, chinchillas may be depressed
• Your mental and physical condition must be normal, otherwise you may also suffer from this. When the animal is depressed or depressed, it may bite you and release a stream of urine in your direction.
• During training, be sure to reinforce any successes with treats. Give treats only in small pieces so as not to overfeed.
• You need to train in a separate cage if you have 2 or more chinchillas. When a chinchilla is alone, she becomes bored and is more willing to make contact with a person. And in the cage, during training, her neighbors will constantly disturb her, and during the mating season, the male may even bite you)

Treats for encouragement

To quickly assimilate commands, every correct action of the animal must be reinforced with a treat. During training, the most effective will be the use of chinchillas’ favorite treats:

• dried fruits;
• nuts:
• sunflower seeds;
• berries;
• dried fruits and vegetables.

In this case, the delicacies should be cut into small pieces - each one for one clove. This is necessary so that the chinchilla is not too distracted by snacks during classes.

Under no circumstances should you give your chinchilla sugar, chocolate, candy, salted seeds or crackers as a reward. Such treats will subsequently cause irreparable harm to the health of the animal.

How to train a chinchilla to sleep at night

Many owners are bothered by the noise that chinchillas make at night when everyone wants to sleep. Therefore, they are trying to retrain or at least reduce their activity in different ways. Some solve the problem in a different way and make a display case with silent toys, but this requires a huge investment of time or you will have to buy a ready-made one, which costs a lot of money.

If it is not possible to put up a good display case, then you have to teach chinchillas to sleep at night. This does not require special skills; anyone can train their chinchilla on their own.

A few tips that will partially or completely solve your problems:

• THE BEST WAY! Intense walks and games before bed. Chinchillas are very active animals, so they need somewhere to splash out their energy. If you train them in the evening, put them in a bathing area, let them walk around the house and play with them, then believe me, the noise will be much less. With long-term training, they can get used to evening activity and begin to sleep at night.
• Feed them earlier than usual. For example, not at 6-7 o’clock in the evening, but during the day at 2-3 o’clock. This method is not suitable for everyone, because many are at work until late.
• In winter, when it gets dark early, turn off the lights in the room where they are and she will go to bed at about the same time as you.

The intelligence of a furry animal

Most chinchilla owners admit that they are quite smart animals with developed intelligence. However, in terms of their mental abilities, they are significantly inferior to dogs and very slightly to cats. Moreover, chinchillas are smarter than rabbits and rats. They have well-developed hearing and sense of smell.

Before you begin training, you should observe the rodent, examine its character and temperament. These furry animals, like people, differ from each other: among them there are choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic.

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Sanguine people are the most amenable to training - they quickly develop positive and negative reflexes. Cholerics appreciate positive signals and react poorly to negative ones. Phlegmatic people learn longer than others, but their skills are better reinforced. The most difficult thing to work with is a melancholic chinchilla.

How to tame the scales

A very useful skill for owners who constantly monitor their chinchilla’s weight. In general, it is very important to monitor a chinchilla’s weight, because losing weight or quickly gaining excess weight is a symptom of serious illnesses. It is also important to monitor the female's weight during pregnancy to make sure everything is going well.

To ensure that the weighing process does not take much time and is accurate, it is necessary to train the chinchilla to sit calmly on the scales.

• Place the animal on the scales and say the command “Scales”
• Give him a treat right away
• Repeat the "Libra" command while she eats.
• If the animal immediately runs away after eating the treat, try again.

If a chinchilla is already accustomed to being held by hands, then it usually takes 1-2 weeks to get used to weighing, which is considered a very short period of time. In a toga, you will get an obedient animal that will be easy to weigh even without treats and you will spend very little time on this procedure.

Observe the following rules:

• Give the animal a few days to get used to the new place and feel safe,
• Talk to her, let her get used to your voice. The chinchilla's intelligence is capable of recognizing human speech of different timbres and tones,
• You can tell that a chinchilla has become comfortable by its behavior: it no longer huddles in corners, confidently moves around the cage, is interested in external sounds,
• Now you can extend your palm with a piece of treat to the rodent. Calmly, without unnecessary movements, so as not to scare. The baby can shy away fearfully, but natural curiosity will win, after a few attempts, it will come up and sniff the treat.
• The next step is to try touching it under the chin with light, smooth movements. Do not be upset if at first she runs away; after a certain amount of time, the rodent will cease to be afraid and begin to identify the owner with the affection he received.
• If the previous stages have been successfully completed, you can take the animal in your arms, distracting its attention with a treat. This is a rather active and restless animal; you should not expect it to spend a lot of time in your arms.

Problems that arise during training

Some chinchillas are practically impossible to train, as a result of which the owners have problems that they think cannot be solved. First of all, you need to know that each chinchilla is unique and has its own character, which, by and large, was formed in the first years of life. Therefore, it is necessary to study what problems may arise during training and what they are associated with in order to avoid them in subsequent training with the animal.

The worst ones to train are chinchillas that have lived with other owners or spent a long time on a farm or in a pet store. You won't know what conditions they lived in, but most likely they experienced a lot of stress and the longer they were there, the more this life affected them. Some people come across individuals who, for many months, are very afraid of everything and run away from every touch. Such animals are very difficult to tame, but if you spend a lot of time, everything will work out. In general, the animal is friendly, so they quickly get used to people. Chinchillas began to be housetrained only 50 years ago, so they still have a lot of “wild genes”, and we have few instructions on how to do it correctly.

Signs that an animal is depressed:

• Constantly hides and gets scared of you when you approach the cage
• Makes unpleasant noises, especially when you stick your hand into the cage
• During sleep, he may jump up at your approach and take a defensive position.
• When you try to pick it up, it bites and pees in your direction.

You don’t need to get rid of such a chinchilla right away, you just need your own approach to it and a little more time for training. Provide them with good living conditions, a quiet room, and you will notice that after 2-3 weeks the animal will become much calmer.

If your chinchilla is too aggressive, you should contact your veterinarian. He will prescribe you medicines or a list of herbs that will calm her wild temper. Until the chinchilla becomes more or less adequate, keep it away from small children, otherwise they may get bitten.

At what age can you train

Training a chinchilla, like any other animal, should begin as early as possible. It is important not to waste time. Because the older the animal becomes, the longer it will take to train it. The optimal age to start classes is 3–4 months. Up to two months, babies should be close to their mother.

At this time, she is engaged in their training and transfer of skills. They can be separated when the cub is 2.5–2.6 months old . After adaptation to the new conditions, you can try to tame the baby for two to three weeks. You should start from simple commands to complex ones.

Important! You can achieve success in training a chinchilla only with care, patience, affection, attention and the use of various methods of encouragement. During this process, resorting to coercion, aggression and punishment is strictly prohibited.

How to avoid problems during training:

• If your chinchilla swears, pees and runs away from you, then first you need to tame it. There is no need to start with other training until she can sit comfortably in your arms.
• If your chinchilla doesn't respond well, give him more treats. In order not to overfeed the animal, divide the usual portion into 2 or 3. The animal will think that you are giving it a lot of treats, but in fact you gave it the usual portion.
• Do not touch it or take it in your hand unless it comes to you. Until she sits in your arms, you shouldn’t train her or teach her other skills. If you pick it up against her will, then you will cause serious harm to her psyche and she will become even more afraid of you.
• I repeat once again, provide her with normal living conditions, and most importantly, peace and quiet!
• When training a chinchilla, do everything very, very smoothly; sudden movements greatly frighten the animals.
• Talk to the animal in a quiet and gentle voice. The animal may not understand your words, but they will definitely recognize an evil and kind tone.

Useful tips

Beginners and inexperienced chinchilla breeders make many common mistakes during the training process, and therefore often give up. But you just need to follow some rules for working with animals.

What should not be allowed when working with a chinchilla:

• violence (no need to demand something from an animal against its will, this will not bring results);
• punishment (it is useless to punish and scold);
• lack of praise (don’t be afraid to praise!);
• impatience (it is important to be persistent when practicing skills);
• inattention (be sure to study the characteristics of your animal).

The relationship between a chinchilla and a person is built solely on trust. The animal gets used to its owner and is confident in his care, affection, and kindness. Conversely, an insecure, fearful pet is a bad student. Most likely, at your command he will only hide in the corner of the cage. Therefore, if you notice that your chinchilla does not like your lessons, simply return him “home”, postponing training until a better time.

You should not punish or scold the animal. But you should praise more often, even for the simplest actions. In general, the more you communicate with your pet in a friendly tone, the more willingly he will perceive your words. And of course, be calm, patient, persistent: remember that even the smartest animal will not learn a command two or three times. Work with your fluffy in your free time and rejoice at his slightest achievements!

Basic commands.

The most common command is “come to me.” To learn this action, lure the rodent with a treat, repeating its name. It’s good if your pet’s name contains whistling and hissing vowels, the intelligence of chinchillas reacts positively to such sounds, distinguishing them from others. When the animal approaches, praise it and let it eat a treat, speak in a gentle, calm voice, without raising your tone.

The command “home” and “walk”. To do this, you need to open the cage door, and after the animal leaves the house, bring it back, treating it with a treat. This will help the animal to fix the connection between the action it performed and the receipt of the treat.

The “no” command is one of the most important for young and restless pets. Used when trying to bite a hand or chew furniture. When the rodent begins to bite, it must be gently clicked on the nose, very gently and practically painlessly, so as not to frighten it. Here again the cause-and-effect relationship is triggered and the individual weanes itself off the bad habit. Remember that this connection only lasts a few seconds, so the click and the command must follow each other in the shortest amount of time. During training, you should not raise your voice at the animal, coerce it or force it; if it expresses dissatisfaction and fear, it is better to stop trying and continue training the next day. If there are any signs of distress, allow your pet to return to the house. Pay attention every day, gradually accustoming yourself to regular exercise. Don't skimp on the treats.