But the early days can be challenging.
When you first bring your chinchilla home, it will probably be timid, scared, and not want to interact with you.
You’ll need to get it used to you and its new surroundings.
That can take time.
It can also be quite a frustrating process, if you don’t know what you are doing.
So keep reading, and learn how to tame a chinchilla the right way. Without causing it more stress, which will only make everything take much longer.
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How To Tame A Chinchilla
To tame a chinchilla, you need to begin with calm and controlled interactions. Don’t over-handle your chinchilla in the initial days.
It is also important to provide a warm, loving, and clean environment for your new chinchilla. That makes it much easier for it to adapt and begin to feel comfortable.
Taming a chinchilla is very similar to the process you need to follow to get your chinchilla to trust you and begin enjoying being handled and held. Read that post first.
My post about chinchillas recognizing their owners can help as well.
I also want to state clearly that chinchillas are not hard to take care of, and taming them isn’t as intimidating of a process as you may believe.
Chinchillas can undoubtedly be tamed. But it is going to take effort, patience, and you providing the best care possible.
Let’s take a look at how tame and calm chinchillas generally are during the days of the initial adoption and what you can expect during your first days home with your new family pet.
How Tame Are Chinchillas Generally?
Chinchillas are tame in their natural habitat. But they are also skittish and shy. And the same is true when you bring them home.
They aren’t overly crazy in the beginning, but they are scared and timid in the initial days home.
This is hard to avoid no matter how social of a chinchilla you have adopted, and no matter how reliable and reputable your chinchilla breeder may be.
The reason is simple.
When you bring a chinchilla home, it is going through a big change in environments. This by itself can cause additional stress.
Your chinchilla will need to adapt to its new living conditions before it fully warms up to you and acts in a calm manner when you attempt to get it out of the cage for playtime.
I went through this struggle and I actually had a very social chinchilla at adoption. It was already accustomed to being around other chinchillas, kids, and the owners.
It’s just how it goes when a chinchilla completely changes homes and environments.
In the beginning, just expect this to be the case for at least a few days, and up to a few weeks.
Sometimes even longer.
Now, let’s move into some of the important tips, tricks, and advice that you can begin implementing to get your chinchilla to become tamer and calmer.
First, follow the advice we just discussed.
Make sure that your chinchilla has had time to adjust, before you attempt to do much of anything in the form of taming and calming.
Keep building the bond and talking to your chinchilla in the early phases even, if it’s only through the cage bars for the first weeks. This allows your chinchilla to get used to your smell and voice.
Don’t Over Handle Or Hold For Long Periods
Another tip towards taming and calming your chinchilla is to ensure that you don’t get too crazy with handling and holding your chinchilla in the beginning.
Let your chinchilla come to you instead of forcing the interaction.
After time as passed, you can begin extending these cuddle sessions. But in general, you want to keep it light and keep it quick, to get your chinchilla to become more comfortable with you and ultimately become more tame and calm.
Begin Holding Your Chinchilla
Next on the list of taming and calming tips is to begin attempting to hold your chinchilla. But only if you feel you have put in the time to make it comfortable around you. And you have read up on how to hold a chinchilla.
You can do this by holding your hand out and allowing your chinchilla to come to you.
Don’t force this to happen, if your chinchilla doesn’t seem quite ready for this interaction. It may simply take more time and rushing it will only damage the relationship.
You also want to ensure that during this period of taming and calming that holding sessions remain limited in time.
Don’t push the duration of the interaction. This will help to keep your chinchilla comfortable and relaxed.
Trust me, stressing a chinchilla in the initial days is bound to do more harm than good.
How Long Does It Take To Tame A Chinchilla?
This question is tough to answer. In general, a chinchilla can take anywhere from a few days up to several months to become tame, calm, and comfortable being handled by you and other family members. These tips on how to make your chinchilla like you can help speed up the process a bit.
Does Calming Chinchilla Music Help?
If you weren’t aware, chinchillas do great with music. Depending on the music you choose, it can serve as a tremendous calming mechanism for your chinchilla.
Other chinchilla owners have even stated that certain music can help their chinchillas get up and active and moving around.
Overall, I’m a fan of music from time to time and think that it can undoubtedly help the taming and calming process.
Try something such as calm classical music to help your chinchilla relax. Obviously death metal might not have the desired effect….
Taming A Chinchilla: Final Thoughts
To summarize, calming and taming a chinchilla doesn’t require much, apart from time, patience, and some loving care provided by you as the owner.
Eventually, following the tips laid out in this post will effectively calm and tame your chinchilla and have it happy to be handled and bond with you.
Chili and I wish you the best of luck with your journey with your new chinchilla.
Share your thoughts.
What steps did you take to effectively tame and calm your chinchilla?
What other recommendations can you provide the readers?
Be sure to share those stories, comments, and concerns by dropping a comment below.
As always, Chili and I appreciate you stopping by and reading today. Thanks again, and we will see you next time.
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