My poor chinchilla Watson, 7 months old and had him for just over a month, has recently got extremely frightened and I'm worried sick about him. Sorry for the long post, I just feel awful and it helps I guess.
We've got our two new chins into a good routine, they have a set dinner time, play time, a little treat, and another little run out of the cage before we go to bed.
Watson is a very happy and affectionate chinchilla, he has always been the more timid, submissive, and skittish of the two, but has been progressing well with getting used to people, getting better at being handled (to be taken for play time) and even began coming out of the cage by himself to explore a little.
Unfortunately, he recently had a big shock and he hasn't been the same since.We got him out for a little run, and took him to the living room as usual. We have a big couch, and he likes running up and down it and climbing over us, we've done it 5-6 times before.
However, quite out of character (we hadn't made a sudden move or loud noises), he jumped down onto the floor (he's usually too scared to jump down), and then immediately darted underneath the couch. He instantly started squeaking and seemed extremely frightened. He completely avoided us, so we gave him some space and tried to let him come out on his own before chasing him. He is already cautious by nature, but even being on the floor seemed to agitate him even more, we even watched from a distance and lay down flat on the floor so not to seem a threat and calm him down.
He just got more and more frightened, there wasn't any noise or chasing, but he kept cowering and squeaking. We decided to get him out, as he was panicking and extending didn't seem fair - leaving him alone for a while hadn't helped and he refused to leave the underneath of the couch.
We reached in to coral him out of the side, took a couple of tries but we managed to get him. My girlfriend didn't push him hard, but he'd run away from her hand and then stop before he came completely out - then he seemed more frightened of coming out and refused to budge when she gently pushed him.
Needless to say we were mortified, and worst of all he felt limp in my hands and was trembling. I offered him an oat which he took, reassured him and took him straight back to his cage. But now he's completely terrified of me.
He switches from frozen in what i can only assume is fear, to freaking out and darting all over the cage if he think we're getting close to him. I put their food bowl in and he instantly backed up as much as he could, even though I wasn't going near him.
He periodically breaks out into whimpering, and refuses any and all food. He usually goes crazy for little bits of raisin, or these little seeds we get them - he likes to stand on his lava ledge, stand up for a belly scratch and then get a little treat. But now all he does is sit in the corner of the cage. I'm really upset, I can't bear the thought of him being so frightened all the time now, he can't seem to relax. They have 2 hutches in their cage, they would be much better to hide in, but they've always never bothered and always slept on a ledge together (even though both hutches are big enough for both of them).
Any and all help or advice would be truly appreciated. I don't want to try too hard and scare him even more, so unless advised otherwise, I am going to leave him alone for the next few days to a week, and let him start coming to me again.
Before giving up trying for the moment, I was softly speaking to him from afar, apologizing and slowly extending my arm so he could see it approaching with a treat for him. I am willing to give him all the time he needs to feel better again, but any help on beginning to rebuild our bond and trust would be appreciated. We were doing so well, we hadn't had them long but it was going well, it's heartbreaking to think an incident like this can cause such trauma for our boys.
We've got our two new chins into a good routine, they have a set dinner time, play time, a little treat, and another little run out of the cage before we go to bed.
Watson is a very happy and affectionate chinchilla, he has always been the more timid, submissive, and skittish of the two, but has been progressing well with getting used to people, getting better at being handled (to be taken for play time) and even began coming out of the cage by himself to explore a little.
Unfortunately, he recently had a big shock and he hasn't been the same since.We got him out for a little run, and took him to the living room as usual. We have a big couch, and he likes running up and down it and climbing over us, we've done it 5-6 times before.
However, quite out of character (we hadn't made a sudden move or loud noises), he jumped down onto the floor (he's usually too scared to jump down), and then immediately darted underneath the couch. He instantly started squeaking and seemed extremely frightened. He completely avoided us, so we gave him some space and tried to let him come out on his own before chasing him. He is already cautious by nature, but even being on the floor seemed to agitate him even more, we even watched from a distance and lay down flat on the floor so not to seem a threat and calm him down.
He just got more and more frightened, there wasn't any noise or chasing, but he kept cowering and squeaking. We decided to get him out, as he was panicking and extending didn't seem fair - leaving him alone for a while hadn't helped and he refused to leave the underneath of the couch.
We reached in to coral him out of the side, took a couple of tries but we managed to get him. My girlfriend didn't push him hard, but he'd run away from her hand and then stop before he came completely out - then he seemed more frightened of coming out and refused to budge when she gently pushed him.
Needless to say we were mortified, and worst of all he felt limp in my hands and was trembling. I offered him an oat which he took, reassured him and took him straight back to his cage. But now he's completely terrified of me.
He switches from frozen in what i can only assume is fear, to freaking out and darting all over the cage if he think we're getting close to him. I put their food bowl in and he instantly backed up as much as he could, even though I wasn't going near him.
He periodically breaks out into whimpering, and refuses any and all food. He usually goes crazy for little bits of raisin, or these little seeds we get them - he likes to stand on his lava ledge, stand up for a belly scratch and then get a little treat. But now all he does is sit in the corner of the cage. I'm really upset, I can't bear the thought of him being so frightened all the time now, he can't seem to relax. They have 2 hutches in their cage, they would be much better to hide in, but they've always never bothered and always slept on a ledge together (even though both hutches are big enough for both of them).
Any and all help or advice would be truly appreciated. I don't want to try too hard and scare him even more, so unless advised otherwise, I am going to leave him alone for the next few days to a week, and let him start coming to me again.
Before giving up trying for the moment, I was softly speaking to him from afar, apologizing and slowly extending my arm so he could see it approaching with a treat for him. I am willing to give him all the time he needs to feel better again, but any help on beginning to rebuild our bond and trust would be appreciated. We were doing so well, we hadn't had them long but it was going well, it's heartbreaking to think an incident like this can cause such trauma for our boys.
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