Not so keen on playtime

I wondered if anyone had any experience with chins that weren’t so interested in playtime outside their cage? Our chins are about 7 months old. We have tried playtime once (a bit after they turned 6 months old), but it was rather traumatic for all involved: each chin went into one of the wooden huts, so we transported them into the cardboard playpen in the kitchen (they normally live in the living room). They had spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen before as it was cooler during the summer — so the room was not entirely unfamiliar to them. We had familiar (and new) toys and chews set up on the tiled floor. Clodius, who is generally more adventurous anyway, took ages to emerge from a tunnel he took shelter in, and Milo, who normally lets his ballsy little brother do everything first, took even longer to come out of his house. They spent most of the time frozen. They eventually warmed up *a little* to the experience, but it ended with one of them barking, which I took to mean they wanted to go back home, and getting them back into their boxes to transport them was also quite tricky. I just feel like neither of them enjoyed it much. We certainly didn't. Felt really bad that we made them that uncomfortable. :cry3:

I want to try again, but I’m wondering how long to leave it before we give it another go. They were super tired the day after and seemed generally a little out of sorts (I didn’t blame them). So we left them to their own devices to let them get over the experience. They seem perfectly happy to romp around in their cage, but everyone else seems to have such successful playtimes and I really do want to give them the opportunity for more exercise since they don’t have a wheel.

I’m wondering if others have rocky starts too and this is fairly normal, or are my chins just *massive* home-bodies?! Did your chins take quickly to outside cage time, or (like most things) does it just depend on the chin? The breeder we got them from doesn’t let his chins out at all, and they don’t have wheels. They all seemed super social and it’s clear he interacts with them a lot. But our boys are unfamiliar with this process and have never seen it done. Will they learn to enjoy it…? And are there things we can do to make it easier on them?