What to Know About the Behavior of my Chinchillas?

Curiosity: In spite of their big dose of prudence, the chinchillas are very curious and always look forward to exploring each novelty with their nose!

Defense: When a chinchilla feels cornered, it produces a sound and protects itself by urinating: up on its back legs, it points the jet at the supposed enemy. Don’t forget this if you wish to hold a frightened animal: you may be surprised! Choosing the escape over the fight, the chinchillas only bite when they have no other solutions and that the other defensive measures remained null and void.

Manual works: Their small forelegs, almost identical to human hands, are well-used “tools”. When a chinchilla sits up and holds a candy in its “hands”, it gets particularly touching :)

Comfort: The chinchillas love to snuggle up to the others and often get together in the same cavity.

Hyper: While waiting for a candy or the daily walk, the chinchilla sometimes does a little dance to express its joy.

Body care: It’s not used for hygiene only; mutual cleaning builds connections between the chinchillas.

Dark room: Nocturnal animals, the chinchillas like to hide into dark places during the day. A cage with no separate rooms is stressor: build them enough hiding places!

With other animals

It’s pretty inadvisable to breed chinchillas with other rodents. Their lifestyle, needs and food are too different and no other animal can get their share. Shared walks are also banned.

•  Prevent your cats from coming close to their habitat and being around them during the daily walk.
•  Birds and chinchillas can’t live in the same room. Parakeets and parrots are so noisy that the rodents can’t get to sleep. On their side, the birds are sometimes frightened by night noises coming from the cage.