Hello, recently I became the proud owner of my own beautiful chinchilla however she seems to dislike me very much

I have followed all the advice on the different forums. Leaving her to settle for a few days, placing my hand in the cage and moving at her pace. The trouble comes when it's play time!

Again following the advice online I used the hall where it's nice and small to get her used to me. However all my little fuzzbullet wants to do is get away from me. It's impossible to hold her as she simply wriggles free, she is quite content on climbing up and around me it's only to find a way to bolt past me up the stairs! When this fails she sits in the corner of the door making a crying noise

Am I simply not letting enough time for the bonding to take place or is there an underlying problem? Could the pet store where I purchased her have miss treated her at all? She was 12 weeks old when purchase? Is that to soon to be taken away from it's family? This is my first chinchilla and allthough swatting up on everything online nothing I seem to do is working

Any advice would be amazing!!! Thank you

Chinchilla's are very very sociable so if she hasn't got a cage mate she's probably depressed and therefore in a bad mood. The pet shop shouldn't have sold her to you alone. You should look into introductions.
As for picking her up, you may well never be able to do this as chinchilla's do not like being picked up and always wiggle. To get her to like you I would stop picking her up unless it's absolutely neccessary. This is not to say that just because you cannot sit with them having a long cuddle that they are not lovely pets who you can bond with. Mine will jump all over me, come to their names, nuzzle their nose against me, jump up at the cage when I walk in the room and are full of character. But bonding with them can take a long time and they are certainly pets that go by the rule of the more you put in the more you get out.

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Chinchillas wont just sit on your lap and be happy with you holding them, i agree that they wriggle and just wont stay still. I usually get a little scritch on their head when they are sleepy

Think of the stress of moving home and how scary it must be for a little chinchilla, when i had Lola who had been badly mistreated i let her run in my living room and let her get used to me. She will gladly climb all over me and sit on my head but holding her she will only just tolerate still three years on.

With my chinchillas i will often just sit but the cage and talk nonsense to them and again just let them have a playtime in a safe place where i will sit with them and talk to them. When they go in their cage after playtime i will give them a treat (rosehip or goji berry or oat) and that is usually a good time to just bond a little and i give a head scritch.

I also wonder if the "crying noise" could be a communicating noise and not so much as being upset. When i got Dotty they took to each other quite well so i would recommend getting a friend too, i kept them split up for a while and they both actually started getting depressed being in separate cages !! It takes time for chinchillas to get used to you but be calm and take your time

Also be wary of everything you read about chinchillas on websites and books as a lot of the time it can be wrong !! The best thing i did was join a forum and ask questions about everything you do, i use this one and also another one as my main forums

she needs a friend, chinchillas are increadably social creatures, shes probably scared, confused, stressed and very very lonely

chinchillas are very active creatures, and most of them only enjoy attention on their terms, they are not cuddly pets, and are very demanding.

the best advice i could give you at the moment is to get her a friend, i would suggest you adopt one of the thousands of chinchillas in rescue though, rather then buy another from a pet store

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