Naughty Chin Stories!
Has your chinchilla ever done anything really naughty? Or should I say, do you have a normal, healthy chinchilla? Then some of these may sound familiar to you! These were posted on Alt.chinchilla or chinmail, and the owners have graciously allowed me to tell the world just how naughty their little chinnies are!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have a nice little basket of butterfly hair clips sitting by me because I'm doing my hair. "Furbles, don't chew on that, I need it." Of course, the basket is now Furbles' prime target and he just can't stay away from it. It's 2am so I finally decide I have to put Furbles in his cage and go to sleep because I'm going to have to get up early the next morning. So I reach my hand under the dresser to lift him out. Fat chance! Now I *know* he fits through easily, because he does it all the time by himself. But as soon as he gets up near the top, and his head pops through, he starts howling: "Ouch! Ouch! It hurts! Stop! You're hurting me! Owwwwwwwwwww!!!" So of course I stop right away. He instantly jumps through the hole, over my hand, and back down the other side. I heard him laughing at me from inside!!! What a bum! So the next time I was not so merciful and with much poking, prodding, and complaining, I had him in my hands and then in the cage. He was SO mad that he smacked his newest toy--a long strip of bright orange poster board that I'd woven through the bars--until it fell out of the cage. It was cute, he looked like a little boxer, smacking it with his 2 front paws!

After it fell out I picked it up and started playing with it. Well, of course that changed everything. He quickly decided that there was no way he could possibly live without it (completely forgetting the half of the strip that he'd chewed off and was on the bottom of his cage the night before...as if that would be a replacement for the one I was playing with anyways). So he started trying to squeeze out the cage bars and jumping around and having a temper tantrum. I put the end of the poster board strip in his cage and he grabbed it with his hands and teeth to pull it in. We had this adorable tug of war, with him grunting like a little pig and me laughing at him, and finally I let him have it when I was sure he wasn't going to fall over backwards if I let go. He quickly threw it behind him on the shelf and sat on it! Then he looked at me smugly as if to say "Heh, thought you could keep my toy away from me didja?"

One of my stories! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Furbles was elated. He could finally get ahold of Hawley's chins with this little computer he'd found! He sat down and got ready to type when suddenly he realized there were no wires! He tried to fix it by chewing one of my speakers off from the other and dragging that wire over, but it still didn't work. The computer was just a stress squeeze toy of his mommy's!!! Furbles was so mad, he chewed the little computer all around the edges and ripped pieces of plastic coating off the copper wire. Then he realized that his mommy wasn't going to be impressed with him for ruining her brand-new speakers and ran to hide under the chest of drawers.

I've gotta stop falling asleep while Furbles is playing.

Another of mine. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm sick, I need sleep... but do I get it? noooo

Because at 3am I hear BANG - and I rummage for the lamp switch and what do I see when i turn it on? One chinchilla, smooshed into the corner, staring me right in the eyes (his cage is very close to the head of my bed)... so I go over to see whats wrong. Whats wrong? Nothing!! absolutely nothing... he wanted a rub under the chin, some scratching on his back, and then he left and went back to sleep!

4:30am... BANG (this bang is the sound of him tearing down two levels without stepping on the mid-way level and just hitting the wall at the bottom... he never stops though) - What do i see? Why its Fry, in the corner, looking at me. What now? He wants a raisin... you can tell when he's begging for a raisin compared to him begging for anything else.

6:20am - BANG - I don't even turn on the light this time... and then: BANG BANG BANG BANG.. that would be the sound of him pulling the cage door back just a little bit and letting it snap back... repeatedly. Ok, ok... so I'm a sucker, I get up, and walk over... what does he want? to play hide-and-go-seek... I go over, he hides. I walk away, he pops out and comes over to the wall... I walk over, he runs and hides... etc etc etc etc...

Its a little funny in retrospect... I'm wearing earmuffs to bed tonight though :)

~Submitted by Heather Bartlett, who insists all credit go to her "naughty chin" Fry! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other day I was playing with Fry on the bed. My bed is nestled between a wall, and a cast-iron radiator (one of those old ones). I had blocked off EVERY space between the wall and the radiator, the bed and the radiator... with pillows and stuffed animals... or so I though. Suddenly Fry takes off, out of my hands, runs straight for the ONE spot I didn't have completely covered, as if he'd known its been there for years, and litterally DOVE down behind the cast iron radiator. All I heard was 'clunk clunk clunk' on the way down and a 'thump' at the bottom.

Well, I also had under the bed blocked off with pillows, because he's hard to catch under there... but now he's under the bed, because the bottom of the radiator leads down to there... so I'm panicking, he might be hurt from the fall, I quickly start pulling pillows out from under the bed... and who scampers out looking at me like "What? What ae you doing? I had a nice dark-cave thing going in there!"...

So he comes up to my face (I'm lying on the floor) nips my nose and scampers back under the bed... when he nips my nose, thats usually the signal for hide-and-go-seek (he'll come up to me, bite my nose [not hard], then run away like he's laughing and I'm supposed to go find him...)

argh.. he gets me so worried for nothing...

~Also submitted by Heather for Fry. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We had a chin (our first) who we swear was the reincarnation of Einstein! She got out of the bird cage sides, the dog clip clamps we tried, the paper clips we tried, the small dog lease clamps we tried, the zips ties we tried, and the twist ties we tried. The only thing that stopped her was dog lease clamps made for a great dane!. She knew how to open them but they were just too heavy for her to pull down the leaver and flip up the opening.

She scared me to death one night. I was sitting in the dinning room sewing with the doors open to the back porch for a breeze when something gray scurried across the floor. I thought it as a rat!!!! (I mean the chin was in her cage back in the spare bedroom...RIGHT!!!) all of a sudden, I see a little chin face peek over the dinning room table at me and then hop on the back on one of the chairs.

Very smart animals with very one track minds.

~Submitted by Candi and the chin kiddies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had a little scare tonight with my escape artist Will. He escaped as usual while I was playing with him and took off for the reclining chair and had a great time underneath jumping around the frame of the chair. Fifteen minutes of lying on the floor trying to coax him out, including leaving an entire container of raisins open on the floor by the chair, failed to convince him to come out so I had to get serious. Armed with the duster and lying on the floor I gently prodded him out. After he came out I got up to pick him up and he took off right for the stairwell. Instead of going down the stairs he flew right through the banister into mid air and fell to the floor below. I couldn't see where he landed but heard a thump and ran down to see if he was alright or smooshed at the bottom of the stairs. I found him not one level down but on the stairwell two levels down. I think he must have fallen on the steps (which fortunately are carpeted) and then continued running down the next flight of stairs. I picked him up and held him for awhile and gave him a raisin (which he ate with his usual gusto) and then put him back in his cage. He seems OK. I keep checking on him in his cage and he seems fine. I'll keep my fingers crossed that he's still OK in the morning. Lucky chinchilla.

Submitted by Mimi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Playtime during the first two months with my twin chins has been pretty much uneventful up until now - bouncing off the walls, chewing everything in sight, zooming across me, sitting on my shoulders. Just the usual stuff. They play in my big entrance hall which I put a gate across to keep them in. Will recently has been able to jump to the top of the gate and leap across to the other side. Escape! I then spend the next ten minutes running around the house trying to catch a very happy chin while his brother Timothy is perfectly content to watch the whole scene from the other side of the gate. Playtime is now soccer time, with me the goalie sitting on the floor by the goal (the gate) trying to catch the furry gray ball flying through the air towards the goal. Last night's score me 5 (5 foiled escape attempts), chin 1 (1 successful attempt). I'll see what the score will be tonight. It certainly keeps me busy! Naughty chin!

A slightly older story submitted by Mimi ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of my chinchillas loves to steal my hair brushes. Hans will get up on my bed, jump onto my nightstand and start chewing on my brush. He even pushes it off sometimes and drags it around the floor. The brush is so big that he can't really see where he is going and *bump* he runs into the wall! Ingrid knows how to open up doors that aren't shut all the way, she digs at doors until they open. And if it is shut all the way, she just sits there digging at it until she figures out that it won't open. I'll let you know about any other bad things they do...because I know that they haven't run out of naughty behaviors!

Submitted by Susan Leonetti. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After Dawn had won her first Best in Show I wanted to take a picture of her next to her trophy and rosette, I positioned it in her dust bath and it looked perfect, all I had to do was sit with the camera and wait until she came and stood by it, well she did that but then she picked up the rosette and dragged it into her cage, put it in her tube and started to nibble it!

It was so cute watching her drag it across the floor!

Submitted by Sally Jacquess.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My first Chin Jojo once stole some brown candy sugar from my desk while I was working at the computer. I drink lots of tea while sitting reading Mail and programming, so being much too lazy to run into the kitchen each time I want to get a new cup I had everything on my desk, including a package of brown candy sugar, with a little opening. I caught Jojo sniffing around the openning, but she couldn't get to the sugar, so I thought everything would be alright. She didn't give up though. The next thing I saw was a chin bumping into the sugar package making it fly against the wall an off the table, and half of my sugar was spread on the floor, and she immediately started nibbling on the candy bits ... =)) ... after that all my tea sugar is now placed chinproof before I let them out ... but she sure lokked to enjoy the little pieces she got to.... =)))

Submitted by Marc-Andre Hermanns

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Well this may be a case of naughty ME rather than my chin... Snugglez was having fun ripping around my bedroom while I was in bed reading...hubby watching TV (sound familiar?) :) and we heard this big plop sound coming from the bathroom...I jumped up and knew just what that had to be...yep...my little Snugglez taking a midnight swim in the big white bowl...she thought was a hot tub...she looked so pathetic staring up at me with a HELP look...(Lucky for me I had just scrubbed the toilet out earlier...and there weren't any chemicals in the tank that sometimes I use...The drop in Clorox things...) so I scooped her up and rolled her in a fluffy towel and then used my hair dryer to finish up the drying...She seemed to know I was helping out and held still while I had her standing on her hind feet with her front paws on my hand and I used the other hand to work the dryer...I kept going back & forth from warm to cool blast to make sure it wasn't too hot...when she was really dry...she had a great time rolling around in her dust bowl...I think she's done with toilet bowls...at least I hope! I'll have to keep the lids down when she's out! Cute huh? Be warned...if the lid is up...they'll go swimming!

Submitted by Rosann ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday, I had three chinchillas shipped to me from Seattle. A mate for my hetero beige that seemed depressed, and two babies, one a hetero ebony, the other a violet. The violet, who we named "Tinkerbell" for her charming personality and lack of fear (she has to be the center of all attention, she was the runt of the litter, and is quite a bit smaller than the ebony). So, the ebony (Dexter) was sticking close to the bottom of the cage, he is quite shy...and Tinkerbell kept running up to the top floor of their cage. She soon realized that there was a larger space between bars at the very top of the cage. We watched her stick her head between the bars. Her upper torso soon followed. Of course I had to run over there and retrieve her and put her back in the cage. Next thing I know, she had zipped back up to the side of the cage and was wedging herself between the wires again....... and out shecame. So... I removed one or two of the shelves, and the monster proceeded to climb the wires and slip once again between the two top bars. So in my last attempt, I used electrical tape all the way around the top of the top two bars, winding around the parameter of the cage. Tinkerbell was NOT at all pleased when I put her back in her cage and she wasn't able to get out the top rung. My poor little Houdini...

Submitted by Amy

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One day I rather stupidly left a packet of coffee candy sweets on top of my chins cage. I returned home to find they had pulled the whole bag of sweets into their cage and taken the liberty of peeling quite a few wrappers and sampling the tasty goodness inside!!!

I removed the sweets from their cage and put them in a separate bag elsewhere in the room. Imagine my surprise to be awakened in the middle of the night to a loud rustling and crackling as my chins Pikachu & Cuddles satisfied their coffee cravings. They had bitten a hole in the bag which had they found on their daily run and smuggled their quarry back to their cage for closer inspection!!!!! Naughty chins :- )

Submitted by Amanda

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