Chinchilla personality... learned or genetic?

[HobbyGuy]

Just curious what people's opinion on what gives a chinchilla a good or bad disposition?

I see posts about how ranch bought chinchillas are not as calm as chinchillas from small breeders. What are your thoughts?

I will agree that environment has some influence over the personality, but I think it is more genetic than learned. In general, sweet/friendly chinchillas come from sweet/friendly parents. Granted, in all cases, I am talking about friendly towards humans. Seems like the most non-human friendly females make the best mom's, not always but most of the time.

[CTChin]

I can only speak from my own personal experiences after breeding for 8 years. I have gotten extremely friendly babies from skittish, not very nice moms, simply by handling the babies every day from birth. My customers write me so I have a good idea of how they turn out and I have to say the great majority of them stay friendly.

My most cranky mom is a ranch chin. I kept her baby that was born in Sept. and she is still as friendly and outgoing as ever. I remember when she was still with her mother, mom would be in the corner cussing at me while the baby came running up to the front :laugh:

[chinchilla_boy]

Very nice question. Is this one of those nature and nurture things? I would have to agree and say it is mostly genetic, but environmental factors obviously play a role. If you got 2 young chinnies that are aggressive, you can smother them with love for years and one may turn out to be the sweetest chin due to these years of positive conditioning while the other chin may continue to still be aggressive. What could be a possible reason for this if they were both brought up in the same exact great environment? I think it has to do with each chins' own genetic potential. The keyword here is 'potential'. If an aggressive chin has a low genetic potential, then no matter how much you try to condition it by providing a great environment, it will continue to be aggressive.

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

I feel it is a combination of environment and genetics. You mentioned ranch chins and the majority of my herd are from ranches so I have experience in this arena.
Normally ranch chins are not as socialized with humans as chins purchased from small breeders and their environment is very different. It takes time to acclimate ranch chins to a home environment and socialization with humans. Once ranch chins are acclimated and socialized they can be some of the sweetest chins on this earth. The only difference between a ranch chin and a small breeder chin is human socialization and acclimation to a home environment. Positive handling has a big influence on a chin's attitude. I believe genetics may give a chin a tendency toward certain behavior but positive handling can modify it.

[NeighbrGrlsPets]

I agree with ckane :)