Punishing/teaching it

Question
QUESTION: Now, I have 3 chinchillas all in total. Two of with are tame. But Leo is not. I have the two tame ones together and Leo on his own.

I wanted to see how hey would react after them being beside one another for 3 days and nights(their cages), so I let them all out today.
Leo, at first, sniffed the other chinchillas, but then started to bark at them, chase them and bight their fur.

I immediately took action to get Leo into his cage. Of course, he ran, and did his little noises.

I cought him with an old shirt and rapped him in it for a few minutes. He moved around and fussed...I know he doesn't like it.
I wanted to punish him...so I thought this would be the only way with out hurting him.

But, then I thought that, that would only make him more terrified of me!:S

What do you think?
And what should I do besides making a loud sound to punish Leo for his bad actions?
Should I for him fighting with the other chinchillas, or should I just continue with slowly introducing them and let nature take its course?

Please help me
Adriana

ANSWER: I am very sorry but PUNISHING a chinchilla is definitely not an option. I would honestly never punish my chinchilla. They certainly will not learn from it and it stresses the poor animal. Why do it?

Mae.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Well, no. I don't want to.I was only curious if it would teach Leo to behave around Chico and Milo.

I wouldn't hurt him. NO WAY! I've read up, with "punishing" or ok, thats a bad word....."teaching" it by making a sudden loud noise.


Answer
That's good then. Such relief! :-)

With my experience of Chinchillas they won't learn to do anything you tell them. They may learn their name and things like that but not much else to be honest.

It will just scare the chinchilla by making a loud noise. I don't think the will realise that what they are doing is bad. They wouldn't see it like that. For example, your chinchilla chews your furniture - you make a loud noise to teach him not to do that and he does it all the time still.

Please do not let all of your chinchillas mix. A quarantine of 30 DAYS (1 month) has to be done. In seperate rooms too, I am afraid. Make sure chinchillas aren't taken into a basement or anywhere like that. Even though they are cool they can be extremely humid and cause more damage than enough.

Mae.