Introductions: What's Normal, What's Not?

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

sheena lee

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
Messages
319
Location
Montreal, QC
Tonight we let Chia and Abby out for playtime together. I don't think I've ever been so terrified in my life, I was shaking (still am) the entire time.

At first they didn't really notice each other, when they were both around the dust bath they really just ignored each other and dusted.

But when they finally SAW each other, Chia chased Abby around and then Abby would run away and Chia would get distracted by something else... this went on for a little while. There was some fur shedding but not much, and no harm was done at all. Then they seemed to clash a bit... they slammed into each other, I think accidentally, Chia flipped and Abby let out a little cry. There are no injuries or anything, but we scooped Abby up real quick and took them both back to their cages.

What kind of abnormal behavior should I be looking for when putting them back together? I don't think that anything bad necessarily was about to happen but I got freaked and separated them anyway. I've done so much reading but I'm not sure what the bad signs should look or sound like. I knew Chia would be the dominant one, so that's no surprise, but I'm not sure what violence would look like. Chia is naturally SO hyper and just so all over the place (she's my ADHD chin!) so she always kind of looks and acts a bit ... crazy lol. And I'm a nervous wreck so I want to constantly interviene when I probably should not.

Anyway, back to my question... What is the first sign of trouble? Any specific kind of sound, movement, or anything else?

[and now when I turn to look at Chia, she's sitting in the closest corner to my cage giving me the evilest eye she can.. haha she probably feels like I did when my parents had my little sister!]
 
Last edited:
Chins that are being aggressive to each other will do some or all of the following:

Hair pulling
Dominance humping
Chasing
Standing up on their hind legs to be bigger than the other while kacking and / or grunting at each other.
Peeing at each other - especially with females

All of these can happen and the chinchillas can still work it out. If any of the behaviors become more furious (like chasing that is constant or constant fur pulling) or if the chinchillas start biting, they will need to be separated immediately. Once they draw blood, they should be kept apart on a permanent basis.

Another form of aggression in chinchillas is bullying. When a chinchilla bullies another, it keeps it from drinking, eating, etc. Needless to say. Separate bullies from the ones that are being bullied.
 
Personally I saw only dominance humping and chasing. I think the fur slipping happened when Chia jumped on top of Abby as she was chasing her. When they would meet face to face, they would touch noses and kack, then Abby would be chased until Chia got distracted (about 10-15 seconds was the longest chasing episode.) I couldn't tell for sure, but it didn't appear that either chin was trying to bite the other.

If the chasing is intermittent like I described, should I let them be without intervening? The chasing would only happen when Chia would actually get near Abby. She wouldn't go after her unless Abby was right in front of her...
 
I would keep trying, but be sure to be close enough to separate them if need be.

Yeah, both me and my boyfriend sit with them, and we're right there to each grab a chinchilla if necessary! My bf is really attached to Abby and he scooped her up so fast and cuddled her for a while after the introduction. It was cute!
 
Thanks Christiane! I hope they work out too! It's going to be cooler this weekend so we want to try a round-two for introduction :))
 
Sheena Lee
I was wondering how it worked out for you and if your chinnies ever got a long? I am going through the same process!
 
Back
Top