Reintroducing chins

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Liz 2903

Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2018
Messages
6
Hi all,
I currently have 2 rescue chins, they are both neutered males Furby is just over 1 year old and his brother Bailey who is about 8 months old. I had absolutely no intention of getting them but Furby was due to be put to sleep because he needed to have a leg amputated and his previous owners wouldn't pay for the surgery, they gave me his brother a week later and that re intro went well. In fact I just popped them both in the cage together, Furby was still in hospital recovering from his surgery. Now they have offered me the parents of my boys. Obviously a female and the male who is also neutered. I would like to know if you think it will be possible to reintroduce them to where they can all live together. I am a new chin owner so I am pretty clueless with regards to this.
 
It's possible but not really a good idea unless they use to all live together. The father chin might be protective of his mate, even though he and the two sons are neutered, it could cause a fight. It doesn't matter that they are all family, the males will still see each other as rivals, especially if the female is not spayed. The female will go into heat and that can drive the males crazy. I don't advise getting the female spayed either, it's dangerous, so is neutering, but spaying is even more risky. Spaying and neutering chins also has no known health benefits.

At most you can try playtime together, see how things go. I think it would be best to just leave them as pairs though. To house them all together you would need a pretty big cage. Ideally you want 2ft x 2ft x 2 ft (or 8 sq ft) minimum per chin.

Another thing to keep in mind, a week apart is not long enough to break the bond between the two brothers, but a long hospital stay might. Also when you bring home Furby he is going to smell like hospital, so his brother might not recognize him right away and they may need to be reintroduced, properly, not just put back together.
 
Thank you for your reply. The two brothers are already back together, they have been since they were re united while Furby was still in hospital. They have been home with me for 2 months now. They lived with their parents before Furby broke his leg so have been separated from their parents for 2 months. I have an enormous cage for them, it has 4 levels and is approx 6 x 6 x 2 ft. I have actually joined 2 cages together. The parents will arrive tomorrow with their own cage, I was hoping to put it next to the boys and see how they all react. I do let them out for a run around each evening, so perhaps as you suggested I can see how they behave together during play time. That is provided there is no adverse reaction from any of them when they are caged next to each other
 
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