Easier intros: adults or kits?

I would like to get a few more chinchillas, but I want the best chance of my dominant current chin accepting them. Is she more likely to be nice to kits than adults, or the other way around, or does it not make any difference?

I have always been told an older chin will take better to a young chin, of course there is no way of really knowing if your chin will accept a cage mate. I do know the best thing you can do is go slow and have a lot of patience when it comes to intro'ing chins.

I introduce any and all ages. I just take my time with it. It is "generally" easier to introduce a younger chin to an older chin, but females can be a pain in the butt, especially if you are trying to introduce more than one to her space. Be sure you have a separate cage, because you may end up having the new chins live in that, and your dominant female living on her own.

There are things you can try when you introduce her. You can trim her whiskers back by about an inch or inch and a half - that helps in a lot of situations. You can also move them to a brand new (or completely cleaned) cage with all new things in it that have none of her scent in it, so she won't feel territorial.

Just remember to have patience. Some introductions take months before they finally get together. It's not always a quick thing.

My four girls

:hug2:As far as my girls are concerned, I was very lucky. I have four girls now. I bought my first Beige girl in June, when she was about 8 weeks old. Then after a month or so, I bought a couple of bonded pair of girls, one was 5 months old (Ebony) and the other was about 8 weeks old Violet. The five month old ebony was so small that she looked like about same age as others. As soon as I introduced those two to Beige, they were just ok. But, the bonded pair was always stuck together, slept together, and Beige was isolated. The good thing was that Beige was not acting dominant although she was the first chin in the house. She tried to invite herself to cuddling up to the sleeping bonded pair, etc. It was so cute. But, they just ignored her. So, I separate the bonded pair, and put one with Beige and other alone in a different cage. I switched ebony and violet, and I continued it a few times. Since ebony and violet only had beige to be with, they slowly become more friendly to beige. Beige again invited herself to cuddle with ebony, and ebony didn't cuddle back, but she became ok with sleeping together with beige. Violet didn't like beige to cuddle with her, but beige tried little by little, looking for an opportunity to cuddle with violet. That was hilarious. I think that beige is very good in nature. So, after a while, violet and beige became friends, too.
Then, I put all three of them in one cage. They started to act like a triple bonded chins. They would cuddle, and the beige was not the third wheel anymore. Others would come to cuddle with the beige, too.
Then, about two weeks later, I bought a younger sapphire girl. By the time, my first three got a bit bigger, so, 8 week old sapphire was just a baby to them. I used the same technique to introduce sapphire to them. I put sapphire with one chin at a time. Sapphire had a bit of arguments with ebony, and violet was not too nice to sapphire first, but in a week or so, all of them became ok with one another. They are equally affectionate to one another now. They are so cute together. I was very lucky. I have a huge cage for all of them now.
But, I am having HUGE problems introducing my two boys.....

Good luck!

^ awww that story is so cute. lol

I have introed chins of all ages, too. Age just didn't seem to make a difference. I have had only one paring that did not work. My two adult standard girls just hate each other. Otherwise, time and patience did the trick. Just keep a close eye on things until you are sure that they are getting along.

I find that babies are easier in general but any age will work.
Kristy

I have done intros with both... I have always found it easier with kits going in with the more dominate one...