2 Males fighting?

Twinsftw · Mar 30, 2010

Well heres my long-winded story, I work at Petsmart, and a guy was trying to give away 2 chinchillas and $700 worth of items, including a $230 ferret cage they are kept in. The reason is that he is always working out of town and doesnt have time for them, also he mentioned that since they moved into their new house they fight, but never had before. So I took them, they are separated in their cage, but up and down not left and right, so they cant see each other, there is a board separating them. They are both males, one about 2 years old, one about 1 (so they guy said). So I let them into the hallway for supervised play time, and of course, they fought, in passing, they would like screech at each other and release fur. I also read that they can't ever be reintroduced once separated, but I would like for them to play together, and possibly even open their cage so they can play, but not if they will kill each other. Today I took the less shy one and put him in the bottom with the timid one, and of course they fought, so I immediately broke it up and the timid one bit me hard and drew blood, im sure it was an accident but I could tell he was scared.

I just want to know if its possible they can ever get along..and how?

tunes · Mar 30, 2010

Hi and welcome to CnH. I answered your question on Yahoo, and I'm going to tell you pretty much the same thing here. Read through that link I gave you and see if any of those intro methods work for you. They may or may not, depending on the chins personality. Some chins just never want a cagemate.

Usually it goes better to do younger to older intros, but by that I mean 3-4 months old to an older guy. If yours are 1 and 2 (and unless he got them from a breeder, he wouldn't have known anyway) that may take a lot longer to get them together, or again, they may never get together.

Again, welcome - looking forward to pictures.

Twinsftw · Mar 30, 2010

hey, thanks for finding my inquiry once again on the internet lol, no seriously thanks, And don't take it like I didn't believe you or anything, I just figured why not post it again here. Especially considering people on yahoo answers tend to copy and repost things they saw somewhere else, so I didn't know you were actually knowledgeable on the subject :clap1:

But yeah, I'll post pics when I name them, but for now I'm just giving them separate play time, as well as identical cages for each one =/

Chinmama · Mar 30, 2010

Twinsftw said:
I didn't know you were actually knowledgeable on the subject :clap1:

Now that you're here, you'll see that she is our "Omnipotent Ninja Chinmaster".

hehe

Anyway, welcome to the forum! How long have you had the chins? It may be that once they are used to their new environment, and used to you, they will be slightly less stressed out and may actually get along better over time.

Ash · Mar 30, 2010

This is one of the best online resources for chinchilla and hedgehog ownership, and Peggy(tunes) and her minions run it. Welcome and be prepared to learn a lot, because most of what is taught at pet stores is far from correct.

As for males getting along again? They might, but there is also every chance that they may not ever again. They may also cuddle together one day and murder each other the next day.