Another Why-are-my-chins-fighting thread

[Spiffs]

Hello everyone!

We have two chinchillas of roughly the same age (4ish years) named Chewy and Giz.

Giz was our first, and we got Chewy about 6 months ago to give him a friend since he seemed pretty lonely. They hit it off pretty well when we introduced them during a playtime - typical dominance mounting and a bit of chasing, but they got it worked out.

About 4 months ago we moved them into the same cage and there seemed to be no dominance issues - The occasional mount as Chewy made sure Giz remembered that he was dominant, but nothing out of the ordinary.

They lived together in the same cage for three months (even a whole week on their own when we were out of town) with absolutely zero issues. Then, one day, we woke up to a ton of Giz fur in the cage and him missing a good portion of fur from his backside. We separated them immediately.

What's odd, and what I feel sets this apart from the thousands of other my-chins-fight-now posts, is they way they behave during shared playtimes and how they've interacted the few times we've tried to re-cage them. When put together, they are absolutely loving to each other and completely best buddies; grooming, playing, and even taking turns on the dust as completely civilized chins.

After a bit, Giz starts wagging his tail and making high-pitched chirps - both of which seem to be part of the chinchilla mating ritual, to my knowledge. Chewy immediately responds by chasing Giz down and mounting him. Giz will then continue to wag and chirp while running away, and chewy gives chase. Giz will occasionally try and mount back, resulting in a chinchilla tornado, but that's pretty rare.

From my observations, it would seem that Giz is looking for a mate, and Chewy responds with re-asserting his dominance to ensure that, if there IS a female around, he gets first dibs.

So, I have a few questions for the experts here!

Why, out of the blue, has Giz started with this wag-and-chip? Could this be due to seasonal change or something?

What do I do!?

 

[Stackie]

How old is Giz? Chinchillas can go through a period of what I call "chinchilla puberty" where all they care about is mating. Hormones are higher causing the squabbles and increased mounting and mating attempts.

I would definitely keep them separated for awhile, at least several months, and let everyone calm down. The chasing and what not can be very stressful for both of them. I had a chin hit the "puberty" stage and he couldn't be with others for 6 months before I successfully intro'ed him to another chin again. They have been fine together since.

Once it seems that Giz may be calming down, you can try to intro them again, but you'll have to start back at square one. Taking it slow and not rushing the intro. Cutting whiskers can also help with dominance issues. It also helps to place them in a cage that neither is familiar with so there are no territory issues.

And something else you have to keep in mind is, sometimes chins just won't get along with others. He may just be a chin with heightened mating drive or whatever, and may need to be kept on his own.

 

[Spiffs]

To our knowledge, Giz is about 4.5 years old. Chewy a bit younger, but certainly no younger than about 3 years. It was my impression that this puberty stage typically happens much earlier in life than both of my Chinchillas are, though I suppose anything is possible.

The most odd thing, to me, about the entire situation is that Giz's never done this before, and suddenly we woke up one Saturday to a tail-wagger!

They're best buddies except for during tail-time, and it's depressing to keep them separate as they both call for the other all sad and lonely, but we still hope to get them back together so they will stay separate for the time being. I guess we'll try to wait it out, maybe he'll calm down during the summer.

 

[Laurie]

I have two boys Mick and Wesley that were weaned together. For an entire year they lived together and were very bonded. I personally believe my Mick is mentally ill or has some chin OCD issues because at night in his cage he has a ritual that cannot be stopped. This annoyed Wesley and they began to fight. When they weren't fighting they were still snuggled together and grooming, but the fighting was not good. Wesley was biting at Mick, pulling fur and even broken skin an couple times on his back. So even if they appear loving during certain times they important thing is during the times they are not death can occur.

I have permanently separated them and Mick has really flourished since the split. He is still OCD and has his night cage issues and routine but he no longer bothers Wesley with it.

Awhile ago the boys got all new ledges and shelves and their cages were open to each other as Mick lives on top of Wesley. They each, of course, went into the others cage and explored and for awhile it appeared they were going to get along again. Then after about 3 hours the fighting for dominance started and Wesley was a humping machine. I just didn't feel like putting Mick through that, so again they were separated.

Just remember even though they appear tiny and cute and loving, a chinchilla can kill another in a heartbeat. It's never worth that risk.