Chin with whisker issues

[starrynight0621]

One of my chins has damage on the left side of his face. Some of his whiskers are bent, and some are cut short.

Could my other chin have intentionally harmed him? Or could he have accidentally bitten them? I am worried.

 

[AZChins]

He could have been messing with his whiskers for a couple of reasons that are not so sinister as intentionally harming this friend. 1) Chins chew on each other's whiskers as a way of imposing dominance. A chin with short whiskers is a lot more docile because he will feel like he's a smaller chin and will naturally be less aggressive. 2) the whiskers got in the way and the other chin just decided to remove them by chewing them off or just overgrooming his buddy.

It probably wasn't an accident...but it isn't harmful to a chin to have the whiskers chewed down. Are the chins fighting at all? If not, don't worry too much.

 

[starrynight0621]

The dominance thing would make sense, based upon what I have seen at playtime.

During playtime, dominance humping is an issue. I always break that up because I know it could lead to a fight. The chin with long whiskers tries to hump the chin with short whiskers several times during playtime. The chin being humped barks and tries to run away; he doesn't just sit there and take it. I can tell when the humping will occur because the dominant chin runs up behind the passive chin. The passive chin starts to make this kind of quiet "don't hurt me" squeal noise. Then the humping may or may not occur. It is nice to have that warning noise so I know when to be prepared.

Occasionally the chin with short whiskers tries to hump the other, but not nearly as often.

In the cage, the chin with long whiskers tends to sleep hunched over the chin with short whiskers. However, the chin with short whiskers enjoys taking any wood the chin with long whiskers is chewing on.

 

[Riven]

If you want to "even the board" so to say you can carefully trim the whiskers of the dominant chin with scissors. I say carefully in case he jumps, etc.

The whiskers will grow back, and it may help create a more peaceful harmony in the cage.

 

[starrynight0621]

I could give that a try.. my one concern is that the dominant chin is also very shy with me. The passive chin is extremely social and trusting. I guess I don't want to permanently damage the dominant chin's trust in me. What does everyone else think?

 

[Akunaferret]

As to Riven's post about cutting them. I can agree with this, while introducing my two boys, we cut both of their whiskers to knock them both off the totem pole. Flynn HATED it, he kept rubbing his paws over them as if asking "what have you done? what have you done to my beautiful whiskers!!"