Chintros - not going great!

[oxchincerelyxo]

OK, we've had each chin in the cage for a little bit (one overnight and one right now). They seem to be alternating who the aggressor is. They have quieted down, we trimmed their whiskers, and removed almost everything from the cage except for food and water. Minnie chomps down on the bars of the show cage really hard and shakes the cage violently in an effort to escape. She can actually move the cage with her rattling! Is this normal for this type of introduction?

When I was intro-ing my boys, I thought nothing was going to work. Stolie was the agressive one and acted how you explained. I gave them a break and tried about 2 weeks later...and whla!!! Best buddies *knocks on wood*. Still some just don't work well together...best be prepared for either...:wink3:

 

[JennyBug]

UPDATE!
We tried the cage in cage method and you wouldn't know that they weren't getting along! They are best buds now, sharing hay, shelves, pellets and everything else. It's so cute!!!! Thanks to everyone for your advice!

 

[Chinzilla]

Congrats on your chinnies becoming buddies!!!

I'm trying to intro my chins so I've been reading through this entire thread. I was just curious about the cage in cage method because I've heard some controversy about it in that toes can easily get nipped at. Has anyone had experience with that or want to respond to that concern?

 

[JennyBug]

If you're worried about toes (as I was), you can put a folded towel on top of the show cage. Chins in the cage feel a little safer, and chins out of the cage won't get their toes amputated!

 

[Chinzilla]

But can't they still bite at toes through the sides? Maybe I'm just overly concerned...

 

[JennyBug]

My girls were just kackers, hair pullers, and sprayers, they never went after digits. I don't know that I would worry terribly about having digits taken off through the sides, but I'm new at this myself. Carmen and Minnie didn't really set their digits where they were in a position to get bitten off.

 

[JennyBug]

OK - Carmen and Minnie are still doing great. They groom, cuddle, and share food. We are looking to introduce Trousers to them and have a set of three sisters, but so far things have not been going well between Minnie and Trousers. Carmen and Trousers do just fine for short periods of time. They are not cuddling - really, they just kind of ignore each other or sniff and run away with no aggression. Minnie and Trousers, on the other hand, does NOT go well at all! We did get them from the same woman, just a month apart, but she doesn't think they ever lived together, so I don't think it's a past grudge. There is just a lot of spraying and chasing and occasional biting, and sometimes Carmen gets caught in the middle of it. We tried putting three different dust baths in their playpen, which seemed to work for a bit, but then Minnie just keeps going after Trousers and Trousers fights back.

Should we start from square one (whisker trims, vanilla, cage-in-cage intro)? If so, should we involve Carmen since she is more or less not involved with the fighting? Any input on introducing a new chin to two chins that are getting along well would be appreciated!!!

 

[MyFuzzies]

From my own personal experience I would give it a rest for a little bit. Intros can be very stressful for chins and too much stress can easily lead to health issues and you don't want that. I'd wait a week or 2, in the meantime have their cages side-by-side, and just observe their behavior that way. When you're ready to try again, I would only put Minnie & Trousers together or Carmen & Trousers together...I wouldn't put all 3 together to start off. So, introduce Trousers to each girl separately and put them together for maybe 10 minutes each day...as long as there's no fighting of course. Giving them a dust bath before putting them together helps and also trimming the whiskers of the more aggressive one worked for me also. After you've done this for a bit with rotating the girls, THEN try putting the three of them together and see how they do. If they do ok, then put them together for a little bit each day and slowly increase the amount of time together. After a week or so of peaceful playtimes then try putting them in the cage together and see how they do. do that each day for a few hours and then try it overnight, just make sure you're by the cage that night. Good luck!!

 

[Chinchillatron]

I just started introing two of my male chins last night... spike doesn't just mount bandet to establish that he's more dominant.. no.. he has confused bandet for a female and has made a mess of his fur.. -enough said-
I wasn't sure how long to let this go on, there's no fur flying or anything like that just lots of one sided lovin' it's really... sad... :/ but in an almost funny way.

 

[CritterMom]

Intros can always be a little frustrating.

 

[JennyBug]

I'm trying to introduce Minnie and Carmen to Trousers. I bleached out the cage, put down a new liner, got two water bottles and a common bowl of hay. Last night Minnie and Carmen were in two show cages and Trousers was allowed to roam free (not through the whole huge cage; I put in two shelves to block them to one level). This morning I switched everyone, and Carmen almost immediately started pursuing Minnie and pulling out her hair. She can come nose to nose with Trousers without aggression, but now she and Minnie seem to have a problem. I tried giving them both a bath, but that didn't help. Did I just take one HUGE step backward, or is this normal behavior? Please help!!!

 

[Stackie]

It's common when you introduce a new chin to an already bonded pair, that the bonded pair will begin fighting. It's usually best to introduce chins who are not bonded if you want a trio. I don't really recommend introing a new chin to an already bonded pair exactly because of what you experienced.

 

[starleomach]

Another neat trick is to do intros early in the day when they are most quiet, rather than when they are awake. I find morning intro's go smoother as everyone seems most interested in sleeping

 

[JennyBug]

Everyone has calmed down quite a bit. There are all eating out of one hay bowl (two in cages, one out), and they are sniffing each other with no kacking or spraying! I hope there is still hope.... I hope...

 

[JennyBug]

Well, once again, we have to have two in, two out. Right now Trousers and Minnie are in show cages because they both started biting Carmen. I'm going to give this a couple more days, then we're going to cut our losses. Hopefully we'll at least be able to get Carmen and Minnie to live together peacefully again. Has anyone had experience with reintroducing two chins who had a spat? I know that if a chin turns on another and blood is drawn, it is O-V-E-R, but what about two who just had a minor disagreement?

 

[Stackie]

I had an incidence where I walked by a bonded pair's cage while I was carrying another chin. I got a little to close to the cage and one of the chins sniffed through the bars and got close enough to the chin I was carrying. He flipped out and started chasing his cagemate. I separated for a week and started back to square one, and they ended up bonding again. So, there is a possibility you could get them back together. Good luck.

 

[starleomach]

and sometimes groups just don't work.

 

[Chinniechantel]

I only do trios and colonies if I have a bunch of younger chins, I don't bother trying with adults. I love keeping about 5 girls together after weaning, then I end up keeping about 2-3 of them and they stay together for life if possible. I love trios! They always deliver right around the same time and usually take care of eachother's babies or can foster in an emergency.

 

[Laurie]

Jenny when I tried to introduce Bronwyn to Abigail and Solange who are cagemates, it did not go well. They girls all chased after each other in the bathroom and Abigail and Solange started fighting in their cage as well. I yanked Abby out for one night and put her in the cat carrier and she was pissed! Needless to say the next day I put a dash of vanilla on both Abby and Solange's noses and they kacked for a minute or two at each other then were okay with each other.
I'm still holding on to the hope I may get all 3 girls together, but if I don't then I would like to try a cage mate for Bronwyn. Only time will tell.
Good luck to you!

 

[Carol~Anne]

I introduced a single chin who had been alone for close to four years to a bonded pair who were nine months old and one year, all males. The intros took me several months b/c I was very nervous so I was taking it really slow.

Then about three months after the trio was getting really good, I added a fourth to the group and that took me hardly any time at all and all three accepted the fourth boy no problem, so I had a quad living in a very large cage with an addition as well.

I noticed that the two original bonded boys spent most of their time together and cuddled and slept together and my original single boy took quite the liking to the newest boy and those two seemed to spend most of their time together. It was cute b/c I had a set of Grey Boys and a set of White Boys all living together peacefully.

One morning I went downstairs as always to check on them all and I noticed a lot of grey fur and a lot of white fur all over the cages and my original single boy was sleeping all alone at the highest perch of the cage and it was obvious that he was missing some fur and he seemed very stressed. When I examined the other three they too were missing bits of fur so obviously they all got into some sort of brawl the night before over something or other.

I immediately separated them into pairs: two Grey Boys and two White Boys. It took a while for all their fur to fully grow back in but they all look absolutely fantastic these days and not a hair out of place. I am very happy with my pairs and I won't attempt a trio or a quad again b/c I think pairs tend to be easier.

I have a fifth boy now and he is housed alone in the chin room and his cage is very close to both sets of boys and he seems totally fine being by himself. Actually he's extremely friendly and cuddly with me and when he's out he's all over me and loves to sit on my legs and come up and give me whisker kisses.

I won't be trying intros with him with my two pairs but I 'might' get a little brown velvet baby in the near future and try to pair them together. We'll see.