Chintros without a step

[Tillygizmo]

Hi all,
We just adopted our new boy whom we are looking to bond with our younger boy. After his quarantine is up, I realize we have a strange problem. Our boy is on the third level of three stacked FN 141s which means he is WAY up high. This means that we couldnt really put Hercules (the new chin) cage all the way up there to allow them to sniff for awhile.

Without taking the FNs apart, is there any option?

My others ideas were to put them in carriers close to one another for a little while a day or I have read that sometimes people switch the chin betweens one anothers cages for an hour or so a day (although I am concerned about how stressful that is).

Let me know your thoughts

 

[alli713]

Is your new chin currently in the same FN as the other chin (new up high, older below it)? If so, it's not really a quarantine.

I've done cage by cage before, and in the cases that I tried it, it didn't help. Those chins didn't end up getting along. I've done playtime in a totally new for both chins, neutral area.

But you can also switch them between each other's cages, I've tried that as well.

For the chins that I've gotten to get along, if they ended up getting along it was rather immediate, my prolonged slow intros never worked for me. So I think it's about finding what works for your chins. You could try the playtime and if that doesn't work, go to the switching cages for a bit.

 

[Tillygizmo]

Sorry! I didnt clarify well. The three levels are my other 4 chins (the very top being the boy we want to bond our new guy with)

The new guy is quarantined not in that area at all.

So you think I should do neutral playtime and see how it goes without doing the cages side by side (being that it is next to impossible)?

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

One of the things I do is put a small cage inside of the larger cage with the new chin and then the next day switch and then switch again the next day and so forth. Then I let them run in a neutral area to see what happens. Or can you switch the cages with the girls until you get the boys together so you can do the side by side first.

 

[Brittany]

We've used variations of cage in a cage and putting them in each others cages to get our girls to the point where they share play time, but they still don't live together. Lily is very dominant and spoiled it has taken her no less then two months to warm up to each of our other chins. So if it doesn't work right away don't give up hope. Just be patient and have a 2nd cage ready so that you can keep them apart indefinitely.

I've also heard that if they're getting along well enough to live together then it helps to have a brand new neutral cage for them to move into. (I don't know from experience though)