Failed Introduction...

[nick and emily]

I waited 2 and half years for this moment. My 4 chins lived together for a yr and half before I had to seperate them. They are all around the same age about a yr apart and when puberty hit My one chin, Charlie started to bully Rico around. I decided to separate when Charlie nipped him one day in the chin area. I put Rico with Gus since they are both very calm sensetive chins and a lot smaller than Olaf and Charlie. The 2 big fat ones became cagemates and all was calm again. Its 2 and a half years later and I decided to give it a go and see if I could get the gang back together again. As we all know the more chins in a cage the merrier....

So I put their cages side by side for a few hours to see how they would react next to eachother and they could have cared less. I speant the day scrubbing and bleaching and sanding their wood and such. I then gave a dust bath and used the same dust in both cages. Later I put Vicks above their noses and butts. I also snipped their whiskers to be safe and put them all in a cat carrier and took them for a ride. I had no problems, they all fell asleep and cuddled after an initial WTF look around. Then I came home and put them all in their "new" cage. All **** broke loose. Rico smelled the other chins and went ballisitic. The 3 others just stared at him as he hoped on his back legs n squirted pee all over n started chirping at them. At first they ignored him and explored the cage, then Charlie chased Rico. This caused all 4 chins to frantically popcorn around the cage yelling at eachother. Gus chased Olaf in to a corner . Olaf hopped on his back legs and shot pee and fur started to fly. Things calmed down for a bit, i didnt see any mounting really (???) it was more chasing. Gus started to bully Olaf and chase him. He wouldnt let him go anywhere. Then he would stop and go to sleep and wake up and do it again. I watched them for a few hours. Sleep then chase, etc. I was hoping they would just give in and start doing some mounting and get it oevr with. Then Gus nipped Olafs ear and I aborted the mission.

I know some chins just dont get along but I am wondering if theres anything else left to try or if I did anything wrong? The chins are okay, they ended up flopping cage mates because I saw them bonding with the opposite chins (which I also found odd). Most of all I was suprised with little Gus. Olaf is a good 350g bigger than him. Gus is also my most calm Chin and he was the biggest bully to Olaf....I dont get it ??? I am really sad this didnt work out. They all used to have a lot of fun together.

 

[Stackie]

IMO pairs just seem to work better than anything else. The more chins you have together, the more the dominance hierarchy needs to be figured out, and the more territorial issues you'll have. I would keep them as pairs and leave it at that. I would have gone about the introduction a little bit differently- not putting them all together at one time, but rather taking two and introing them, then the others, and swapping it around until everyone had a one on one intro. I also would have gone about it MUCH more slowly- not putting them all together within one day- but honestly I would leave them in pairs.

Occasionally when you try to introduce a chin or more to an already bonded pair, you can cause that pair to begin fighting, and you'll end up with all single chins instead of one big group of chins.

 

[mishellyshel]

sometimes it just doesnt work out. i had a pair that had to be separated. they now are next door neighbors and are both happier that way.
they actually both have gained weight since being separated and yet they are still right next to each other if they need to "talk".

 

[Ash]

I would double check the chin who was standing up and squirting pee that it is 100% a male. Compare his parts to your other chins. Usually males don't spray very well, that's a female trait. There are some males that can do it, but better safe than sorry.