First Introductions

[mattvela91]

I have had my standard grey chinchilla, Tyler, for almost 2 years now. I got him pretty much as soon as he was weaned. He is very well socialized and does well being held by pretty much anyone. Last week, I purchased a bonded trio of beige chinchillas consisting of a mom and her 2 babies, both of which have been weaned for about three weeks now. Currently, I have Tyler in the top half of a double ferret nation, and the trio in the bottom half. I know this is not the ideal situation, but I have not seen any mood swings or negative behavior from any of them since they came home. They are definitely aware of each other. I just was hoping I could get some advice from those of you who have experience introducing new chinchillas to each other. Just to clarify, the group consists of Tyler, my 2 year old male, Riley and Frank, the 2 three month old siblings, and Abby, the 2 1/2 year old mother of Riley and Frank. Thanks for all yalls help!

 

[e.murphy518]

Hopefully someone will chime in about when the babies need to be taken from the mom so that they don't impregnate her, I am not sure about the age for that.

Other than that, I recently introduced two males together and it went very well, however I have heard that introing three males to each other can be hit or miss. I put a description of how I introed my two males together in the thread entitled "Successful Introduction!!", but I got very lucky with how smoothly it went. In your case I would probably separate the mother completely (once the babies are old enough) and then put the brothers in a cage next to Tyler's and see how they all react for a while. Once that goes well, joint playtime in a neutral area with VERY close supervision, and see how it goes. If it goes well, maybe advance to putting them all in a carrier and going for a drive and then putting them into a totally cleaned FN (I would suggest the whole double unit FN so they don't get frustrated in a small space). If the first play time is a little rough, I would say it would probably be best to put them back in their side by side cages and try again, and again until it seems to calm down and then move on to the carrier once they seem to be getting along. But keep in mind there is always the chance they will not all get along, so you may end up needing three separate cages, one for Tyler, one for the babies, and one for the mother.

Also, you should continue to keep a close eye on the boys if you can get them all to coexist peacefully because I read a couple of posts stating that male trios can get along for a while but later "vote someone off the island" and the other two may pick on that one in which case you may need to separate.

To be safe it would be best to have enough cages available in case any unforeseen circumstances occur and you need to separate

PS. humping among males is fairly normal as long as it does not seem aggressive/is not turning into a fight.

Good luck!

 

[becky12883]

The boys need to be separated from the mother now. She should be put on baby watch for the next 111 days. You should get another cage for the young boys, and should always have separate cages for each chin on hand in case they start to fight. There should have been a 30 day quarantine period where the new chins were kept completely separated from other one, since that didn't happen, watch for any signs of illness in all of the chins. As far as intros go, I sure hope you aren't intending to house all 4 together? If that's the case, you are setting yourself up for a disaster. The sons can and will mate with their mother, and having more than one male housed with a female is asking for fights. It would be extremely irresponsible to house them all together. Otherwise, e.murphy above is correct, trios can work, but can fail. It really depends on the chins and their personalities. Some like cagemates and other would rather be alone. You should take it slow and read up on intro methods. If you use the search in the blue bar at the top of the page, there are tons of threads about "introductions".