General Kits/intro questions

[animalhoarder]

Hello new friends! We are Fíli, Kíli and (maybe) Minccino! And chinmumny, Stacey. Fee and Kee are turning 4 and 3 in October, and are brothers who have been together since Kee was born. Minccino is somewhere between 2 and 5 months, though even if hes younger, I'm saying 5 so we can finish the birthday week in my family!

I feel like Min is closer to two months than five. Long story short, theres a petstore going out of business and he was soaking wet so he came home with me. $330 and 15 minutes snuggled up in my chest later, I realized the poor baby likely didn't have proper time to wean off of mummy. Hes eating solid food and an alfalfa cube (picking up loose hay tomorrow and he has Timothy until then), but when he snuggles in it almost seems like he's trying to find a nipple to nurse from. I'd love to be able to have that type of bonding with him- from a bottle- but I don't know if that'd make it harder on him or not in the long run. Basically the question is, should I try bottle feeding him a few times a day? If yes, should I use kitten milk replacement or is there a better alternative I can get at petsmart or somewhere else easily accessible? And what type of bottle do I use? I've read an eyedropper, but I've also read a kitten bottle.


NUMBER TWO! Min was vet checked and had a few tests done, and the vet gets back to me tomorrow- if its all clear from him, I'm going to put Min in the same room. F&K saw the vet last week and he gave the all clear on them. No diseases/parasites, both are in tippy top shape.
My dad is building me a cage for them, and I was hoping that it would potentially be a good idea to house them all together? Obviously if introductions go well. Ive read babies can turn on each other once puberty hits, but nothing on what a positive adult influence will do to a baby. Fee and Kee are both lovely boys, and Kee loves to get up and harass my gerbils, but never barks/tries to hurt them. They squeak while wrestling and Kee is up on the table to either cheer them on, or make sure they're okay. Fee is tolerant and I don't think he'd care too much about having a little one around, especially since he put up with Kee as a kit.



/end long post.

If there's a better place for this post, please move it! I just joined today, and I'm still trying to manuever the site. Thanks a bunch!!

 

[tunes]

If he is two months old he would have been weaned already. There is no need to give him a bottle (which you can't use for a chin anyway). Just let him have regular chin food. He doesn't need to nurse. Chins survive and thrive when they lose their moms at six weeks and go straight to solid food.

Min needs a 30 day quarantine, regardless of what the vet says. Some things have an incubation period of over two weeks. That isn't going to show up in a vet test until it is full blown.

I would not be so worried about the kit turning on anyone as I would be the two bonded adult males attacking the kit. If they attack him, he will be dead. He is too small to defend himself. I would wait until he's bigger and older before I even thought about trying the intro. You could also end up tearing apart the friendship that your older two chins have. There is just no way to know for sure. It is something you need to be aware of.

 

[animalhoarder]

I didn't mean like a baby bottle, lol. I didn't know what would be safest for handfeeding and decided bottle was a good word to use, just for argument sake. After I posted this I did more reading and found out that he was probably weaned, unless hes younger than two months, which I honestly don't know. For all we know, he could just be a big one month. I doubt he is, but its always a possibility.


The vet did do a blood test (NOT a happy chin), and said that in about two weeks (because of a two week incubation period with all three of them) it'd be safe to put him in the same room as the boys. He's got chins of his own, so I really do trust his opinion on that- he wouldn't tell me something if it meant endangering them. He's always emailing to make sure Fee and Kee don't hate me anymore, and to make sure Fees gum issues aren't actually an issue.


Aside from that; I wasnt worried about Min turning on the other two, I was mostly worried about them turning on him, though based on behaviour with other animals in the house, I don't totally see it happening- though they ARE full of surprises, and are now going to turn around and hate each other because I said that, lol. I was mostly wondering what a safe age to do physical introductions would be, but I've read around 6 months is a decent age for play time, so I figured that would be a good age for face-to-face physical intros. I was planning on putting Mins cage in the same room as F&K and seeing how they feel about him while they go out to play.



Also I did have a question about nesting/sleeping huts. I know for gerbils you should only have one logical place to nest because the family that nests together stays together, but I read somewhere that in a multi-level chin cage with multiple chins, you should have a nest/sleeping hut on every level? It didn't quite make sense to me, but I'm also new to chinchillas and didnt know if they occasionally like to sleep seperately?