Girl with an attitude

[Godofgods]

Shocking, i know. lol

I am a bit concerned about one of my girls. Right now my one FN cage is housing three female chins. The mommy Sophie, and her two daughters who are almost 7 months old now. (wow.. they grow so fast)

Sophie was always had a dominate personality from the moment i took her in years back. While a caring chin; she doesn't take anything from anyone.

Lately one of her daughters, Ameena, has been appearing a little bit more aggressive to both her sister and her mother. She will occasionally start something with her sister. Its never gotten to bad tho. (yet i fear)

The other day i saw her snap at her mother tho. Ameena was down eating a little bit. And Sophie came up the perch to the shelf right next to her, and Ameena snapped at her a bit. The other shocking part of that was that Sophie took it and didn't respond. And as i said, Shes never taken anything from anyone. However; it was the middle of the day, and the middle of their normal sleeping time. And ALL the girls get snappy when their tired and woken up at that time.

And yesterday, i heard Ameena constantly making a barking/snapping sound, more like a warning directly at the other chin. (The two were sleeping in their hut.) And it was more an aggressive sound rather then the usual warning call. When i went to look, they were on opposite ends of the huts, and the other chin was just laying their doing nothing.

While over all nothing bad has happened, Ameena does appear to be getting a little bit more aggressive. And her sister is the exact opposite. Iv had no issues with her. And now Sophie is occasionally appearing more.. docile.

I'm concerned about how this is going to play out in the future. If need be, i can separate the FN cage into two separate cages. But I'm really hoping i don't have to. I don't want any of them to be alone.

Is their anything that can be done to help them get along/stay together peacefully? None of my chins have ever not gotten along or grew out of each other.

 

[Cuddlebug]

do you have enough houses, bowls, feeders and water bottles so that everyone has their own? This might keep them from fighting over things. Keep a close eyes on them. If it gets any worse, you may need to separate them.

 

[Godofgods]

I had two food dishes in their but they keep peeing or dumping the second one off the edge. When i took it out, that behavoir stopped. I can put a second water bottle up again tho. Just need to clean it out first.

 

[Godofgods]

I re-added the second water bottle to the cage. Pretty close to the first one, but just enough room between them so that two chins can use them separately without being on top of the other.

The girls usually go though a full water bottle a day, so they get their use outa it. However after a few days, they have still not touched the second bottle at all. The water level remains unchanged. And the bottle works fine.

However, the last few days, i haven't seen any problems with the girls.

 

[Godofgods]

My girls are like old men set in their rutine lol. Thet wont touch the other water bottle. The only way they will is if i let the first bottle go empty. In total, after 5 days, iv seen the second bottle used one time! And thts cause one girl was already useing the first. Which i guess is exactly why a second one was put in their!

 

[Sovay]

I imagine they will begin to use the other water bottle in due time, once they realize it is a permanent and reliable source of water. Right now they know the other water bottle, so the normal routine is also the safest routine.

Personally, I wouldn't seperate them, unless they were getting into violent skirmishes. Dominance hierarchy happen and everyone's role needs to be established to become stable. It's not uncommon in the animal world for a young, healthy and strong female to become dominate over an older female. She may be experienced, but if she isn't strong, the younger one will pick up on that and use the opportunity. If Sophie is submitting to the beta role, perhaps eventually the aggressive behavior will subside as they adjust to the new system.