Giving the New Chin a Dust Bath

[Ripleyd]

Hi All,
So we have a new addition to my household. And I now have two girls. I have their cages a few inches apart and the older one (Onyx) has been investigating, just sitting on top of her house while the younger one (Penelope, or Penny for short) plays and explores her new cage. There doesn't appear to be any aggression, and neither seems fazed by the other. But I bought Penny one of those dusty pumice stones, I believe that's what it's called, the name escapes me, and a couple of other chew toys to keep her active, but she's been rolling in the small pile of dust that results from her pushing the stone around. I just got her and don't want to overwhelm her but is it too soon to give her a dust bath?

And if so, should I use a different bath than I do with Onyx? Any input would be much appreciated!

 

[xBrianx619]

Well, I just successfully joined my two together Here's what I did... after a 3 weeks of quarantining, I found the new addition (todo) to be healthy! So I move cages close together and all that jazz...then after a day or so of that, they knew each other existed...and there were no signs of agression. I was pretty happy about that, so I decided to take them into our bathroom, since it's the biggest neutral ground in our house, and let them run around.(before i set them down, i put a tiny bit of vanilla extract on their noses so they smell the same) In order to take their 100% interest off of each other, i put the dust bath I originally have in there, along with some apple wood to chew on (because who doesnt like apple wood right?!) and some other things to distract them. They hopped around for a little bit and eventually bumped in to each other. The first thing they did was sniff each others noses, and since they both smelled the same, they were cool with it. My chinchilla that I had before the new one (gizmo)...is a little bigger, so he started to mount the little one, he nibbled the top of his head and his ear, but when Todo made a little squeak sound, gizmo stopped. They both rolled in and out of the dust bath, shared some wood/hay, and got along pretty well! After a week of doing that, I cleaned out Gizmos cage (pretty big and a great size for two chinchillas) and put them in it to see what would happen. I don't know if I had good luck with these two, but they bonded nearly immediately. Gizmo was confused having another cage mate, but when I look at them right now, they're snuggled up next to each other I'd also advise you to monitor them 100% of the time until you are fully confident that they won't go bananas on each other. I had a really fun process introducing my guys together!

 

[MyzarandGemma]

I was told by my breeder that it's safe just to have two of everything when you have two because it cuts down on fighting. They may jump into each other's baths, but having two will cut down on them getting mad at each other about it Also, since you quarantined, they should be ok in the same dust. Like I said though, two of everything will probably make your life easier. Sometimes just having a second option is all it takes to make life that much easier for your chinnies!

 

[Cuddlebug]

First off, you should have done a 30 day quarantine with the chinchillas in separate cages and separate rooms. After that, introductions could begin.

By all means, you should never bring a new chinchilla home and just stick it in the cage of the chin you already have. This could have resulted in a seriously injured (or even dead) chinchilla or two. Chinchillas can be quite territorial and will fight to the death. You were really lucky that nothing bad happened.

Also, Quarantine is a way to the two chinchillas from making each other sick. They may both look fine and actually be fine, but they can carry an illness that they are immune to and the other is not since it was never exposed to it. Quarantine also gives you an opportunity to learn what your new chinchilla is like and what is normal for it.

Since they are already in the same cage, there is no sense in going back to the beginning. You need to keep a close eye on them for any signs of illness or fighting for the next few weeks. If you cannot supervise them for whatever reason during this time, you will need to put them in separate cages while you are gone. You need to have a second cage on hand in case they begin to fight.

Sorry if I come across as harsh, I just want everyone reading this to understand that this is not the way to go about adding a new chinchilla.

I hope they continue to get along as good as it seems and congratulations on your new chinchilla. oh, I almost forgot, since they are sharing a cage, they can use the same dust bath.

 

[Ripleyd]

As a follow up, I would like to clarify the chinchillas are NOT in the same cage. Onyx is in the cage she's always been in, while Bella (yes, I changed her name haha) is in a new cage that they hopefully will eventually be in together. Both cages are in my bedroom and are separated by about three or four inches, far enough that they can't touch when both of their noses are protruding from the cage, but I can tell they are smelling each other and checking one another out. I gave Bella the dust bath today and she seems more content in her cage (not rolling around inside it), but she wasn't crazy about the bath itself. She rolled around a bit, enough to cover herself once. But it achieved the purpose we were aiming for . We'll work on the dust baths, and slowly try out some neutral introductions probably in the bathroom after a lot more time has passed.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Sorry, somehow I missed the side by side cages part. You still needed to quarantine the new one in separate room for thirty days. 4 inches apart is not far enough for quarantine purposes.