Hi There,
I have a bit of a dilemma in introducing my two male chins. They're both the same age, and we've had one (Garrosh) for about 7 months and the second (Beemo) for about 6 months. We have been practising the side by side cage method for about for about 4 months, as well as putting one inside a smaller cage and bringing him into playtime with the other so that they have a little more contact without being able to actually fight. As well as alternating their cages for a few days at a time. Garrosh hasn't been the nicest towards Beemo until about a week ago. We took that as a good sign, because he wasn't showing any signs of aggression during the playtime whilst Beemo was in his small cage. So we finally took the next step, and brought both Chins to a neutral area of our home and introduced them. During the first introduction there was no fighting, they both mainly just tried to establish dominance and we believe Garrosh had secured his place as most dominant. Garrosh even took it one step further and started to clean Beemo's face (this was extremely scary because he started off with cleaning around Beemo's eyes) Anyways, all went well and we returned them to their separate cages that night. Because everything went well during the first meeting we did it again the following day (yesterday). However, this did not go over smoothly. They immediately reacted badly to each other so we immediately separated them and returned them to their cages because we thought they may be trying to start a fight and we wanted to avoid a trip to the vet and possibly sick/hurt/dead chinchilla. Now we are unsure of what to do; I've read that once a fight happens you need to start over in a sense. Keep them in their separate cages and alternate them for about a week and then try have them meet again.
1) Should we wait another week to introduce them?
2) Should we try again tonight?
3) Or the third option; are they forever going to not get along?
I have a bit of a dilemma in introducing my two male chins. They're both the same age, and we've had one (Garrosh) for about 7 months and the second (Beemo) for about 6 months. We have been practising the side by side cage method for about for about 4 months, as well as putting one inside a smaller cage and bringing him into playtime with the other so that they have a little more contact without being able to actually fight. As well as alternating their cages for a few days at a time. Garrosh hasn't been the nicest towards Beemo until about a week ago. We took that as a good sign, because he wasn't showing any signs of aggression during the playtime whilst Beemo was in his small cage. So we finally took the next step, and brought both Chins to a neutral area of our home and introduced them. During the first introduction there was no fighting, they both mainly just tried to establish dominance and we believe Garrosh had secured his place as most dominant. Garrosh even took it one step further and started to clean Beemo's face (this was extremely scary because he started off with cleaning around Beemo's eyes) Anyways, all went well and we returned them to their separate cages that night. Because everything went well during the first meeting we did it again the following day (yesterday). However, this did not go over smoothly. They immediately reacted badly to each other so we immediately separated them and returned them to their cages because we thought they may be trying to start a fight and we wanted to avoid a trip to the vet and possibly sick/hurt/dead chinchilla. Now we are unsure of what to do; I've read that once a fight happens you need to start over in a sense. Keep them in their separate cages and alternate them for about a week and then try have them meet again.
1) Should we wait another week to introduce them?
2) Should we try again tonight?
3) Or the third option; are they forever going to not get along?
