Introducing My Chinchillas

[Sgt Civesejnarf]

Hello,
I am new to this site and i have just recently got a new 15 week old black velvet chinchilla. I am working on introducing the new baby to my 2 year old beige chinchilla and i was wondering how i should go about doing this. The baby and the 2 year old are both male and are in seperate cages but are beside eachother so they can get used to each others scent and meet through the cage. When i have gotten them out together the 2 year old has bitten the 15 week old so i immediately stopped this and then seperated them for the night. What else should i go about doing so that i can eventually put them together in the same cage and they can coexist peacefully?
Thanks

 

[igotfatchins]

I introduced a 3 month male to two 9 month males successfully.
I trimmed everyone's whiskers, dabbed their noses with vanilla extract, and then smooshed them together for 4 trials of 15 minutes. I had to do 4 trials because that's how long it took them to get along.
Good luck on your intro!

 

[Laurie]

Patience is the key. And you have to understand there IS going to be some fighting, nipping, and mounting. Chins are territorial and one always has to be dominant in the cage. When introducing chinchillas yes you can clip whiskers and then put some baking vanilla on noses and butts to help mask scent. You must always keep a close eye on them and never leave them unattended. Do not leave them in a cage alone if you aren't supervising until you are sure they are bonded.

 

[Sgt Civesejnarf]

What does trimming the whiskers do to help make the introduction easier on the chins? Eventhough the 2 year old is nipping at the 15 week old should i still be getting them out together and let them have supervised playtime as often as possible? Also i have heard about switching the chins and putting them in the other ones cage is something that can help in the introduction process. Is that true?

 

[igotfatchins]

I've heard others say that the length of the whiskers is like their ego. Dominant chins will sometimes chew off other chins' whiskers. The technique really worked for my intro, maybe it'll help with yours.

I didn't do the switching cage method, but I have heard of people putting the old chin in a carrier cage and having the new chin roam around and get used to the surroundings.

How is your intro coming along?

 

[Godofgods]

a few years back i had to introduce my male chinchilla (that i had taken in many years before, unknown age but i would guess atleast 3-5 years+) With a female i had jsut recently took in then (who was close to 1 year old). The male had been alone for ages. And the female had jsut been seperated from her male companion. So i new it would be challangeing.

WHen i first brought the female home, i set up her cage away (or as much away as i could) from the male. New envirnment, ne ppl, new house. It was going to take a good while to adjust. I left it like that for around a month or so. I didnt want to rush it.

After that, i placed their cages next to each other but with a foot space inbetween. That way they could get used to each others presence. Just to no that theirs another chin around.

After that i moved their cages closer together. Enough to let them get nose to nose if they wanted.

When i let them out, i occasionaly let them go back into each others cages for a short time.

A good hwile after that i let them have their first face to face meeting outside the cages in the play area. And i was truly amazed. From the first meeting they got along perfectly. Never a spat between them. (untill later when he tried to mount') But they got along jsut fine. Even so tho i keep them seperate and let them come out together.

After doing that for a while i eventuly moved them both into one cage. And they got along jsut fine. Considering both of their pasts, i was amazed. I couldnt hope for it to go any better then it did.

--

With introducing two males however, your goign to have some dominance issues no matter what. Patience and a good eye are two of your best tools at this point.

 

[Sgt Civesejnarf]

So yesterday was sort of a break through day for both chins. First i got both of them out seperately so they could take their bath without being worried about what the other is doing. After that i got them both out together and they went nose to nose and just kind of investigated eachother. This happened the whole time that they were out together. When they were nose to nose they would lighty nibble on each others fur around the eyes but nothing to cause the other harm. Also the younger one was jumping all over the older one and they were both fine with each others presence. The larger one also mounted they younger one which i immediately stopped. So now im just wondering where to go from here.

 

[Godofgods]

just keep it up. If their getting along, let them continue their time out of the cage together. But dont get lax in your duities either. Keep a very clsoe eye on them! The moment you dont is the moment somethings bound to happen.

You can spend a long time on this process. You dont want to attemmpt to move them together prematuraly. So let them get used to this for a good while. If you want, after paly time, you could let them go back into the others cages for a while. Let them explore and what not. THen a little bit later, put them back in their own cage.

Just keep at it, and take it slow.

 

[Stackie]

Don't stop the mounting. This is how they establish their dominance, which will need to be done regardless. Only stop it if it appears to really stress the other chin out or causes extreme fur slipping.

 

[tunes]

I don't have time to take weeks to introduce chins. I use cage within a cage and if it's a truly hard introduction, it might take a week of switching. Generally it takes a day or 2.

Humping and whisker chewing is all about dominance. There is going to be humping and you cannot stop it. Better to let it go and see what happens. If one chin is continually humping the other one, then I would not keep them together. It has been known to make the humpee so upset that they go off their feed, lose weight, start fur chewing, etc. If, however, it is only an occasional quick ride, then it's just one letting the other one know who is in charge.

 

[Sgt Civesejnarf]

Yesterday when i got both of them out they seemed to be getting along just aswell as the day before. They started making noises which was surprising to me since ive never heard my older one make noise for the 2 years ive had him but since he has someone to communicate with i guess it makes sense.

The older one also wall surfed so i figured hes pretty happy even with the company of the new younger one.

When any mounting occured i didnt stop it and it was just like the older one was standing on the younger one, no humping so i figure thats a good sign aswell since no violence or agressiveness was shown.

I was also surprised to see that the younger one is starting to move around more when let out in the company of the older one. When he used to be let out he was just very skittish and tried to stay hidden most of the time but now he is navigating the whole play area.

Thanks for all of the advice thus far.