Introductions

[TheBoles]

My husband and I are relatively new chinchilla owners. We adopted ours about 8 months ago. We were pretty inexperienced then but have since learned a lot. Our first two girls PC and Mac were adopted on the same day from a pet store. They were not litter mates. We took then home in 2 separate carriers. We put them together in one large cage. They squealed at each other and hopped around scared of each other for a few days but showed no real aggression. Now they are best friends. We wanted to expand our family and adopted a 9 week old female named Linux to join our girls ( now a little over a year old).
My husband tried introducing them in much the same way as we did for the other two by placing Linux in their cage. PC and Mac started trying to fight her and we took her out immediately. I suggested we put Linux in a carrier and put that inside the cage so they could safely meet. After a few hours we tried face to face again with the same result. We decided to buy another cage for Linux. We do want to adopt more in the future so if they don 't bond we can leave Linux in her cage and try bonding her with a female when we get one.
We would like to try introductions again but are unsure how to proceed. I don't want Linux to be too scared and definitely not hurt. I have read about cage within a cage , side by side cages, switching smells, neutral playtime,etc. what is the best and least stressful way to introduce Linux to Pc and Mac? Thanks!

 

[tunes]

I would say your chance of introducing her to the two females are slim. These two girls have already bonded and get along great. Adding a third into the mix could cause your two original ones to turn on each other and you might need three separate cages. If you know you are going to add another chin, then just leave Linux by herself until you do. I would not wait too long. Some chins get set in their ways and if they are alone a good portion of their lives, they may not accept a new cage mate no matter how hard you try. That isn't always the case, but it can happen.