lets hear good intro stories

[Jovi]

Well i have heard enough bad intro stories to scare me to bits. I can't even tell you guys how nervous i am to introduce Rocket to Thunder in a few weeks. How about throwing some great intro stories at me... ones that were easy or went well. That's possible too isn't it? They aren't always difficult?

 

[Zach]

My 3 girls were already together when I got them so I'm not sure how the "intro" went. They get along great though. During sleep time all you can usually see is a big ball of fur with 3 tails sticking out. At any given time at least 2 of them are climbing/laying on each other.

 

[alli713]

Out of the 4 intros I've done, I've had 2 successful intros, one of which was easy. The odds aren't in my favor with intros lol

The easy one was where I intro'd my rather passive, submissive chin to a baby (almost 3 months old I think). It was very simple and there was no fur pulling or anything. A couple dominance humps and that was it. They've been living happily together for 2 years now.

My other successful intro was with MuShu and Keiki. This one was not really easy though. Keiki came from a ranch and so wasn't used to a large cage and was rather nervous. So I let them have a play time and MuShu kept trying to dominance hump Keiki but Keiki would run away causing her to loose a bunch of fur. I could tell it wasn't aggressive, but she was scared. So I figured that if I could contain them, they would work out their dominance. So I did the smush method with them. Put them both in a show cage. Then I put them in a completely cleaned out cage (washed it with bleach and dried in the sun) and all new ledges and fleece things. Nothing left in there to smell like any other chin. After they were smushed together in the show cage and were sitting nicely together I let them in the cage. And everything was fine and has been since then.

Smushing I would not recommend for newbies. I think it's important to be able to tell the difference between aggression and dominance.

I dread intros. So yeah, I'm probably not much help lol

 

[Cuddlebug]

I have had intros go both ways. I have 2 girls who hate each other and I will never put them together again. On the other hand, Bamm Bamm is happy with any female I give him. Missy is pretty laid back, too, and will go with any male or female I put in her cage. I also have Betty, who doesn't mind which chin I put her with. I usually give them a dust bath, then put the chins into a small cage to smoosh them and then put them in the male's cage or a neutral cage. If anyone gets testy I take the chins involved and smoosh them again. That usually does the trick.

 

[Euphoric]

The intro of both my chins was easy. There was a little chasing but thats it. Valentine asserted dominance and that is it.
So was the intro of my bunnies

 

[tunes]

I rarely have a problem introducing chins, and I've done my fair share. It would take me a long time to give you specifics, but I would say I've got about a 90 to 95% success rate.

That doesn't mean that somewhere down the line, even years later, there might be issues. That can happen with any chin pairing any time.

 

[Dappleganger]

After the 30 days quarantine, we put our new boy Billy in the play area (my bathroom) with Buddy for two days in a row. They got along great so we put him in Buddy's cage the third day. They fought that night but not too bad (and yes, I stayed up almost the entire night watching!) and within 24 hours there were beginning to get along. The kids swear it was only 5 days before the boys were cuddling as if they'd always been together. I think the key is knowing personalities well and being prepared for "Just in Case." Now if we could just find a cage mate for our girl, we'll be set. I think she'd do well with a very young female and not one that is her size.

 

[starleomach]

I am introing as I type. I put 3 chinnies (a sapphire male and 2 standard females) into a show cage 5 minutes ago and they are already grooming each other. Most of my intros go well and are quick.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Man you guys are lucky.

I've got 4 males here and 1 of them is very laid back, where the other 3 are dominant. MaveRick's still young and going through puberty so yeah. I want 2 of them to be friends at least. Chase was use to have a female cage mate but won't take to MaveRick. They are just butts lol

 

[AZChins]

Good intro story...

I put my chin girl Surprise in with Sugisan and his wife Lydia. They got along instantaneously and groomed each other for hours this afternoon. I scrubbed the cage down and put in new ledges and toys, also I trimmed everyone's whiskers down. Everyone is happy and cuddling and happily munching on hay. They've been together for over six hours with no problems at all, just happy chins. The females really seem to be liking each other's company.

 

[LovingChins&Hedgies]

I have had quite a few good intros and only a few "bad" ones. I just had to do 2 more intros a few wks ago because I was switching a few around after selling cagemates. I put in my BV female (about 8 mos old) w/ my son's mosiac TOV-Pikachu (female-4 mos) and they took to each other no problem. Previously the BV had lived w/ her sister and mother and Pikachu had lived w/ a couple other "weanies" since they had been weaned. I also intro'd CJ (around 1 yr) and Stormy (just about 2 yrs) to each other and it too worked out fine. (both males) Neither cage had any fur flying, just took to opposite corners or a bit of "hiding" at first, but never saw any agression at all. Now I'm hoping intro'ing Stormy to my grandma's chin will work as well. She had 2 of mine and one just suddenly died and she's devasted so I told her, I'd give her Stormy since I didn't want to sell him, but didn't really have room if we end up in a smaller place so it'd be nice to still be able to see him often. She had 2 males so I'm hoping that since the surviving one had always lived w/ another male, that hopefully he'll take to Stormy pretty well and Stormy has been intro'd to a few different ones here (both male and female) and I've never had any issues w/ him.

 

[Stackie]

You've gotta have a very thick skin when doing intros, and know what you are watching. You have to know the difference between aggression and dominance, which can be very hard to decipher if you've hardly seen two chins interact before. I've had many successful intros, but two have ended in tragedy about a year or so in. I have had 2 instances where the cagemates, after being together over a year, turned on one another.

However, I do have one pair that have been living together for almost 2 years, and a trio that seem to get along fine.

 

[alli713]

You've gotta have a very thick skin when doing intros, and know what you are watching. You have to know the difference between aggression and dominance, which can be very hard to decipher if you've hardly seen two chins interact before. I've had many successful intros, but two have ended in tragedy about a year or so in. I have had 2 instances where the cagemates, after being together over a year, turned on one another.

However, I do have one pair that have been living together for almost 2 years, and a trio that seem to get along fine.

I totally agree. When I did my first intros I had no idea if it was aggression or dominance. Now that I've tried to do 4 different ones, I have a better idea of what's going on. That's why I felt more comfortable with my last intro I did, I could tell it wasn't outright aggression, rather dominance.

 

[Brittney]

Well I can now answer this cause my intro went very well, in my eyes that is. I let Bryson and Ande play in a neutral bathroom for maybe 10 minutes to let them duke out their dominance. There was a lot of humping, a lot of kacking and chasing, a ton of fur, but no blood. I had work that morning, so I wasn't prepared to stay up all night watching them, plus I hadn't cleaned out the cage, so I left them side by side for another night. That evening, I scrubbed down the cage with bleach and water and dried it very well. Took them back to the bathroom and let them play. Still some humping and chasing, but a lot less kacking. Once I set the cage up and washed all fleece items with some vinegar to get the smell out, I put them both in their carrier together and walked them to the cage. I let them out and there was still some chasing, humping and fur slip, but I let them duke it out but kept my eye on them throughout the night. That morning, after a 2 hour nap, I woke up to my 2 boys snuggling up next to each other, and grooming each other. I did clip whiskers a little and that seemed to slow down on the chasing almost immediately. Though, today there is still some humping going on, and uhh I think both boys are confused as both are "finishing" on each other :vomit:. Now I need to figure out how to get crusty mats out of my boy's bottoms. sigh... At least they are BFF's now... if that's what you want to call it.

 

[AZChins]

Dust baths help a little...it sort of cakes up on the stuff and gets a little to come out of the fur a little at a time. ick.

Clipping whiskers works really well. That's one of my main tricks...it takes a chin from feeling big and tough to feeling small and a lot less aggressive.

I'm so glad that they are getting along pretty well now. Those initial intros are so scary sometimes! I hope that they didn't slip too much fur.

 

[Brittney]

Well I found out that brushing it and pulling made it slip, but got the clumps out, but there is still mats and clumps under his tail.. I swear, Ande is very confused and will not let up with this whole mating with Bryson thing.

 

[AZChins]

Ande may be a little psychologically messed up from what he went through before. Poor little guy. I hope he just grows out of it. He may just be going through puberty or REALLY, REALLY happy to see another chinchilla!

 

[Brittney]

haha Maybe so. I wonder if he even knows that Bryson is male, and not female. Though, he is still skittish when Bryson jumps from shelf to shelf. Ande hasn't quite figure that out yet, and misses the shelf by about 3 inches, so he spends his time at the bottom. I put his tube down there, he seems pretty content for now.

 

[AZChins]

In a few days he'll be much more confident. It could just be Ande's age. Young male chinchillas are a little disgusting once they figure out that they are male. My first chin was about 6 months when I first brought him home...he used grab my wrist and mount my hand. I hope Ande doesn't start doing something like that to you.

Still, maybe he's just happy! I mean, he sort of really lucked out and won the chinnie lottery with getting a new home with Bryson and a mommy that will love him forever. He got out of the little dank carrier and has a huge room to play in with a nice cage and all sorts of good hay and food. All this strange behavior may just be happiness...as gross as it is.

 

[AZChins]

I should bring you some more chinnies... hehehehehe (I won't, I swear...I know that you wouldn't be able to say no and it would be not fair to do something like that to you.)