Male/Female introduction issues

[rtnlsltn]

I recently adopted a female chin (6 months ago). I've had my male for 3 years, they are the same age. I took all the precautions when introducing them to each other. She's small in comparison to him; he's rather "meaty" and firm, while she's kinda like a ferret. They do their "mating" thing a bit, but normally he's chasing her around and she's running away, this goes on until she's in a corner and he's chewing on her whiskers. He is very dominant over her, she will fight him off a bit (barking/standing on hind legs), but eventually tires out. When I let them live together for a few days she wasn't eating well and was sulking a lot. I've tried placing each of them in the other's cage, and the same result seems to occur. Whenever they're together in a cage and I go by them, she's standing up by the cage bars like she wants to come out.

Is there anything I can do to improve their relationship? I've read of cutting the dominant one's whiskers, I'd imagine this would be hard, but does it work? I'm open to ideas, I just really want them to get along :-\

 

[Dragonflye]

She's obviously stressed, maybe you could start by separating them.

You are intending to breed them apparently? A "ferret like" chin does not sound especially like a good candidate for breeding. I would take a look at the FAQs in the breeding section here if you haven't already.

Trimming whiskers may or may not work. Sounds like your male is pretty dominant...

 

[alli713]

I actually feel pretty bad for your little girl chin. From your descriptions you can tell she's scared and is stressed and trying to get away from the male.

A small female chin should not be bred. If she is indeed small, she may be too small to pass any kits should she get pregnant. And if not caught in time for a c-section both her and the kits could die. Not to be melodramatic here, but there are things that need to be considered when breeding. Throwing two random chins together is not a good idea.

I really think you should separate them indefinitely. No shared playtimes, no shared cage space. With the aggression shown by your male you could easily come home to a dead female.

 

[ticklechin]

You have 2 cages, use them before you come home to a dead female. Bonded chins with kill each other for no reason and you already have issues, just asking for trouble.

 

[Stackie]

She doesn't want to mate and she doesn't want to be with the male, end of story. Coupled with the fact that he is aggressive is even more of a reason to separate them. You are basically forcing her to live with a male who cares about nothing but mating with her and she does not want to. The excessive chasing and her lack of eating are huge signs that you need to separate them before something worse happens. You can't "make" chins get along.

A "ferret like" chin should not be bred, especially to a larger male. She could have very large kits that could get stuck in the birthing canal because of a small pelvis and too large of kits that can't get past. There is a good chance she is already pregnant, so I suggest separating her so she isn't stressed out of her mind and reading in the breeding & babies section. Save up money for vet care in case she should need a c-section or any other vet care.

I'm not being mean, I'm just being very blunt. If you intend to breed, you should research before doing so. If you still want to breed, look into buying quality breeding stock from another reputable breeder. Breeding chins, females especially, should be big and blocky and of a certian quality. Not only so they are built for giving birth to kits safely, but also because you should only breed to better the chinchilla, not get cute furry babies. There are enough unwanted chins in rescues that need homes, more do not need to be produced just for the fun of it.

 

[tunes]

As countless chin owners have found, "wanting" them to get along isn't going to make it happen. Some chins are just completely incompatible, especially with such a dominant male. I have male here, he's gorgeous. Big blocky beige boy I would kill to have offspring out of. He turned on his cagemate. He will never go in with a female again. I will not risk one of my females to this beast of a male. He will be sold as a pet only, to be housed alone, and that will be the end of that.

You're lucky it hasn't escalated beyond chasing. Chasing is bad enough at this point, since it's quite obvious your female is terrified of your male. Also, to reiterate what others have said, I'm guessing your female is not of a quality to be bred. Did you get these chins from reputable breeders? Did you get them from rescues or pet stores? Have you done a lot of research into breeding before jumping in?

Take a look through the Breeding and Babies FAQ's here on forum. There's an entire section just for that. Then take a look at the section where breeding turns bad, under that same subforum. Read through the Breeding and Babies subforum and see how much fun breeding can be, especially when you are not prepared for it. I've been hand feeding 8 kits now for 4 weeks. I'm bone tired. It's not like this is my first time, and I work at home so it's much easier for me, but I'm still tired. Every 2 hours around the clock gets real old, real fast. Have you thought about the offspring? What do you intend to do with them? By 8 weeks they have to be weaned into separate cages. If they are same *** they can go together, but if they are opposite ***, you need 2 more cages. Do you have a spare cage for your male to be separated from your female? If you don't he will continually attempt to perform a breedback. Your female can actually get pregnant again while still pregnant with this litter, while delivering this litter, and immediately following birth. And trust me, your male isn't going to care one little bit. His job in life is to nail her, and he will.

There is a LOT to consider before breeding your chins. Too many times I come on forum to see emergency posts because mom is dying, mom killed dad, the kits are not nursing, the mom has rejected the kits, the mom has pyometra -- the list is endless. And every single time that it's a first time breeder, they have absolutely no clue that any of this could happen.

 

[ticklechin]

Or Mom and the kits inside gets euthanized because of the cost of a C section, those can run 1-2k so a big vet fund needs to be avaliable if you are going to breed.

 

[AZChins]

Yes, everyone should save up a lot of money and be prepared for complete heartbreak before breeding. It's fun when things go well, but utter **** when they go wrong.

Be very careful with that aggressive male. He's not just aggressive, he's hormonally charged and wanting to make babies. Sometimes the males don't even mean to hurt the female...it just happens when the male is trying to mate.