Me ... again

[ChinchillaSteve]

Ok,
Here I am ... again.
You'll probably remember me asking how to bond a kid with a 6 year old chin who never had company.

I know, I know you're probably thinking: "Great, him again" because many of you already helped me out.

Thing is: I don't have ANY experience doing this, so I don't know the limits when to stop.
I don't know what is normal behavior and what's not.

Things are going like this:

I was planning to put them both in a pet carrier like someone suggested after few days of switching cages.

But I'm scared my young chin will get hurt.

Help ... again

(Want to get them together so I can move the cage into the living room for the winter)

 

[jess_w]

I'm not an expert on the subject, but I wouldn't have thought putting them in a pet carrier together would be a good idea. I know people do it and have said that it works, but personally I think it is a bit cruel.

I haven't had chins for long, but I do have two chins that I bonded myself. I started by putting the two cages near each other, then swapped cages as you've done. After doing that for a week or so, I did the "small cage in big cage" method, which is where you put one of them in a pet carrier and put that in the bigger cage for a while, then switch them round, so they get used to being in the same cage but can't hurt one another.

After that they had supervised playtimes together, and when that was going well (i.e. not chasing or kacking at each other) I put them in the same cage. I was going to build up the amount of time I left them in the same cage, but they hit it off straight away so I just left them overnight and they were fine!

You're the best one to judge when they will be ready to go in the same cage, if they ever will. Just go slowly with it until they accept each other

(mine have been bickering a bit recently but they were fine the first few months - just don't forget they could turn on each other at any time)

 

[Sasha]

The routine I used was a few weeks of side-by-side cages... Moved to switching cages, or the smaller cage in the larger cage with the more dominant of the two in the smaller cage... Playtimes in a neutral territory. It is a long and slow process, and unfortunately it may never work out.. But it is best to take your time. During playtime fur slipping and chasing is normal. Just look out for biting and other aggression. Some people also suggest cutting the whiskers to about 1-2inches long. Chins assess dominance on the size of their whiskers, or so I have heard.
Good luck! It certainly is a stressful process, both on you and the chins.

 

[Essentia]

Steve, what you are referring to is "smooshing" with the pet carrier. Some people swear by this method, others feel it is cruel. You make your own decision.

I will say though you can't use a regular pet carrier. It has to be small. Small, small. Small enough that the two chins are literally "smooshed" together. If they have any room to jump or move around a bunch there is more possibility of one, or both, getting hurt.

Upon reading up on the method before, I did it with two rescue chins and it worked like a charm. I housed them near each other for 2 weeks. From there I did the smooshing method in one of the two hole carriers I have from JP chinchillas. The size was perfect for putting them both in one side and them having enough room to sit together, but that was about it. My husband and I then took them into the car. I'm not sure why the movement seems to calm them, but it works with human babies as well. He held the carrier while I drove. We drove around for 15 minutes. There was a small amount of kacking in the beginning, but he watched them like a hawk to make sure they weren't fighting. When we got back we let them into a neutral, completely cleaned of any smells cage with fresh dust sitting at the bottom. They went to town with the dust and have been best friends ever since. We actually adopted them out together as a pair, and the people who adopted them said they get along flawlessly.

I am not saying this will happen for you as easy as it did for me. I will say that the people who swear by it say it has a very low fail rate. The way you introduce it completely up to you, and please do not think I am promoting this way of introducing chins. I used it once and it worked, but I have also used other methods that have worked as well. I just didn't want you think you could just put both in a regular size carrier and like magic they would get along.

Just as an FYI, Tunes has a good way of introducing as well. If she hasn't told you about it already, you may want to PM her. Hers is more of a cage within cage method. You put one chin in a small carrier in the other cage. Let them get used to it for a bit, then switch out the chins (I believe this is how it goes). I would talk to her directly though so she can explain it further.

 

[JennyBug]

DON'T PUSH IT is the most important advice I can give you. We bonded two chins last year, and they get along wonderfully. We tried to add a third, and it ended in the odd girl out having to go to the vet for a bite wound. While some chins will readily bond, some will never want a cagemate, and that is important to remember.

I've considered the smoosh method, but I have heard stories about it. If the cage is big enough to let one chin overpower another, there could be huge problems. With an adult and a kit, I'm not sure how you would work with smooshing since the adult is bigger than the kit.

Best of luck to you, and check out Tunes - she's the woman with intros!

 

[Brittney]

I got my 2 boys bonded pretty quickly using the smoosh method and a car ride, clipping whiskers, clean cage, and a dust bath. There was a bunch of chasing and fur slipping and humping, but no biting or attacking. I just watched them very closely and had a couple sleepless nights watching them all night. The best feeling in the world is seeing them cuddled up together. Granted they are both around a year old.

I'm going to attempt to add a 3rd here soon. So I'm a little nervous...

I'm sure you'll do fine, just dont push anything.

 

[ChinchillaSteve]

Thanks for all the help guys

I'll start switching cages tomorrow to start with.

Thanks a million!

 

[nicky]

I would start side by side and work from there. Especially since your 6 year old chin has been alone all this time. A lot of people say that adult chins take to kits easier than they do other adults but that's not always true. I have a few females that will take to a kit in an instant and i have a few females that will not. Same things with males. Sometimes if the kit is not their own they are not so willing to accept them. Out of fear of the kit getting injured I always do slow intros with them. Usually they get along rather quickly and things move right long smoothly. Don't push them to be "friends" . Let them take their time or it could be a deadly situation. That's my opinion. There are lots of people who recommend the smoosh method, but I don't ever do it that way. I really wouldn't recommend smoosh method with an adult vs. kit. It's obvious that the adult is probably going to be the one to start a problem and could easily harm a kit.

 

[EveningChin]

I would start with side by side like you said. But after then I would put the older chin in a smaller cage in the kits cage and watch them carefully. There is no garentee they will get along. I took 2 months of side by side and cage in cage before I had playtime between Nyx and Petra. Petra is my 3 year old and Pia was 4 months at the time. There was no longer any signs of aggression in the cage in cage from Petra so I thought it time. Couple of baths, toys and places to run and hide. With in seconds Petra attacked and we were off to the vet. After a bunch of stitches and some hefty vet bills later... Nyx's ear will never be the same.

We always hope for the best when people are trying to intro, because we want them to be friends, we all want the snuggly friends. But so many times intros go wrong, not because of anything we the people did but because of the chinchillas personalities. And then they do get along for a while before it all goes wrong.

On that note, I did try to intro Nyx again, this time with Pia, That intro went like a dream. I couldn't put a cage next to Nyx's cage so I devided the cage in half and put Pia in one half. They got along immediately and started to cuddle though the wiring, Playtime was a perfection. It was wonderfull. Myx was7 months Pia was 3 months.

Nyx's Ear for reference: