need help with female chin asap please!

[lizluck88]

i currently have two female chinchillas, one has one kit and the other has two. when i get the kits out to weigh them at night, i let their "auntie" smell them. the chinchilla with the single kit sniffs at the other two babies and talks to them (in a friendly tone) while usually the mom of the two kits tries to pull the cage bars off to get to the kit, she must not like her much! tonight, after i put away the single kit, the mother of the two siblings started to attack her babies! i had to physically reach in and separate them. both kits were fine, thank goodness, and i have mom in a separate cage right now to calm down.
my question is... why did she do this!? also, is it safe to put them back together? the kits were born friday 13th, so they are just shy of three weeks old so they are still nursing.
the only other thing that was going on at the time of the attack was my husband rattling a trash bag around the corner (which is a noise they are familiar with since they are near our kitchen).

 

[javachin]

Don't let the other mother smell the other's kits. Most likely the one mother smelled your second female on them, thinking they weren't hers. You can put a bit of vanilla on both females' noses to drown out the scents, but its not guaranteed to work. You're going to have to keep a close eye on everyone.

 

[addictedtochins]

Yes, she is right. Keep a close eye on them...hopefully Momma will not attack/kill them. If they are in the living area I would sleep on the couch to monitor them. Let us know if anything happens. The other Mother may foster them if needed. If there is any aggression take them out instantly!

 

[DoGooder]

I'm not sure what happened. Among some species, the mother will reject her children if they were near other animals. For example, if a human picks up a baby animal then the mother will abandon her baby. However, in the wild the chinchilla herd takes care of kits while their mother is away foraging for food, so I don't know why the mom of the two kits was upset because her kits were with another mom.

Also, I know this is off topic but I have posted several times and I can't see any of my posts. It's not because I'm a new member because I noticed several new member posts dated the same day they registered. I registered two days ago and my posts are invisible.

DoGooder

 

[GoldenChinchillas]

I wouldnt let the other female smell the other kits because it will trigger this reaction. I wouldnt even do this with adults because it can set them off. Iv heard people doing the vanilla trick to help out but sometimes if you give them a dust bath all at once to bring kits back to mom it will help since almost every chinchilla loves dust baths it will take her mind off attacking the kits.

 

[lizluck88]

i like all my chinchillas to stay familiar with each others smells because they do play together frequently, although not yet since the kits were born. i did put mom back in with the kits after i let her sniff them and she didn't react aggressively, so far everything is fine. as soon as she was near them, she pulled the nearest one under her and started cleaning away. we have been keeping a close eye on them since, but she's just watching tv while the kits nurse away.
i'm wondering if perhaps one of the kits bit her or something (the male has bitten me two or three times already, i hope he grows out of that soon!) and maybe she got really ticked off at him... she can be a moody little booger.
thank you guys for the quick responses, i know it's late! (or early if you want to look at it that way...)

 

[tunes]

I'm not real sure why you would have done that with the kits, but I agree - don't do it again. It's just putting the little ones at risk. Rather than putting vanilla on the kits, which will just make them smell stranger, grab a handful of dirty shavings from the cage and rub them in it. They will smell like themselves to her again.

Let them get familiar with each other when they are older if you want to try then. Now they are just too defenseless.

DoGooder, it doesn't have anything to do with how long you have been a member. It has to do with how many posts you make. Until you make 5-7 posts on the forum, you stay in moderation.

 

[DoGooder]

tunes, thanks for explaining about invisible posts! I do see my post on this thread now. I hope soon I'll be able to have a profile picture as well.

As for the situation with the mother being aggressive with her kits. It just occurred to me that maybe that happened because they were newborns. I guess in the wild momma chinchillas stay close to their newborns, and when their kits are older they allow other herd members to babysit their kits when they go out foraging.

DoGooder

 

[EMSChins]

Again, I have to agree with Peggy here - not sure exactly why you are trying to introduce the kits to another adult female unless you needed to foster them. You are simply asking for a kits nose to get bit through or a finger or toe bit off which can happen before you even have time to react. Why ask for such a thing unless you have no other choice. Chinchilla kits are not like human children, they simply need the care and nourishment of their own mother to survive, they do not needs "friends" or playdates at 3 weeks of age. Just my opinion but this is an accident waiting to happen. There really is no advice to help you get your more aggressive adult female to stop being aggressive to another mothers kits. But there is a way to stop putting them right in front of her nose where she can harm them - just don't do it!

 

[Pookinaround]

I agree with everything said. They have PLENTLY of time to get to know one another LATER! Let them grow up some first.

 

[Dreamlite]

I would never let otyher mothers smeel another females kits. It will do nothing but cause fights. If you want them to get along at play time or in cages then you need to do intros, not smells. And never do intros till the kits are 3 months old or weaned. Kits are sooo small and easily injured. I'm not sure why you would even think to do that.

 

[lizluck88]

i don't put any chinchillas (kits or adults) IN each others cages, i let them sniff/see each other THROUGH the cages. i would never put them in danger like that!
anyways, all chinchillas have acted as if nothing even happened now. i have absolutely no idea why mom acted like that other than, like mentioned previously, she is a bit moody sometimes. my husband and i have been keeping eyes on them at all times, and all they have done is sleep and eat for the most part, hehehe. the kits have been munching on hay and i think that i finally saw one of them try to lick the water bottle last night!
i did decide before any kits were even born to not let them have out-of-cage playtime together anymore until the kits were much older if at all. we let them out in shifts now

 

[starleomach]

I still don't see why you did what you did, why expose nurising kits to another mother it just adds tension to the whole situation. Handeling the babies is fine but why do anything that would put them at risk. Had you left them alone you would not be having this issue and you wouldn't be risking the need to hand feed.

 

[lizluck88]

well i didn't realize that i made a mistake. that's why i come on here and ask questions, i don't know everything. i thought that since my chinchillas have playtime together that they should stay familiar with each other and everyone's individual scents. i get that i messed up, but almost everyone that has replied has had a negative comment like i'm purposefully harming my chinchillas instead of giving me the advice i am here for. if i wanted someone to make me feel like crap for making a silly mistake, that's what i would have asked for. if this is how you run this forum, then i guess i will find another website to ask for advice. thank you all.

 

[tunes]

Lizluck - You did ask for advice and you got it. Most people were fine in their posts. Don't let one or two posts turn you off from getting the help you need. Now that you know, you won't do it again.

 

[Dreamlite]

Everyone is just commenting on why you felt the need to sow them to the other female. Chins can smell better than we can. So she knows there are other kits in the room. So there is no real point in doing what you did. You asked for advise and we gave it. We are all very emotionally involved with our chins so we do tend to give equally stronge answers. None of the replies were mean or harsh in any manner. We asked questions and you frankly didn't bother answering them.