New Friend for Tico?

[spochins]

I have a 4 year old, male, neutered chin named Tico. Unfortunately his sister and cage mate had to euthanized several days ago. I have read that some chins are O.K. living by themselves. However, I think that Tico might be happier with a cage mate.
What are your thoughts? If I were to get a new chin should it be a male or female? Neutered? Young or old?
I originally got Tico and his sister from a rescue. The rescue primarily has bonded pairs. Would it be a bad idea to try to introduce Tico to a bonded pair?

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Give yourself and Tico a little time to grieve.

I think that getting a young male chin would give you a better chance of a successful introduction. However, since Tico is neutered, the youngster may grow up and start to pick on Tico, so he might need to be neutered as well.

I had a similar situation with Mr. Whiskers and Baby. Whiskers bonded with and accepted him for over a year, then one day, I came home from work to a badly bitten/beaten Baby cowering in a corner and Whiskers with a hole in one ear.

Dr. Fitzgerald said that neutering them both would probably allow them to live together again. It did, but Baby died a few months later from unrelated causes.

At this point, I knew that Mr. Whiskers needed a new chinnie friend, so I got My Little Snuggler. Again, they lived happily together for a while, but then The Snuggler reached puberty and began picking on Whiskers...and that's when HE got fitted for HIS Little Pink Apron!!!

They have been living together happily so far (touch wood), and I'm hoping that they will live a long, happy life together, but I ALWAYS have that emergency cage standing by in case they don't. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Good luck.

 

[TillyChinchilla]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Is Tico neutered? If so, my suggestion is a single female or maybe a pair of females to do an intro too. Not a baby female in case he decides he wants to mate, this could be unsafe for her.

If you pair him with a young male, he will be going through puberty and could annoy the heck out of Tico, and unless he is a submissive male, there may be issues.

 

[Sasha]

Also, be sure to have an extra cage on hand for quarantine if you don't already do. You will need to keep the new chin in a separate room for 30days before you can introduce them. You've gotten some good advice on the sex/age of a new chin. Just be sure that if you get a female, they cannot make babies, as that is a very good possiblility otherwise, and a huge responsibility to undertake. Good luck.

 

[mistywaterwoman]

I'd also just caution you to make sure that your environment is safe for any other chins right now. I don't know the cause of his cagemate's having to be put down, but make sure it wasn't something catching.

 

[LovableFuzziezandCrawliez]

There are a lot of factors as previously mentioned, when planning on buying new and introducing chinchillas.

- be sure to quarantine your new chinnie for 30 days
- be sure to have a second set of cage and supplies for this new chinchilla (always in case they don't get along and need to be housed individually permanently).
- make sure that your chinchilla passed from natural causes and that there was no illness
- consider getting Tico neutered that way he can be paired with females without the risk of kits or with other males so the chance of aggression may be lowered.
- be prepared for the unexpected - people can never predict what may or may not happen. So when it comes down to it, people here cannot tell you if it is a great idea or not to get Tico another cagemate. If you want to, you can get another chinchilla - but they may not get along. Unpredictable.

HOWEVER - Chinchillas can do very well on their own! There is no real need to get him a cagemate. As long as you can provide lots of attention then he will be fine.