Old Chins to New Chins? HELP!

Cunningham4678 · Jul 12, 2014

I bought two chinchillas and they were together from birth, they love each other..I just got two other chinchillas and they are very young. I want to put them together, but my old chinchillas don't like them yet. I held the new baby in there cage and my first chinchilla didn't act happy. What can I do to get them to like each other ??

Shenanigans · Jul 13, 2014

First- have you quarantined your new chins?
Second- Putting the new baby in the cage isn't a good way to go about it. Chins are territorial, so they will eventually need to be all put in either a cage none have been in before or a scrubbed down and rearranged cage to make them think this is a new shared territory and not someone's.
Third- are you making sure the chins are all the same sex? I just ask to make sure your thinking about it. You should never house opposite sex chins together unless one sex has been spayed/neutered or you are actively planning on breeding. Breeding can happen in an instant and is not something to take lightly.
Fourth-even if you do manage to make all four happy in the same cage, make sure your have separate cages for EACH chin in case they one day decide they don't like each other. It's been known to happen in happily bonded chins.
Fifth- they may never like each other. bonding chins is about fitting personalities together. Some people don't get along with other people and some chins will never get along.

Ok. Sorry, that came across mean. I dont mean to but there's a lot of things to keep in mind to make sure every chin stays healthy and safe. There are a few different methods to bond- some people prefer to have playtime together, other prefer to smoosh them all in a cat carrier (im not sure how that'd go with four). I would try introducing one of the new chins first and making sure it's accepted rather than trying both at the same time.
There's plenty of tips and discussion of bonding on the forum- use the search tool and browse the threads.

Welcome to the forum, and as I've said, read around. Browsing and searching threads will get you so much info.

Smidgeyy · Jul 13, 2014

When getting a new chin, you should quarantine them for at least 30 days before allowing any kind of contact between the two. This should be done in a separate room but I have heard of people using the same room and keeping them on different sizes(provided your room is large enough). The new chins could be carrying things you wouldn't want passed on to your old chins.

If they've been in contact, it's pretty much too late to quarantine them now, depending on how much contact they had.

There are many different ways to introduce chins together. I don't think you're ready to try it yet if you haven't researched what to do before trying it.

Everything Shenanigans said is correct^^

Cunningham4678 · Jul 13, 2014

Thank You.

Yes I am separating them til I know they will be okay and the new ones don't have anything. I have two big cages i put them in. And what i did was but him to the cage for five seconds and took them away, so not much contact. Yes i have two BIG cages a smaller cage and a pet carrier to put them in when i clean there cages.

tunes · Jul 13, 2014

Any contact at all is breaking quarantine. They shouldn't even be in the same part of the house. Quarantine is important because it helps make sure the chin you are bringing in doesn't have an illness that can spread to your resident chin.

There is a thread in the FAQ section about different ways to introduce chins. Give that a read and it may have one that think can work for you. I usually do cage within a cage.

Something to think about - if you try and put all four together, you may end up having all four fighting. Not only will that result in injuries to the chins, but you might end up having to have them in four separate cages permanently. You might want to consider just leaving them in twos. Trying to shove four together when one is already an established pair isn't necessarily going to turn out well.