Possibly Blind and Male Aggressive Behavior

[chinmomma25]

Hello, I have two questions that I would like some help with. I am a chin mommy of 8 young chins and they are just lovely however there are two that I have some concerns about....

Ms. Blizz is a Pink White female that is 5 months old. She is wonderful but is acting very different than the other chinchillas. When we got her, she was kind of a last minute choice because we just love Chins so much and couldn't pass her up so we brought her home with another chin that we got. We put her in our smaller cage (two story with large ramps) with a few friends. She spent a lot of time either at the very top or at the very bottom but she was moving around the cage, when we moved her to the large female cage with everyone (6 levels and no ramps- everyone else jumps) she wound up spending 90% of her time at the bottom of the cage, only going to the second level to eat). I was worried that maybe she was sick so I moved her to a single "breeder" cage that we have (what she was in when we bought her) and she seemed to perk right up a whole lot. However, the more time I have spent with her the more I think she might be at least partially blind. When I put my hand in her cage it's like she doesn't see it but when I get near her face (brush like a whisker) she starts and lifts her head up like I startled her. When I give her a treat she does that too, almost like you have to bump her nose with the treat and she about gets your finger when she takes it where the others gently take it from my fingers. When I open the door she sits at the back of the cage, but I rustle her shavings in the front she bounds forward to the front edge, she startles easily when I touch her rear end to scoop her up but I say "It's just me" and she's starting to not get so upset now as long as I say it every time I touch her. Her eyes are clean and bright but I swear I don't think she can see. I tried moving toward her eyes with my finger and I could about put my finger on her eye (she didn't move, I just didn't do it). So I don't know... what do you guys think?

Next I have a young.... 4 month old Male Extra Dark Ebony, Mr. Fuzby... ALL of our chins get along... except him... lol. He is a holy terror to everyone else. We plan on raising these babies up to become breeders and I want to know is his brat behavior going to get better towards the girls? He chases them like a young boy on the playground and pulls their hair and they all start barking at each other. Is this normal behavior for a young buck? The other two boys we have get along great with the ladies. The boys only get to hang out (right now) with the girls during free run time with supervision. But Mr. Fuzby can't play with everyone cuz he's so rude and bratty. :hair:

 

[Amethyst]

There are a couple things to point out, first, I would take Ms. Blizz to the vet to get her checked out. If she is blind it's best to find out why, it's it a head injury, eye injury, or is something going on in her skull. Blind chins can live perfectly normal lives, you just need to modify the cage ledges with edging and nothing too high.

Second, when adding a new chin you really want to quarantine the new one for 30 days, that allows you to get to know the chin, gives the chin time to settle in, and allows you to observe for any illness before you infect your other chins with it.

As for the young male, chins are physically able to breed as young as 8 weeks, and breeding takes a second, hop on hop off and the female is bred. You really shouldn't breed chins that young so it's best to keep the males and females separate until they are a more appropriate breeding age. Since you are allowing them all to play, I strongly suggest you research breeding before you get into it, if it's not already too late. Mr Fuzby could also be going though early puberty, it's normally around 6 months, but basically during that time they act like teenagers, and can be very moody. He also could just be a chin that doesn't like other chins.

 

[chinmomma25]

All of our chins except two came from the same place and a reputable breeder. We have done a LOT of research and work with our breeder friend here in Indiana going through the motions and understanding of breeding. I know that they are too young to breed and we have no intention of breeding until they are over one year old.

Blizz is now in a one story breeder/starter cage, like the one she was in when we got her and seems much happier. We do intend on taking her to the vet to check on her eyes.

As far as Mr. Fuzby breeding, he was under supervision the whole time and he was too busy chasing everyone to breed anyone and we also put him away because he was being a "brat" to everyone else, lol. I am thinking he's going through early puberty, I really hope he is not going to like other chins because at some point he is going to be the buck of choice with our girls. :/