seperating chin baby from mum

[Dozla]

Hi, i am thinking of seperating mother and baby chinchilla and wondered which was the kindest way to do it?, i am having the dad netured and putting mum back in with him and i'm considering putting baby with a 3 year old male i have which will also be netured, obviously i will introduce them slowly. I am not going to do this for a few months but wondered if i should keep them next to each other or would that just torment the baby as she couldn't get to her mum???

 

[tunes]

Wouldn't it be easier just to leave the female offspring with mom and then put the two males together? (Or did I read that wrong?)

 

[Dozla]

i have tried introducing the two boys together ... have had their cages next to each other for over 6 months, moving them closer and closer so they can get used to each other. then i finally let them out together.. they went straight into a massive fight didn't even sniff each other, it was straight onto their back legs and fur going every where... one even sprayed wee. i got them apart as quick as poss. I've also tried keeping one in cat box and letting the other running round so they could see each other outside their cages and they still scrapped when i let them out again. I don't know what else to try?? thought it would be nicer for them to have buddies but don't want any more babies.

 

[RDZCRanch]

You should try the cage within a cage method. Ryerson's ships internationally I believe so it shouldn't be hard to get a show cage from them. A cat carrier will not work the same way as a show cage for this introduction method. Also cut the males' whiskers down to nothing and dab some pure vanilla extract onto their noses.

 

[Dozla]

why cut down their whiskers?? that sounds horrible, do they not need them so they know how big a space they can fit into?

 

[RDZCRanch]

Whiskers will grow back. It doesn't hurt them. Long whiskers are a sign of dominance in the chinchilla world and trigger aggression. Do you have anything that they would try to fit into and get stuck? If so...that should be removed as it's not safe whiskers or no whiskers. Some chins, especially aggressive, dominant chins seem a bit off balance when their whiskers are taken away but they quickly adjust. I cut the whiskers off an aggressive female that I put into a colony cage. I cut them completely off. She can still bounce from shelf to shelf with no problem. The first five minutes she had trouble gauging distance, but she caught on quickly. You aren't taking a limb off.

 

[Dozla]

they have tubes and stuff to play in but obviously i let them out and didn't want him to get stuck any where because i had cut his whiskers off. They both seem to square up to each other how am i meant to know which ones dominant?

 

[RDZCRanch]

Both are showing dominance which was why I said to cut both of their whiskers. You take them both down to square one and dab vanilla on their noses.

 

[Rob Walker]

How long does that vanilla last?

 

[RDZCRanch]

A few hours, usually long enough for the chins to calm down about another chin in their area. If they continue to fight with vanilla on their noses and whiskers down, the intro isn't going to work and I usually move to cage within a cage method. That's my last resort method that always works.

 

[Anne-Lise]

I have a couple males here that go absolutely crazy when females are in heat. And they're alone. Putting them together would definitely end up in a big mess when these heats come. I don't know if I am the only one experiencing that kind of problem, but 2 males not neutered together with females around, in heat, here, it does cause a problem.