Tifa & Nova: How to make them BFF!

[kiltbunny]

Sorry, the title is more a joke than anything.

I have ended Nova's quarantine and she has been moved into the chinchilla (Tifa's) room now. Tifa spent an entire day sitting on the bottom level staring... no, GLARING... at Nova. HOW DARE WE ALLOW THIS INTRUDER TO ENTER THE TERRITORY. Tifa is not thrilled. I let Tifa out (from the doublewide of chinchilla cages) and she watched from afar. After I put her up, I let Nova out. Nova went to check out the entire room and also went near Tifa's cage (chinchilla princess mansion) and Tifa literally lunged at the bars, teeth chattering, and wanting nothing more than to rip the face off this other chin.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is normal. From here, what else should I begin doing? I'd LOVE to eventually have them in one cage and be BFF, but at the least I'd like to be able to have them out for playtime together.

 

[Mookie]

You could try swapping which cage either chins are in so they each get used to the other's smell. Also, so your chin won't be as territorial, you could put them in a neutral area (somewhere where they both haven't been) and see how they get along. To help with dominance you can trim their whiskers down and also put a dab of vanilla extract on both of their noses Good luck, and hopefully they will become BFF'S

 

[Shooper]

I put my boys in a neutral cage with no ledges or toys. I stayed right there for an hour or so just in case. They did really well for the most part, so I took them in the bathroom and let em run. They chased eachother and there was a little dominance being shown (humping). After a couple days of this, they began happily living together and are now BFFs. I think I got really lucky with them cause it was easy??? Good luck!

 

[Stackie]

If you use the search function and search for "introduction methods" you will turn up many pages of threads discussing multiple methods for intros and people's input on them. )