I have 2 male chinchillas who are now currently living separately but I would like them bonded. The following are descriptions of their personalities.
My first chinchilla, Tubby, was purchased from a pet store in October of 2007. His age is unknown, but I'm guessing that he's almost 2 years old by October of this year. He is super comfortable with me; let's me annoy him (for fun of course), scratch him, he's just generally fun to play with. For some reason he does not like strangers, even the vet (this only happened after I hired a petsitter to look after him .. I wonder whatever happened to him), i.e. he would snort & make 'kack' noises when strangers come close to his cage. He used to mount my hand, but doesn't do this anymore as I won't let him, if he ever does to mount my hand again I normally place my hand on his bank (as if I'm mounting him).
My second chinchilla, Winnie, was brought home in March 2008 to be Tubby's companion. He is exactly 1 year & 10 months old, so in terms of age Tubby & Winnie are not that much different. Winnie's personality is almost the complete opposite of Tubby's; he's more skittish (only recently that he lets me pet him during his out-of-cage playtime), calmer than Tubby (doesn't mind being handled, for instance I like to carry him around the apartment for as long as 10 minutes & he wouldn't try to flee), he's completely comfortable with strangers.
When I first brought home Winnie, I placed him in a separate cage right to Tubby & I also kept switching their cages every 2-3 days so they can get acquainted with each other's smell. After a month or so, I decided to follow the neutral-zone method & let both out. The instant I saw fur slipping, I panicked & placed both back in their cages. I remember that I got bitten by one of them, too. I tried again, but the fur slipping, barking, & 'kacking' made me almost give up the intro session. After all that, I remember taking Tubby out, holding him & standing in front of Winnie's cage so they can see each other; he started shivering. That's when I decided to give the intro session a rest for awhile. I continually swapped their cages, but at that time I separated the cages into different rooms. After a couple of months, I tried the out-of-cage intro session again. Same scenario: fur slipping, barking, 'kacking,' & snorting. I haven't tried again since last year. I want to mention that during all those intro sessions, no blood has been drawn; I didn't dare to see that happen.
They are now in opposite sides of the same room. They don't ever play together. They only see each other from a distance. They can hear each other when one barks, so I'm sure each knows there's another chinchilla present. It seems that Tubby (despite his outgoing personality) is afraid of Winnie (the shy one).
My question: can I try again? Or are there chins that are meant to not be together? I read somewhere (won't mention where, but quite a respectable & well-known chinchilla website) that since chinchillas are pack animals, there is no way that chins would not prefer to live in groups.
I would like to try smooshing, but I still cannot find an appropriate cage/carrier to do that with (preferably with cage bars so small that the chinnies' fingers won't be able to go through & get bitten).
I'm open to any suggestion. Thanks for reading this long post.
My first chinchilla, Tubby, was purchased from a pet store in October of 2007. His age is unknown, but I'm guessing that he's almost 2 years old by October of this year. He is super comfortable with me; let's me annoy him (for fun of course), scratch him, he's just generally fun to play with. For some reason he does not like strangers, even the vet (this only happened after I hired a petsitter to look after him .. I wonder whatever happened to him), i.e. he would snort & make 'kack' noises when strangers come close to his cage. He used to mount my hand, but doesn't do this anymore as I won't let him, if he ever does to mount my hand again I normally place my hand on his bank (as if I'm mounting him).
My second chinchilla, Winnie, was brought home in March 2008 to be Tubby's companion. He is exactly 1 year & 10 months old, so in terms of age Tubby & Winnie are not that much different. Winnie's personality is almost the complete opposite of Tubby's; he's more skittish (only recently that he lets me pet him during his out-of-cage playtime), calmer than Tubby (doesn't mind being handled, for instance I like to carry him around the apartment for as long as 10 minutes & he wouldn't try to flee), he's completely comfortable with strangers.
When I first brought home Winnie, I placed him in a separate cage right to Tubby & I also kept switching their cages every 2-3 days so they can get acquainted with each other's smell. After a month or so, I decided to follow the neutral-zone method & let both out. The instant I saw fur slipping, I panicked & placed both back in their cages. I remember that I got bitten by one of them, too. I tried again, but the fur slipping, barking, & 'kacking' made me almost give up the intro session. After all that, I remember taking Tubby out, holding him & standing in front of Winnie's cage so they can see each other; he started shivering. That's when I decided to give the intro session a rest for awhile. I continually swapped their cages, but at that time I separated the cages into different rooms. After a couple of months, I tried the out-of-cage intro session again. Same scenario: fur slipping, barking, 'kacking,' & snorting. I haven't tried again since last year. I want to mention that during all those intro sessions, no blood has been drawn; I didn't dare to see that happen.
They are now in opposite sides of the same room. They don't ever play together. They only see each other from a distance. They can hear each other when one barks, so I'm sure each knows there's another chinchilla present. It seems that Tubby (despite his outgoing personality) is afraid of Winnie (the shy one).
My question: can I try again? Or are there chins that are meant to not be together? I read somewhere (won't mention where, but quite a respectable & well-known chinchilla website) that since chinchillas are pack animals, there is no way that chins would not prefer to live in groups.
I would like to try smooshing, but I still cannot find an appropriate cage/carrier to do that with (preferably with cage bars so small that the chinnies' fingers won't be able to go through & get bitten).
I'm open to any suggestion. Thanks for reading this long post.
Worth a shot if they seem to be hitting it off a bit, but just not getting there yet.
