Two chins versus one

[tcraighenry]

Hi there,

We originally adopted two chins, thinking they were boy/boy. We ended up with boy/girl and lost our little boy to shock after his neuter.

We're considering getting another for the remaining female. We wanted two so they wouldn't get lonely in the evening while we sleep. Our schedules are pretty standard; 9-5ish jobs, couple nights out with friends during the week.

Vincenza seems ok. She's poopy, chewy, energetic, inquisitive and adorable. But we're debating bringing another one in while she's young.

But she does squeak at me if I fall asleep on the couch.

What would you recommend? I usually have at least a couple hours to spend with her even before we go out if we meet friends. And we usually come home and play with her after we go out. Is it enough? We take her out of her cage for 30 minutes of play time every other day at least. I sit with her a lot and she's in the middle of everything in the living room.

I'm guessing it would be easier to introduce her to someone while she's still young? And another young chin? Or is that a false assumption?

What do you think?

One afterthought, she appears to be getting very attached to me. Would there be jealousy issues? (Or the constant death stare in my direction either means she likes me or she's plotting to kill me. One of the two.)

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

Chinchillas are social creatures, but I think she would be just fine if kept single, and your giving her more than enough time. Some chins never come out of their cages.
It probably would be easier to pair her up while she's still young, but I've paired chins up as old as 5 years old. If you think you will eventually want to get another chinchilla, then it probably wouldn't hurt to look into it now while she's younger.
Just as long as you have an extra cage in case things don't go well, which you'd need to do anyway since you'll have to quarantine the new chinchilla before doing any sort of intro.

 

[greychins]

I agree with what was said above. We have the best luck pairing up young chins, but we've paired up older ones as well... that said, if I had to pick, I'd rather have a batch of youngsters to pair up, versus older chins.

However, some chins do fine alone. Some chins, we've gotten in as pairs.... and the pair as then made it crystal clear that they do NOT want to live together (and I guess the previous home somehow missed the fur pulling and the biting and so on)... and so they're separated and do fine as single chins. A lot of it just depends on the chin.

If you're willing to have a second chin in a second cage for its whole life, then if you want, give it a shot. But if you don't want to mess with two cages potentially for the next 15 years... then better leave your girl by herself... the unfortunate thing is that there are no guarantees that intros will work.

 

[Godofgods]

^^ what they said lol.

Its a ahrd choice no doubt. I had the same one. I didnt want my guy to be lonley so i wanted another. If it works you have two chins to keep each other company, if it doesnt, you have two single chins. The exact opposite of what you wanted to begin with. You just have to be preparred for both options.

And one side note; keep gender in mind. I got my guy a female companion. Now i have three more chins on top of them two lol.

 

[dragsil]

I think if you are prepared to have two cages and two seperate lives if things dont work out, go for it! I love watching my two chins play and sleep on top of eachother and now that Silver is having a few health issues Dragon distracts him from the misery of antibiotics and they comfort eachother greatly.