Warning Behaviour?

[BumbleBea]

I have two male chinchillas (10 months and 14 months) neither are neutered and they are a bonded pair (rescued). Recently the 10 month old has started trying to mount the 14 month old (who isnt all too pleased about it, as you can imagine). It started as a little thing but has progressively gotten more feisty. Is this just adolescent behaviour, trying to assert dominance or could it be an early warning sign that they may start fighting?

This mainly happens during playtime- in their cage they are content to snuggle all day. Maybe it's the excitement of playtime?

Thank you!

 

[Swool17]

I have two boys ages 1.5 years and 9 months, father and son, who we are bonding right now so they will be able to be caged together soon. They do exactly as your describing as well, but the way they're doing it is to assert dominance, and determine who is the "king of the cage" so to speak. Im a newer chin owner so i cant speak as to if its a warning sign or not, but this thread did catch my eye and i wanted to let you know to LOOK UP GENDERING. When i got my first two chins, we were told the were both males MULTIPLE times. And they were not, and we were chinchilla-grandparents all too soon. So first thing id do is be 100% positive you ACTUALLY have two males! If one of your males happens to be a female, separate them immediately because its highly likely youre about to be having babies in the upcoming months!

If they are for SURE both males, then keep an eye on them! Ive been watching my two males like a hawk when they're together until i can be fully sure they arent giving off any warning signs. Someone else in here will definitely have better answers about warning signs for males if they see this. But just wanted to make sure you fully check gender first! I dont want anyone else to have the same issue we did! We now have 4 chins instead of 2 and had to buy double everything since the person who sold them to us didnt know how to gender them!!