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[maxsmom]

I have two chins that I'm trying to get to live together. Max is an adult Chinchilla and Kin is 10 and a half weeks old. We have been letting them out to play with each every day in the bathroom. From day one the only problem we had with them is Max will every now and then grab onto Kin and nip his back. Kin then just runs away and doesn't fight back. What I'm wondering is, how will I know when they are ready to live together? Do I wait for them to groom each other or what? They seem to get along really well, I just want to make sure I don't rush things. Thanks!

Ashley

[Jhenderson27]

They are not ready, what the older chin is doing is showing dominance.  You need to be 100% sure before you put them in a cage together.  Not to sound bad, but it can take a matter of seconds for a chin to kill another, let alone an adult and a 10 week old kit.  You need to take your time, it could take up to a few months or well, it could be never.  You start with mutual play time, when there are no scuffles anymore, you can move to supervised visits to each's cage.  A little bit at a time, not just throw them in and hope all goes well.  Once you have been doing that for a time and nothing ensues you can try a longer visit, a half a day or such, once your COMPLETLY confident you can try an over night, just remember not all chins get along and you need to remember your there to protect them no matter what.  Take your time and dont rush, from the sounds of it they are not ready, its a long process trust me, i had a pair that took 2 months.  Now they cant be seperated.  : )

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Yes I too would watch out with the nipping. Max is the alpha male and letting Kin know it. Kin is still so young he's not sure what's going on ,and could become very stressed.
Make sure Kin trusts you first and knows you will protect him from the big bully

[maxsmom]

Thanks for the replies! I knew when I got Kin that the two of them may never get along so Kin is all set up with his own cage just to be on the safe side and if they don't get along that is fine by me, I'm happy either way, I just thought we would give Max a chance to have a friend. I also knew that it would take awhile I just wasn't sure what signs to watch for to tell when they were ready. Even when they are in there cages they sit on the shelves they have and lay next to each other but in separate cages. It's very cute! When we first started doing the playtime's together we did stop play time once because Kin stopped enjoying himself. We gave them a break and the next time Kin came out we gave him a long play time with just us and no Max. Other then that Kin seems to enjoy max and will go over to him on his own and interact with him. Max will also seek Kin out during play times and they will touch noses then move on. I love watching them interact with each other!

Thanks for the good advice!!
Ashley

[Jhenderson27]

Keep up what you are doing, its a good start.  Continue to be patient and you will be rewarded with 2 furballs becoming one pile of mush!

[dianah]

if you're not already doing this, you could swap toys/chews/hammocks between cages. i also did a few overnight cage swaps so they'd get used to each other's smell. i would not put them in a cage together unless they were happy together outside - and once that happens, remember to never put them in dominant chin's cage.

good luck! you'll get there. if it's slow, it's slow. better than rushing it and ruining it altogether!

[maxsmom]

Well last night I let them out and there was no nipping or biting at all! Yay! They still aren't living together because this is the first time it has happened but when I put them back in there separate cages they instantly went to there respective shelves which are right next to each other and laid down. I think these boys will be getting along in no time! I am also waiting on a new cage, a Ferret Nation, which is currently being shipped to me so when they do live together it will be in a completely new cage in a different room then they are currently living in also. I think I will put Max in Kin's cage and Kin in Max's cage tonight for a few hours to let them get used to each other smell, that is a great idea!

Thanks for all the tips everyone!
Ashley

[Jhenderson27]

Let them stay the night in each others cage.  That will help.  do this for a few days back and forth and it will help immensely

[dianah]

yay! great news! from my experience, once the trouble stops, you're very close to them loving each other. mine took two months and for those two months we thought they'd never get on. and then it got better. and within pretty much a week, i was able to stick them into a cage together - they squabbled, separated them, put them in the next day, they lasted a bit longer before they squabbled, separated them, put them in again few hours and they groomed each other's faces for half an hour before i left them to it. came back checking on them, they were grooming and grooming and grooming. so cute!

[animalluver]

Is there anyone who got their chins to get along when originally, the dominant one was biting the other? It didn't hurt the other one but she had to do a fur-slip.

[dianah]

i never let it get to the point where one would manage to bite another but chinchi would definitely have done it if we didn't separate them just before. i think as long as there was no injury, you're ok.
chinchi and fluffy's intro took two months and for the first, i'd say 6 weeks it looked hopeless. they could be together for seconds before we had to separate them.

we then decided to let them runaround in a different room because we thought that perhaps chinchi thought that this was his room. it worked quite well as he'd never been in that room before and was intrigued. so they were both exploring rather than him going to chase her straight away. every now and then they bumped into each other but it was a large room and there was plenty of escape routes. once there were no incidents when they were running around, we tried swapping the cages, first for a couple of hours, then we did two - i think - overnight swaps while still doing runarounds. after that, we started putting them in a cage together - never put them in the dominant chin's cage - the first time it was seconds before he went for her, the second time it was a minute maybe, the third time they started grooming their faces and didn't stop for an hour. after that they were inseparable.

so, i'd say.. patience. i think having a lot of room works better because they don't feel threatened, they know they can escape. at first i thought a smaller area would be better because i can interfere quicker but i think it's more stressful.

[animalluver]

Ok, great!! Thanks for the advice! I've not let them run together at all, even in "neutral territory" since the incident, but I think if I could find that larger space and chin-proof it maybe I could give the bullied chin a head-start, so to speak? Also, I've been thinking about moving their running space to a hallway, since I've read they're easy to chin-proof and obviously have more room. Is this too narrow for that purpose, though?

[dianah]

well.. we just stuck them into a normal room (our bedroom) and just made sure there wasn't anything that could imminently harm them. it was two of us so we were quite confident we could stop them from doing anything that could harm them like chewing cables and such. they did - particularly fluffy - go between wardrobe and a wall but we could still see her and make sure she wasn't eating anything and not let chinchi there at the same time (he didn't try) and we could get her out ok. hallway may be ok - does it have hiding spaces? can they run away from another and round without having to closely pass the other chin?

giving the bullied chin a head start is a fab idea. that's exactly what we did, she had half an hour in there on her own one day, then the next day we gave her ten minutes and brought chinchi in. in the other room, he went for her straight away. in the new room, they both went in different directions and explored stuff. does your hall have stuff of interest? if not, you could put stuff like clothes on the floor, a nest of tables or something like that - distractions!

oh.. also, i was swapping poo. i don't know if that helps or not but given it looked completely hopeless i was trying everything!

[animalluver]

Hmm... interesting! I think I've actually read that somewhere but I've yet to try it! I could also move some toys down but the hallway's too narrow for them to not pass each other closely. I can probably let them run in a big room, though, it just makes it harder to get them back. I'll try to find one and get the big stuff out (chairs or whatnot) and move some of the toys in. Thanks a bunch for all your help!! 

[dianah]

oh yes. they are not easy to catch. the amount of times my husband said after 15 - 20 minutes after trying to catch one 'ha! cornered! got you now!' only for the chin to bounce off the wall and change direction that was completely unpredictable baby escapees are surprisingly difficult to catch as well. you do get better at it though! and it definitely helps if there's more than one person present.

i think they feel trapped if they feel they cannot get away safely. the room they were originally in was a reasonably large room but it had two large cages in the middle of it and other pieces of furniture and i think it caused a bit of panic.