Chinchilla anxiety? Help ASAP

[XxMacxX]

I'm new to this forum, and this is my first post. Up until now, our chinchillas have been very happy and quite spoiled. (nice big cages, good healthy food, wood blocks, dust baths often) Now the wood we have used are all apple. and the food is not rich in salt or sugar. So far we have raised 2 happy chins. We just got 2 new ones. Today while having the 2 original ones out, one of them (Dusty) did nothing but hide. this is very unusual for him. He is usually running all over the place. He also loves to be held. But today, all he wanted to do was hide in a crack in the couch. Every time we moved him away from there, he bolted back. Also, he has not moved off of the second shelf of his 4 shelf cage. I'm worried something may be wrong with him. Please help. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

[dianah]

when did you get the new chins? it's a change and changes are stressful give him time to adjust, hopefully that's all that it is!

[XxMacxX]

We got the new guys on Tuesday. He seemed fine during play time the first few days, It wasn't until last night that he was acting strange.

[jbcstratton]

When you get new chinchillas, they should be quarentined from other chinchillas that you already have in case they are sick.  Are you letting them all out at playtime?  if so your chin may be scared of the new ones or may have caught something from them or may just be nervous.  Time will tell but be watchfull of poos and if they are eating and drinking.  If anything is off I would suggest a vet visit.

[Lori Ramsey Earle]

I'm assuming the 2 new chins are in their own separate cage? After a quarantine period, first try putting the new cage in the same room, but a fair distance away from each other. Gradually move the two cages closer if you do ultimately want them side by side. Chins are very, very easily spooked by any changes, whether you change them to a new cage, add a new cage with different chins into the room, or even when a chin passes away(even if it lives in another cage in the animal room). They really are very sensitive guys!

[XxMacxX]

The new guys arent with Dusty, they are good distance away too. We havent let them play together either, and I let Dusty out before the new guys. He seemed better this morning when I had him out, so you are probably right with him just needing time to adjust to them. Thank you for the help and I will keep you posted if anything changes for the worst.

I do believe being a member of this site will be a great help now that we own 4 all with completely different personalities