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[mojito]

Our two male chins, Dexter and Skillet, have always had very different personalities but usually have gotten along for the year and a half that they've been together. Over the last few weeks, however, things have not been quite the same. Instead of wrestling and chasing each other, now the chins don't really play together but run around independently. This isn't a huge problem (though it is sad to see them not having fun together), but what happens a few times a week is this: Skillet gets playful and tries to chase Dexter around. Dexter usually isn't having any of it and ends up in a corner. Skillet will sometimes get up in his face and Dexter will rear up defensively, start barking, and jutting his head out at Skillet. Sometimes Skillet will follow suit. In either case, a stern "No" usually stops them.

This happened last night. This morning when I opened up the cage, they were sleeping in separate igloos (not totally unusual, though typically they do sleep together). Skillet came down to wake Dexter up for playtime, but instead of just sticking his head in like usual, he started tossing bedding backward away from the igloo with his feet and doing that aggressive head-jutting thing into the igloo and I could hear one of them barking. I had to give them a "no" again and neither ended up wanting to come out for playtime.

Many times when Dexter is cornered and they almost fight, I'll notice fur coming out from his coat, usually around his back or hindquarters. Obviously he gets very upset, and I'm thinking that maybe when they were playing at some point Skillet got too rough and scared Dexter, which is why he refuses to play with him. Skillet, on the other had, will swish his tail (seems like in frustration) when Dexter won't play, and sometimes will make little distress noises (like barks but much quieter) to try and get his attention, or so it seems.

This gets really upsetting for me, and I worry that they might really end up fighting and injuring each other, which would mean being separated for life. Does anyone have experience with this or any advice on how to get them back to acting like best-buds during playtime again?

[mojito]

Update: tonight it seems as though everytime Skillet comes near Dexter, Dex just runs away! Any help would be appreciated

[GrayRodent]

I'd really like to help but that is just one area where my knowledge is about non-existent. The only thing I could suggest is to just thoroughly check out each one and look for any signs of health problems that could be making one of them more irritable than usual. Strangely the behavior you describe sounds almost like mating behavior in chinchillas.
You could try cleaning the cage, scrubbing everything out, and replacing all the wood in the cage. Maybe it will seems like a new environment to them and they might be less territorial if that is an issue. If stress or disease is a problem it could aggravate it. And that is pure speculation there.
I hope things get better for you.

[mojito]

Thanks. I have cleaned and scrubbed (I didn't change the wood out but I did flip them around) but beside that one episode they only act like this during playtime, where skillet goes up to dexter wanting to play and dexter runs away into the cage so skillet follows him and they fight.

I just don't know if I should separate them temporarily, but I'll feel bad about doing that since it mainly seems like one chin has a problem.

I have not noticed any difference otherwise, they are both eating, drinking, and no wounds (I check every night when this happens).

Thanks for helping I've been googling but most chins who fight are violent and have to get seperated forever and I just really would be upset if that happened

[mojito]

Update: Yesterday we had to work from 5-6, so neither one of us was able to give them morning playtime (which we used to do, then stopped and started back up a month ago). Well last night after work I watched them and there was NO fighting! I will keep only doing evening playtimes to see if having 2 playtimes is the cause.

[GrayRodent]

That is very interesting. Perhaps the change in schedule threw them off a habitual behavior.

[mojito]

Yea I didn't think about it being a factor because I used to do playtime in the am, then stopped for a while and had started back up. I mainly did it because Skillet would play much more than in the evening playtimes, while Dexter was more energetic in the evening playtimes and usually slept most of the morning playtimes. I used to get up and have playtime at 5-5:30 am however, and this time around was around 7:30-8:30, so that may have been the cause. Either way last night was another successful night, and now I am starting to think Dexter was just cranky and didn't want to play since I had disturbed his slumber earlier that day!