Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => General Chat => Topic started by: Flint on January 08, 2016, 11:22:49 AM
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I had to separate one of my boys yesterday. He was housed with two other chins and they had both taken to bullying him and pulling out his fur. Luckily he's sustained no injuries, just a bit of stress. I've housed him alone, and he's just starting to eat and poop as he should. His fur at his rear end looks like a war zone, but will grow back in time. At least he's ok, which is all that matters.
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Yeah sometimes they need to be separated. Just recently I had a breeder telling me about a chin that didn't survive after a fight. It is something that should be taken seriously.
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Your perfectly correct GreyRodent. Many chin keepers grossly underestimate the ability of chins to fall out very quickly, often with disastrous consequences! I have an ebony white and a dark ebony pair of boys housed together who bicker, squabble and kack at each other regularly, but never go any further. Yesterday's incident was silent, and quite sinister. I've always got spare cages on standby for this eventuality. I've spoken to a breeder friend of mine regarding pairing my boy with a male kit further down the line.
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From what I understand hair pulling is over the line but occasional kacking and squabbling is somewhat normal. Is that how you see it as well?
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I've had an instance of mild fur pulling where separation was not necessary. The cause was an outside issue creating stress to the chins concerned. That said, most of my boys kack and bicker from time to time. It's simply an evolutionary mechanism evolved to avoid fighting by using vocalisation instead of full on physical conflict. I agree that fur pulling in 99% of cases is the prelude to separation. However, this should not be confused with barbering or fur chewing which is totally different.
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Yeah we've seen a few barbering cases here. I separated my chinchillas after they started pulling each other's fur out and began acting very aggressively towards each other. It's sad because I can put them in the cage together to play and most of the time they are fine but I can't trust them to stay overnight unsupervised. There certainly are advantages to keeping them separate though, the main one being I can track their food, water, and fecal output each day.
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Some chins just prefer to live alone I think. I have a very large dark tan male, weighing nearly 900g who I wouldn't trust within a mile of any of my other chins. He believes that I am his soul mate and regularly humps my hands, jumper, socks and slippers; Then croons and coos to me for more.
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Chins have their own likes and dislikes. I have 2 that is keep as pets only cause they have killed several cagemates. Once they decide they prefer single life there is no convincing them otherwise
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Yeah i had a pair of chins and one had to get surgery so i removed her while she healed. When it came time to pair her and her friend back up ger friend wanted nothing to do with her. It was pretty sad actually as they got along well before.
I ended up buying a little male kit for my chin who had surgery because she became very depressed after getting rejected. She perked right back up after she was housed with the kit though so it all worked out.
The girl by herself doesn't seem to mind either. Their cages are right next to each other so at least she has some company
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Aw My 2 had to be separated as well My Standard Onyx was pulling out my med Tan Coco's Fur! but thankfully separated before things got out of hand! They both are in separate cages in separate rooms and both now have new cage mates which they are both getting along with happily. Its funny how they can just decide one day 'hay I don't like you' and that's it.
Crazy Chinnies
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Tigger, my extra dark ebony was one of three chins housed together. Tigger is now temporarily housed alone and his two ex cage mates remain happily together. I have a light ebony kit booked to be a new cage mate for Tigger as he is clearly not happy living alone.