Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Q & A => Topic started by: Rachael29 on October 12, 2015, 05:01:17 PM
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SO my 2 chinchillas shadow and coco are in a room on their own and Onyx is in our room for the sheer fact that when all 3 are in the same room (in 2 separate cages) Onyx just paces up and down his cage and any time Onyx is out he is none stop round coco and shadow's cage like wanting in i don't know if he misses coco or Onyx is trying to intimidate coco but the same vice versa - Onyx has got out of our room a couple of times and went into the other room - and coco has done the same. I think they miss each other but again don't want to hurt the progress Onyx has made on his own to put them both in the same room. Any thoughts?
Again any advice from you guys would be awesome
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My suspicion is that pacing around and jumping back and forth across the cage is a territorial behavior to drive off intruders. I've had two that were really bad about this whenever someone they didn't know would come into the room. My grey, Kulu, is very strongly like that. My white mosaic, Spot, couldn't care less, so it does depend on the pet. Kulu got so bad I had to separate him from Spot last month. You can tell (if they have been introduced for a minimum of two weeks) to put them in the bathtub together with a dust bath. The dominant one will mount the other chinchilla. Make double triple sure they are all the same sex. Never let opposite sex chins play together. Keep an eye on food consumption and weight. Such behavior can indicate stress. You'll have to be judge of that.
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See onyx and coco were a pair but onyx was pulling clumps of fur out of coco. Onyx is on his own and we paired coco with a new baby called shadow because coco wasn't dealing too well on his own. The breeder had said not to by under circumstances place all 3 in a cage together so I'm not putting them all together in 1 cage. Right now onyx is in a cage in our room and coco and shadow are in a cage together in another room. So what I'm wondering is will the pacing calm down the longer he is in the same room with the other 2?
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Like I said, if it's territorial behavior, it can cause stress. You'll have to observe and be the judge of how far you'll let it go.
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That depends on the individual. It's a personality thing. Some chins are happy with others around and others hate it. Does he have a wheel? I've found that giving them a way to burn off extra energy trends to help
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I've asked about wheels I have a plastic flying saucer none of them like it was thinking of getting an upright one that goes on the cage.