Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Q & A => Topic started by: Paigethebabe18 on February 08, 2015, 04:23:59 PM
-
Hi I have a male two-three year old Chinchilla named Stewart (From the pet store sadly) and as of the sixth I went to a local breeder and got a baby chinchilla (My boyfriend named him Diesel), he is six weeks old and one day! There are in separate cages for now.
First Night - I put them in a neutral territory (The Bathroom), and the baby hid in the corner and Stew didn't really pay much attention to him for the most part. But then towards the end Stew went up and sniffed him and mounted him, which I read is normal because of dominance, but I stopped it because the baby is so small I don't want him to get hurt. Afterwards I put them in each others cages for a half hour then swapped them back.
Second Night - During out time the baby ventured out, they both did their own thing and ignored each other for quite awhile. I put out dust bathe in the middle of the floor and they took their turns. Towards the end I heard them bicker a little bit towards each other, that's when I ended play time and put them in each others cage for a half hour again then put them back in their own spots.
I'm thinking that this is progress seeing as I have had no fights yet. Am I doing things correctly? Do you have any tips? What do you guys think?
-
Please allow two weeks minimum before combining. Keep cages two inches apart. 3 days is not near enough time. They could have fought hard.
-
Oh no! I haven't done anything bizare like putting them in the same cage. If that's what you're thinking. I just have done short spans of monitored play time. I asked the breeder and he told me that the baby will adapt to anything that my only issue will be my older chinchilla if that. And no, my cages aren't side by side. They're in the same room, not side by side though
-
No prob. Hard to tell from the first message. The most typical way to introduce chinchillas is to put the cages close to each other, about 2-3" apart, and let them get used to each other being there. You can take some soiled bedding from each cage and put swap it each time you change the bedding. Do this for two weeks, then let them play together, and if they are tolerant of each other you can go ahead and combine them into one cage. Males are easier to combine. It may take 3-4 weeks depending on the animal.
Considering they are such a big difference in size you may want to wait a month or so for the smaller one to grow. Then the risk of injury if there is a fight will be less although it's not necessary.
You will want to have a hut or something in the cage as well once they are combined in case a fight breaks out. That will also minimize the risk since one can escape from the other. Chinchillas can fight at any time even if they are bonded do each other serious damage. Congrats on your new pet. I hope it all works out well for you.
-
Oh thank you for the information. Yeah I'm thinking of waiting another month and a half if all goes well before they can have long term time together so that the baby can grow. The breeder showed me both his parents and even grandparents, they where extremely huge compared to Stewart my other chinchilla. So I think the baby is going to be big enough to pull his own weight by then seeing as his parents are gigantic lol
-
That's wonderful. Sounds like you found a good breeder.
-
Yes! Are you the main person that manages this forum? (Off topic, I know). It seems theirs not many chinchilla forums, which is strange to me.
-
Yeah I maintain this forum. There are a couple of forums that deal with chins out there but this is the only dedicated chinchilla forum I know of. We've been around since 1999. I'm glad you enjoy it.
-
Our chins were fine with each other 5 day's after i got the second one. :) Didn't had any fights or anything, they were quite happy with each other.
-
I would wait to introduce them for a few weeks. Its not the best for a kit to be sold at 6 weeks old. Common weaning is at 8 weeks old and then the kit is kept a week to be sure they are eating and growing well on their own. So just to be safe I would give the kit time to settle in and be sure he is doing well before introong him with your chin.