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1

Q & A / Chins suddenly fighting/chasing each other

« on: March 30, 2014, 09:27:06 PM »

Hi there,

We're hoping someone can help us with a question. We have three chins, all males. Boo and Kiwi, both standard grays, have been living together for about half a year. Boo is the oldest and has been with us the longest, but Kiwi is larger. They seemed to have worked out their domination dynamic and got along fine for the past six months aside from some tension in the first week or so. Recently, we introduced Jiggy, a younger, smaller mosaic chin. We did so gradually, by doing cage swaps and introductions in neutral spaces. It took time, but finally they got along enough to move them in together. We moved the three in to a large critter nation cage last week, and for the first five days or so they did really well. They would cuddle and share food and play without fighting. But in the last couple days, they've started making aggressive sounds (we call it oinking) and chasing each other around the cage. There has been a lot of shedding. At first, Boo and Jiggy seemed to be getting along but Kiwi was the outsider who was getting chased and shedding. Now, Kiwi and Jiggy are evidently on OK terms, but Boo's fur is starting to get uneven from shedding and we think he might have lost some weight, though we're not sure.

Any ideas why the three chins are suddenly acting so strange? What can we do to make sure they are all (especially poor Boo) safe and healthy, without separating them and undoing the last week of progress when the three were getting along really well?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

2

Q & A / New chin, causing trouble with older chins

« on: February 15, 2014, 09:44:02 AM »

So my two oldest boys Kiwi and Boo have been living together in a split level cage for the better part of 4 months now. Introducing them went very smoothly and they  have been thick as thieves ever since then. Two weeks ago I picked up a new little brother for them ( Jig) and have slowly been trying to introduce the three, between neutral visits in the bathroom or face to face time while being held I thought progress was being made.

But now it seems everything is starting to unravel. Boo never being all that dominant suddenly went into full man mode and would chase Kiwi around the room where for months they've been playing just fine. Kiwi has lost a few tuffs of fur out of stress. Assuming maybe Jig's smell was somehow more in the room and that was causing the tension I put them both in for the night. That though has lead to my greatest concern. Kiwi has become so stressed that he acts as if he and Boo are meeting for the first time, lots of chattering of teeth running away and well sounds like oinking coming from Kiwi.

Their cage is a split level type so I cut them both off from each other to see maybe if some time away from each other might chill them out and being in a place that  has both there scents might even things back out. Well I thought it did for a few moments, I picked Kiwi up placed him near Boo, they sniffed each other Boo cleaned off Kiwi's faced it looked like and things were back in order. But Kiwi reverted and had a bit of a panic attack and started to run away from Boo again. He just goes to another part of the cage and sits, and or inside a wood house to wait till Boo comes up which chatter happens and nothing changes.

It doesn't seem to be a aggressive chase inside the cage as it was outside the cage, more of Boo wondering why Kiwi wont come hang out. They have had no problems up to this point and I'm at a loss for what to do. I cant have three different chins in three houses especially when two of them have been great house mates up to this point.

If anyone has any ideas on how I can get these two to get along better I'd be most greatfull. 

3

Q & A / New younger Chin.

« on: February 02, 2014, 07:40:06 PM »

I just picked up a new chinchilla who is 5 months old from a local breeder. I have two other male chins that are just over 1 year old. I'm curious on when might be the best time to try and move the new little guy into the main cage with the two others and when would be a good time to give the new guy chew sticks like the apple sticks and such.
This is the first time having such a young little guy and I want the transition to go smooth and easy as possible.
Thanks

4

Q & A / Introducing my two boys.

« on: September 25, 2013, 12:41:47 PM »

Hello ,
I'm a fairly new chin owner and just brought on a second male to try and help my first one cut the boredom down a bit. I've had Boo for over 6 months and he is just over a year, and I just got his hopefully new cage mate Mio about a month ago who is just over 6 months old. Now I've read different things online and tried the few things that line up but still need a bit of help.
  I take them both out at the same time and put them into the bathroom with me. Now it goes well for the most part, they both like to hop around and check everything out and as I've read Boo will mount on Mio of a few seconds but there's never been much distress from Mio. He will just stand there let Boo hop on him then after 10 seconds Boo will get off and move on. They don't really fight and for the most part seem really fine with each other. But there are a few things I'm not sure are normal and curious if anyone else had this happen and if there are any signs I can look out for to make sure there going to get along.
   Every now and then Mio (when Boo comes around) will make what I can only explain like a pig noise kinda a grunting and then both him and Boo will stand on there hind feet and start sniffing each others faces or will give chase to each other. I've never seen any signs of teeth or biting but not sure if this is a good thing or not. This only happens the most when there not in bathroom but in the bedroom where Boo has ran around the most the past 6 months. Now the only other thing is the chasing, I don't know if its a good where playing or aggressive your not welcome here type of playing. Once again this only really happens when ever there both in the bedroom but a few times in the bathroom.
   Sorry this was so long winded I just want to make sure I put everything. If anyone has any ideas on if this is normal good behavior or if its bad and if there are any other techniques I could try to help make them better friends.
Thank you,
-Dan