Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => General Chat => Topic started by: Robyn on November 22, 2015, 03:54:06 PM
-
Hi everyone I wish my first post in a long time wasnt this post. My family and I just lost one of our two chinchillas earlier this week. Her death was sudden and unexpected. We had her for 9 years and my wife is heartbroken. My question is about our other male chinchilla. After the death of his friend he has become aggressive. He's making all the noises and gestures of a mad defensive chinchilla. Now this is not like him. He is usually happy, playful and loves attention. Is this normal? He and our female were together for about 8 years and had a great relationship. They never mated because honestly we know nothing about chinchilla birth and didn't want to risk loosing our chinchilla.
-
I'm very sorry to hear that. 9 years fairly close to the 10 year average chinchilla life expectancy so it sounds like you are taking good care of your pets. The other chinchilla probably will act differently for a time. Make sure his weight stays up. Some chinchillas do not cope well with the death of a cage mate. Chinchillas are notorious for not eating when they are stressed and this can pose enormous complications if you don't deal with it early on.
I'm a little confused about their cage situation. You say they were together but they never mated but chinchillas of the opposite sex will mate. If one was sterile that could explain it. If they were in the same cage together the other chinchilla will probably be a difficult case. Breeding pairs tend to take it much harder.
-
Thank you for your response. We have seperate cages but they were right next to eachother. We would take them out for play time together but we were always there in the room with them. It's fun to watch them play! We lost Zoe on Tuesday and we have been keeping an eye on him. He's eating and drinking normally and taking dust baths.
-
Hi
We suddenly lost one of our chins Lex last week. Our chins are in separate cages but the other two are desperate to get to Lexs cage think they want to see where he had gone. It must be so confusing for them we left Lex in his cafe over night when he passed away so the others could see him.
Think your little fella just needs some extra TLC that's what we are giving our other two.
Breaks your heart when something happens to them, broke mine. Rest in peace Zoe.
Xxx