Fine, dandy and then OMG!

[Shadey]

My sweet white male has been with me for almost a year now and my b/f had got a 7 month old male. We interduced them and everything had worked out really well.... until a few days ago. It started with the older male picking on the younger male, chasing him in to the house. Then the fur flew, i removed the younger male and placed him in a cage next to the original cage for the night. The next day we placed him back in and watched. The same picking and spitting match started and now we have them separated.

what happened? and will they ever resolve their dispute?

[LSerilla]

the older one may need more time or take the older and put it the younger ones cage, i'm haveing the same problem with a female she's a year and i'm trying to get a young guy to pair with her and his only 4 months old, i put them in the play yard together for 1 week 3 hours a day, everything was fine, so i tried to put them in the same cage and she was tearing him up the poor little guy, so i had to take him out and i will try again, but i know it was going to be hard with her, becasue she is the queen of the pack,.
this my just take a couple times for the older to get use to the younger one.

[Shadey]

the older one may need more time or take the older and put it the younger ones cage, i'm haveing the same problem with a female she's a year and i'm trying to get a young guy to pair with her and his only 4 months old, i put them in the play yard together for 1 week 3 hours a day, everything was fine, so i tried to put them in the same cage and she was tearing him up the poor little guy, so i had to take him out and i will try again, but i know it was going to be hard with her, becasue she is the queen of the pack,.
this my just take a couple times for the older to get use to the younger one.



thankx i hope so... new situation,
cages arent tooo close together but the older just became aware of the youngers presence in the other cage and now evertime one makes a noise they scare the crap out of each other and run for cover.

i really hope this gets resolved.

[Danikat]

some chinchillas can't live with others. What method did you use to introduce them? I would try putting them in their seperate cages for a few days and wait til they are comfortable with each other being there (if they're frightened just being in cages next to each other, then they'll be uncomfortable in the one cage).

[galtinel]

OK, first: did you quarentine the new chin in a different part of the house for 30 days?

Second: introductions take a while. I start with cages close (but not touching) for a couple of days. If there's no barking/peeing, then I bring the cages together.

Third: find a nuetral space and let them play together for a few minutes each day. Put a dust house in that space and fresh dust to let them nuetralize their scents.

Fourth: if you are having to re-use one of their cages for the two of them, then you need to swap them back and forth every other day. THis way they get used to the other's smell.

Fifth: when you are ready, use the smoosh method. Have a very small cage/box where they cannot move much and a little Vicks on the nose of each, and leave them together for 20 minutes or more. If all looks good, got sterilize the cage they will live in together, put new house and shavings in (so it's not a territory issue), then add the chins. Change the set up so it's not the same as their old cages.

This should work. If not, then you've got two Bachelors on your hands.

Sandra

[equus_peduus]

If all looks good, got sterilize the cage they will live in together, put new house and shavings in (so it's not a territory issue), then add the chins. Change the set up so it's not the same as their old cages.
How do you recommend sterilizing a wire cage? (I've got a similar problem though we never made it as far as putting them in a cage together. And it's the younger one beating up the older boy). I'm fine with them living separately but it'd be nice if they coud live together... I've yet to find a way to effectively really clean the wire cage...

[galtinel]

If you are trying this during hte day, I'd run out to your local Self-Wash Car Wash and use their hot and soapy sprayers.

If you have a steam cleaner, then take it out side and steam it and let the sun dry it.

Worst case, I'd go with the viegar and hotwater mix in the bathtub and take it out side to dry in the sun. There's a lot of research supporting UV light in killing some bacteria and micro-organisms, that's why I'm all for sunshine doing the hard work (drying a wire cage)!!!

[Shadey]

OK, first: did you quarentine the new chin in a different part of the house for 30 days?

Second: introductions take a while. I start with cages close (but not touching) for a couple of days. If there's no barking/peeing, then I bring the cages together.

Third: find a nuetral space and let them play together for a few minutes each day. Put a dust house in that space and fresh dust to let them nuetralize their scents.

Fourth: if you are having to re-use one of their cages for the two of them, then you need to swap them back and forth every other day. THis way they get used to the other's smell.

Fifth: when you are ready, use the smoosh method. Have a very small cage/box where they cannot move much and a little Vicks on the nose of each, and leave them together for 20 minutes or more. If all looks good, got sterilize the cage they will live in together, put new house and shavings in (so it's not a territory issue), then add the chins. Change the set up so it's not the same as their old cages.

This should work. If not, then you've got two Bachelors on your hands.

Sandra

Quarantined for 3 weeks.
They sat next to each other wuth no problem and we brought them out to play every day....they both went into a big new cage together.

Everything was fine for almosst a week when they started the fighting.
Ive got their cages about 4 ft apart at the moment.

this weekend were going to bring them in another two feet.