Introducing chinchillas

SingItOut

Hi guys,

I have a male beige Chinchilla who is almost two years old, He has a large cage and plenty of toys etc . Since I have moved out of my parents house he doesn't get out of his cage at all during the week until I get home at the weekends so I was thinking of getting him a companion to ease his boredom & I don't want him to be lonely.

I have been researching introducing chinchillas for months but I keep getting just different methods and not really any first hand experience comments. I obviously don't want my chinchilla to get hurt or hurt the newbie.

I was just wondering could anybody who has been through the process give me any pointers or advice please?

Thank you

Cherry Blossom

Personally, I think keeping a chinchilla caged for a week at a time is as poor an excuse for a life as you can get if your a chinchilla. You already have one pet that you aren't looking after, no way should you get another Why has he not moved with you? If you get a second who is going to do the work to introduce them properly if you aren't there? Who is going to break up scuffles etc.?

When I had chinchillas, they all had their own cage they were closed in when no-one was home and at night, the rest of the time they had the run of the whole house. I had two littermates at one stage who got on great and lived together up until they were around 9 months old, they had to be housed separately after this as they took to urinating on each other for some reason. They had plenty of 'free run of the house time' to chase each other around and be as close or as far away from each other as they liked (usually the later). In all honesty I wouldn't consider keeping them any other way. You could get another and they might get on great . . . or they might not. Being cooped up in one cage together with no outlet to blow off steam, I would imagine might not go very well.

SingItOut

Can I just say that he is being taken care of. He is not being starved or ignored. My parents feed him while I am not there seeing as I can't take a chinchilla plus two story cage on the train moving in with me isn't really an option right now. And he is out of his cage to run around at weekends like I said, hes not confined to one cage. Just felt I needed to share that.

Thank for the other advice, it helps.

moses13

Have a look at this site. They are a chinchilla rescue I am sure they will give you the advice you need. I found them very helpful.
http://nebulaandfriends.atspace.com/

SingItOut

moses13 wrote: »

Have a look at this site. They are a chinchilla rescue I am sure they will give you the advice you need. I found them very helpful.
http://nebulaandfriends.atspace.com/

Thanks a million! found some great advice on there, thank you again

dazzledust

From first hand experience, I had to introduce my two male chinchilla's a few months ago I was very anxious and fearful of fighting etc.
My decision was to invest in a new larger cage, the cage can be divided so they each have their own living space. I found the cage ideal as they got to live & sit beside eachother if they wanted without me having to worry about them getting injured. It gave them time to get used to eachothers smells, surroundings and sounds.
I used to let them out separatley to run about, and sometimes would put them back in eachothers houses for a few days to let them get used of one anothers smells even more. I also gave them the same sandbaths.

I decided to take the introduction process very slowly. After about 5-6 months I decided it was time to let them out to play together, they were pretty nervous around each other and had the odd squabble but nothing major. I used to keep a towel handy if I needed to ever separate them-luckily I never had to. They will squeak and jump on top of eachother but it's really to sort out who will be the dominant one.

This is just how I did it. Someone else might have introduced them within a few weeks. I just wanted to play it safe and it worked for me.

Hope this was of some help

SingItOut

Thank you very much, I will be sure to try that out too

laurat

Any time i introduce chins it works out grand when you introduce a baby ones obviously youd have to be more careful a big one could do alot of damage im just comfortable with mine, iv introduced big ones aswel and they were grand but theres a few that i wouldnd bother trying with. iv been able to put them in straight away no problems and i switch them around alot... it depends on the chinchilla and their personality males tend to be alot easier i dont no if thats just mine or not . But if he cant get out of his cage you should get him company.