Male with Females and Neutering

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wolfy2449

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 21, 2015
Messages
65
Location
Indiana
So I currently have 2 female chinchillas (Elsa and Bella) housed together in a triple unit FN. I'm thinking about adding in a third chin which wouldn't happen until at least this fall or winter if I decide to do so. I was wondering about the possibilty of the potential third chinchilla being a male. If I did so I would want to have him neutered of course (not looking to breed). I tried doing some research on housing a male with females as well as some research on neutering. Most of what I found was to not house multiple males with females and as far as neutering some sites completely recommend against it and others make it out to not be a big deal. What are your thoughts on a male with 2 females and neutering?
 
Personally I think in general trying to bond a third chin to an existing pair is not a good idea. It's not uncommon for you to end up with the current pair hating each other, or ending up ganging up on the third chin, or even switching pairs around (For example chin pair A/B is now A/C with B ending up the odd one out). There is never a guarantee they will even like the new addition, it's even possible to end up with all three hating each other in the end, meaning you will need 3 cages. In my experience the situations of 3 or more chins living peacefully together have been families, mother(s) with daughters, sisters, father with sons, or brothers. Male/female(s) families do also sometimes work, with the male neutered, but neutering is risky and the recovery time can break the bond.

As for neutering, I think it's a very bad idea unless there is a medical reason for it (neutering a chin has no known health benefits). First you need to have a vet that not only knows/see chins you should find one that knows how to and has performed neutering on chins successfully before. It's not a simple surgery like on a cat or dog, it's a very invasive surgery since the testicles are tucked up inside, so they need to cut into the abdomen to remove them. Chins do poorly under anesthesia, and even a young healthy chin has a high risk of dying during or after surgery, sometimes they simply don't wake up. The chin will also be in pain, and will likely not eat, if so you will need to hand feed the chin throughout the day for possibly up to about a month while he recovers. You will also need to keep a close eye on the chin for at least a couple weeks to make sure the surgery site heals. You can't really put a cone on a chin, so you will have stay home to watch him day and night to make sure he doesn't chew at the wound, pull the stitches or get an infection or other complications. I would also keep an emergency vet number handy, if he pulls the stitches in the middle of the night he'll need to be rushed to the vet right then, it can't wait till morning.

If he survive the surgery and recovery you will still need to wait a couple months after the surgery before starting intros. It takes about 8 weeks to have all the stuff out of his system. So you will have put the chin through a risky surgery that has no health benefits with no guarantee that it will even bond with your current chins. Even when people get chins who use to be bonded (like male/female litter mates) neutered, that 8 weeks of recovery time is long enough to break the bond. There is one person on here that had a brother/sister bonded pair, she got the male neutered, he almost died from infection, and I think it took about 6 months before he and his sister were friends again.

I would also wait until you have a bond with the male before getting him neutered. The stress of the surgery and recovery with the amount of handling that would be required is bad enough even with a chin that knows and trusts you. So if you go the route of neutering you will have to have the chin for at least month (likely longer, you will need to be able to pick him up multiple times a day), then a couple months of recovery, so at least 3 months before you can even start intros. The bonding process can take days to months, you have to go at the chin's pace you can't rush it, and sometimes no matter how long you try they just aren't compatible.
 
Thank you very much for your input Amethyst. I'll definitely keep these things in mind when I'm deciding if I am going to get another chin or not. I just thought I'd go ahead and get some opinions about it now that way I'd have plenty of time to think on it.
 
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