Bond lost after surgery

[TnkTaingTal]

Tinker and Tainga had a strong bond and had been cage mates for 5 years. Tainga had to be spayed about a month ago and i had her in a small cage, next to Tinker's, to restrict her activity. After a week she was allowed to play. I started out slowly. Giving her 15 minutes in a small space with nothing to jump on and increased her time each day. 10 days after her surgery, i let Tinker join Tainga in the hallway. Tinker nipped at Tainga, so i stopped the play time. The next time i tried,They sprayed each other. The third attempt, Tinker attacked Tainga from behind (no injuries). Its so sad. Tainga seems to really miss Tinker and since they separated Tinker has been on edge. I was hoping that Tinker just didn't recognize Tainga and that once Tainga got a bath they would be okay again. When they got a bath Tinker didn't really pay attention to Tainga, but Tainga was scared and ended up spraying Tinker and then Tinker nipped her (before the surgery Tinker would ignore Tainga if she sprayed her) I had to buy a new cage. Its so sad because they had such a great bond before and they both seem so lonely.

Has anyone experienced this before? Does anyone have advice on repairing their bond? Should i do anything differently for single chins who do not have a cage mate?

 

[Cass C]

I had this same thing happen when I neutered my male. It took 3 months before I was able to get them to rebond. I used the cage swap method, but honestly I was very close to getting a second large cage when they decided to re-bond. It has been 5 years since this happened and they are happily living in a 3 story critter nation.

 

[TnkTaingTal]

Cage swap method? Did they have their own cages and you just swapped them back and forth? How often do you swap them? I'm glad to hear there is hope. Thank you!

 

[Cass C]

I had the neutered male in a small pet store cage (to keep him down during the recovery) and the female in a large ferret cage. They were too far apart to see eachother because I wanted it to be just like meeting a new chin. I would swap their cages every night after a week of doing that I (while continuing to cage swap) put their cages closer and closer until the cages were side by side. Then after a week side by side with no incidents I took them both out to play together and to be honest it didn't go well the first time. There was cackling and chasing so I put them both back into their cages. Next time I only let one out in the same room as the cage and then let the other one out after I put the first one away. After doing that for a while I tried play time again and there were no issues. So I tried putting them in the same cage and chasing/fighting ensued. So I went back a step to only playtime together. Eventually as a last ditch effort I tried one more time to put them together by putting the chinchilla that had been in the small cage in the big cage first and then put in the chinchilla that had been in that cage back in a few minutes later. I did this for short periods at first because otherwise a fight started. I started with 30 minutes of supervised cage time together and then worked up to full time together.

I'll admit that first night together I actually slept in the room with them because I was worried about a fight and wanted to be able to seperate them if need be. Like I said though this took 3 frustrating months.

 

[TnkTaingTal]

Yes, frustrating I'm sure. I can't stand seeing them alone when they once snuggled so much. I will try. Thank you!