bonded chins started fighting. please help

[nikkin]

6 months ago I introduced another male chin to my other male. Had a few spats but aafter side by side cages and whisker trimmingwith out of ccage playtime tthey have been doing great living together. They seemed really close and we had almost no spats in the 5 months they have been together . Now recently at night they seem to have gotten aggressive. Barking at each other and cchasing one into a flannel house . But then during the day they are back to cuddling and cleaning each other. I'm not sure what to do. Should we go back to side by side cages? Longer out of cage play times?
They seem to bicker over the flying saucer wheel. It's a large cage with 2 waters and 2 food bowls and I always make multiple hay piles .
The only things that are different is
cold weather now
I switched their drinking water from alkalized to purified
we clean their cage ooften and I try to put their stuff back the same but sometimes it gets a little mixed up .
I'm just looking for advice . One of the chins had a hairring at the last check and iI hoped that's where the grumpyness came from but iit's still just a lot of chasing each other at nights. Please help:impatient:

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

Separate them immediately before one of them gets killed. Put them side by side again and try again going back to 'step one' However there is a good chance it won't work. You probably are going to have 2 cages from now on.

 

[eastcoastchins]

I would separate them and start the bonding process over. I've had this happen before too. Cagemates seem perfectly fine and well-bonded, then one day they turn on each other.

 

[nikkin]

Thank you that's what we thought. How successfully have you been able to rebond chins? Also is there too much stress in rotating cages. Like switching what chin is in what cage. The other cage is much smaller and we only have one wheel. Would it be too stressful to have them rotating? We were also thinking about attaching another cage and when we can't watch them seperate them by having a door between the two cages. It would be open when we can monitor. What do you guys think about whisker trimmimg

 

[Dreamlite]

Whisker trimming works in some cases but not with all. Switching cages is not too stressful. They get used to your routine. I would keep them apart and start over bonding them. Some times it works and other times it doesn't. Its always a gamble when you have more than one chin.

 

[nikkin]

We have them in the same cage and used one of their tiles to cover the openening splitting the cage in half. We will have it open when we can watch them and close it at nights when we sleep. And we're going to rotate who goes on top which is where the saucer wheel is. We will try timing whiskers and adding more out of cage time. Hopefully they just need to re bond. They both seem upset about being cut off from the other side of the cage

 

[starleomach]

Sometimes that happens did one 99 them just reach puberty. Sometimes when one hits puberty there is a do mince struggle again

 

[nikkin]

They are rescues and the vet guessed young. I've had em about a year. So I would guess there about 2 to 4 years old. They also did a lot of tail wagging In the past few months I never noticed before . Do youthink sseperating them in the same cage is ok or is side by side better? I just ordered another flying saucer. So to make sure the top and bottom cage sides have all the same stuff

 

[Gumby and Elmo]

Tail wagging means horny in the chin world, are you sure they are boy/boy combo?
It's most likely their hormones kicking in, my boys were paired at 3 months, love and snuggles until they hit puberty, one of them were chasing the other one, not knowing better then, I chose to neutered them, luckily all went well, otherwise I would have hated myself, anyway it's been 9 years since then, and they're still BFF.
k, back to the OP, I would think side by side is better, since they can still see other and talk if they want to.

 

[e.murphy518]

I had two boys that were together for 4 years (brothers) and they started doing the tail wagging and fighting at night (yes they were definitely both boys) even though they would still cuddle in the day and it got so bad I had to separate them. I tried reintroducing them but it just wouldn't work. They are now permanently single chins

 

[nikkin]

They are definitely both boys. We do hair ring checks religiously. They cuddled all day but at night theybbark and chase occasionally. It is only once in a while. I'm hoping 2 wheels helps . They never fight out of the cage so I think it's a territory thing. They have a vet appt in 2 days just to make sure everything is ok on that end

 

[david]

did you put them in a neutral cage , if not then the one who's cage it is will defend it . cuddling during the day is just a convenience to keep warm and also if one hears something the other doesn't they both will get up to see if trouble is coming .