Chinchilla female stranger couples

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JohhnyBishop

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 21, 2021
Messages
84
Location
London, UK
Hi All,
I hope you are doing well during these peculiar times.

I wanted to ask you if you have been successful in pairing two female strangers.
I only tried once but taking into account that females are very territorial I think it's impossible or at least detrimental to the health of one of them.
It has to be either two sisters or a mother and and a daughter. I don't see any other options.

One lady told me that she has female chinchillas for over 20 years in total but one has died and she is looking for a new cage mate.
It turn out there was another chin that died previously. So what we have here is a long living chinchilla and two other females that died about 5 years apart one due to heart issue, second due to some rare hormonal issue.
Do you know if it's safe to introduce another one? I am asking because these females if they don't like each other can fight to the death but it could well be one is imposing some stress on the other leading to her premature death and people look for other explanations.
Best
 
If properly bonded before caging them together then two females that are not related can get along just fine, but no it's not safe at all to just put two unrelated chins of either sex together without first bonding them. They are more territorial then males so they can be harder to bond then males and proper introductions in neutral area is important if you hope for success. Not all chins get along with all other chins, so you can't just throw two chin together in a cage and expect them to live happily ever after, regardless of if they are male or female. You also always need to watch for signs of an issue (chasing, barking, spraying, fur slips, bites, etc), chins can have a falling out and bonds break sometimes for no apparent reason, no matter how many years they have been together. Obviously if the older one is constantly bullying the other chins then yes that could stress them out to the point of dying prematurely, like putting a strain on the chin with a heart condition for example, so they should be split up if one is bullying the other.

There is a lot of reason some chins don't live as long as others, just like humans. Genetics plays a big role, so it they are unrelated then they likely don't share the same good genetics as the older one. Also things like proper care as well as luck to avoid any major injury or illness all play a role.
 
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