Chinchilla Fever?! (Human based Sickness)

[Blarklark]

I have two chinchilla's.. they are both boys.. one is about a year old.. the other is. 4-5 months. My question is.. I have chinchilla fever.. and recently have been pondering adding a 3rd and final chin.. >_> <_<... my partner would kill me I think..

Here is the scoop.. The two of them live in a ferret nation cage. So plently of room. We play with them in our chin proof family room for atleast a hour a day do no issues with that.

However, when I paired my older male with the younger male. At first povel wanted to rule over him. I ended up taking everything out of the cage.. shelves toys everything. All I left was a house. Over 2 weeks they got along. And have never had an issue since.

How does adding a 3rd Male to the equation work? It would have to be a male.. a female might make the boys turn on each other. However, is it easier once they had to deal with each other? Or just that much harder due to there being 2 chinchilla's that might reject the new chinchilla?

Any feedback would be wonderful.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Once you have a bonded group it is ten times harder to introduce a new chinchilla. Whenever I put a new group together, I have to make sure those are the chinchillas I want together for a long time. Adding in a new chinchilla throws off the dominance balance that the group/pair has developed over time. This makes it so that all three will begin fighting for dominance to try to re-establish the balance. Sometimes...this balance means killing one or more of the other cagemates to be the top dog. Very dangerous and IMO, if you've got two boys that get along great I wouldn't risk it by trying to add a third.

 

[CJR]

How long have you had your chins? Personally, I would wait at least six months after the last "addition" before getting another one... we've seen a lot of cases here where people get too many chins too fast and it often is not a good thing. I'm just looking out for you and your buddies.

 

[Blarklark]

Yeah I probably wont get a third then. They are VERY happy together. Sleep with each other.. eat with each other. I rarely hear them bark at each other. And if a third chin could risk that balance its not worth it lol.

I just know with chins the sooner you put pairs together the better. I had Povel almost a year before the next chin came. I think I was VERY lucky with their intro.

 

[Stackie]

In addition to what Tab has mentioned, I have even had problems with pairs when bringing a new chin in their room that was in a totally different cage. Even the sight or smell of a new chin can disrupt their bond or cause them to bicker more. If you don't want to risk having 3 single chins instead of a trio, it's a good idea just to stick with the ones you have.

 

[Chintastic!]

I have only done this sort of thing once. It took almost 4 months to introduce Jan to the other three. I started by doing the side by side thing. Then we did the cage with in a cage, alternating who was in whos cage. So I would put Jan in the little cage with the 3 others, then I would switch and pick one of the others to go in the little cage inside Jans cage. Each day I did a different one, so only one cage went into a big cage each day. We started with very brief visits-10minutes or so. Then graduly worked up to an hour. They did have supervised playtime seperatly so one of the trio and jan, again alternating. Eventually I was able to put Jan in the others cage for short visits without the little cage, supervised of course. I started lengthening that to longer and longer each week.

Finally after 2months I believe, Jan got to stay in there for the day. Everything went great, I did it on my day off so I would be able to keep an eye on them. I did this once everyother day. After a little over a week she stayed for one night. I slept by the cage just so I would be able to hear if anything went wrong, I didnt sleep much, but they were fine! I dont know if I was just lucky or what but it worked. Now they have lived together for over a year. There have been no fights or problems- except treat stealing but everyones involved in that one. If you do decide to get another one just be sure to take it very slow, you dont want to risk an injury to any of your chins.
Good luck!