chinchillas together

[chillimilli]

Hey everybody.

About a year ago I bought chilli, a couple weeks later a bought him a friend, rambo. I put their cages together and after a week I let them play together and they were friends ever since. Got them both a bigger cage and everything was great until I rescued 2 new chinchillas from a lady.
I never thought it would be a problem because from what I read chinchilla normally like to be in groups.
Anyways I guess since my two boys smelled a girl they going nuts.
Chilli, my little one started attacking Rambo, I had to seperate them.

I rolled the 2 new ones out of the room again because its more important for me to have chilli and Rambo back together.
If I put them together on my bed they are friendly but not in one cage anymore.
I started to Google and they said if chins were fighting once , most likely they will never be friends again.
I'm so upset.
I guess my question is did that happen to any of you guys? Any ideas what I should do.
Before all that happened I was actually hoping to put all 4 together,..

 

[becky12883]

Are the two new ones both girls? If so, you would end up with many more chins by putting them together. They can and will breed, and you would be risking the lives of the females, not to mention with no history on any of them, you could be passing on bad genetics. If you have the space, I would keep them in separate rooms. It seems like Chili is very sensitive to the female. He may or may not ever get along with Rambo again. You could try very slowly to intro them again, on neutral ground, and then into a neutral cage (unless blood has been drawn, then I wouldn't risk it). You should always have back up cages to be able to separate all chins if necessary (4 chins, 4 cages), they can turn on each other for any reason at anytime.

 

[Gemma]

I heard males will become aggressive with the scent of a female presence.

They are basically in competition with eachother and its natural instinct.
As Becky said, the males may never be housed again. And I wouldn't risk it because it could turn ugly.

I had two females and one male. I regret not being as informed as I am now, because now that the male is seperated - their behavior turned completely for the better.

Keep in mind males can breed with a female if the cage is close enough - and the females could even turn on eachother.