Had to separate a pair.....

[Dewdrop]

I kinda figured this would be an eventuality.

Went down to clean cages today and picked Polaris up and noticed Phoenix took a bite out of his ear, wads of fur, etc.....

This was NOT a bad attack compared to many that I've seen here, thankfully.

Bonus Walgreens had some Gentian Violet on hand so I was able to get him coated (It turned a metallic green afterwards, is that normal??)

So main question(s): Odds in them ever being repaired with other chins? I debated on doing a trio. (Polaris with the other two, leaving the bully by himself) But I know that has risks.

Phoenix, likely to never be paired with males now, right? We got him with the intent to eventually show/breed. Does this ruin those odds? Or would female pairings be more likely to succeed?

And who gets banished to the 'spare' cage until I get another FN add on? right now it's polaris, but as dumb as it sounds I feel bad taking him from his 'home' when he didn't do anything. LOL.....Probably doesn't matter huh?..

Thanks..

 

[greychins]

I've never had gentian violet turn green.... but then, I have actual blu-kote, which may have something to do with it.

As for the pair being repaired... it could be. Possibly, but maybe not. You could try re-doing the intros and seeing how it goes. If there's just the bite out of the ear and pulled fur, that's not bad. We see more instances where we're having to clean up blood in the cage and coat half the chin with blu-kote and take the chin to the vet for antibiotics to make sure the wounds aren't infected. In your case, just pulled fur and a bit ear....I don't mean to make it sound like it's nothing - it definitely is an "argument" - but it's not as bad as some cases. So, in your case, I'd probably try again. I would be careful and watch the chins, but it's not some of the bad wounds we've seen where I will never put that chin with another chin.

Some chins are picky on who they can be paired with. I have a breeder female here who didn't get along with several other female chins, and would bully them, but is now living peacefully with our pet female. But for the others, she would pull out the fur and bite them and we'd find the chin hiding under a shelf trying to get away from her... but she hasn't touched a hair on our pet female. They sleep on top of each other. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The only way to know is to give them some time apart to hopefully forget the incident, and try again.

A torn ear won't matter in the show ring. Pulled fur will, but you would just want to wait to show him until the fur has grown back in (if the pulled out fur has left noticeable marks in his coat).

As for female pairings - we get in a lot of rescues that are male/female pairs. We separate them... and often have a hard time getting those males to get along with other males. I don't know if they would get along with females, because they're rescues, we don't give them that opportunity, but we've had better luck, in general, getting males to pair up with females. But that said... we've also had considerably worse injuries when our chins turn on one another in male/female pairs. Because of some really bad luck with colony cage breeding and some chins killing and badly injuring others, we now only use runs for our breeders. Never had either of our two breeder males get hurt since - I like to think because they can get away. Because the females are the same.

 

[Dewdrop]

Oh sorry, Polaris was never meant for show. At least not via the breeder I got him from. Has some funny background.

Phoenix was the one we purchased with the intent to show/breed down the line.

This certainly wasn't bad, no. but I've gone down to check on them from time to time to find some wads of fur (All polaris, phoenix has never lost any that I can tell....big bully) so it seems to be escalating, which is why I figured I'd better break them up before things really got bad.

Here's the bully. LOL

 

[Dreamlite]

If you've noticed it getting worse I would not try reintroing them again. Keep them seporite or try with different chins. I had a female who got along with everyone for yrs then out of the blue killed 2 cagemates and couldn't be repaired again. Once they start fighting I've never had them get along again. Do you have female chins in the house now? If so that may be the cause of your fight. Some males are fine paired with other males even with females in the same room, and others just aren't.

 

[Dewdrop]

If you've noticed it getting worse I would not try reintroing them again. Keep them seporite or try with different chins. I had a female who got along with everyone for yrs then out of the blue killed 2 cagemates and couldn't be repaired again. Once they start fighting I've never had them get along again. Do you have female chins in the house now? If so that may be the cause of your fight. Some males are fine paired with other males even with females in the same room, and others just aren't.

Nope. We currently have all males.

 

[Andrea]

I would keep Phoenix solo if he tends to be a bully, since even if this one time wasn't too severe, the next time could be much worse or even deadly. Polaris isn't at fault here, so there is a possibility of pairing him with a different chin or chins. I have a trio that has never fought, and I hear that is actually a rarity so you have to be careful to make sure no one is being aggressive. Good luck!

 

[Dewdrop]

For the record. Trying to catch a chin that 'escaped' during the middle of the night should be an olympic sport.

Apparently the roof of the spare cage didn't get snapped properly so polaris had himself a bit of an adventure. I can laugh now.

Trying cage with in a cage for an intro. Not sure it's going so well. My mother was just down stairs and said he was getting nipped at....

 

[Dewdrop]

Ok going much better now. I didn't realize the top of the cage was suppose to be covered. My bad! The three have had play time in the past and have never had any issues. So I'll cross my fingers

 

[starrynight0621]

I would keep Phoenix solo if he tends to be a bully, since even if this one time wasn't too severe, the next time could be much worse or even deadly. Polaris isn't at fault here, so there is a possibility of pairing him with a different chin or chins. I have a trio that has never fought, and I hear that is actually a rarity so you have to be careful to make sure no one is being aggressive. Good luck!

Why is three chins getting along a rarity? I thought chins lived in packs of 100 or more in the wild, so why couldn't just three get along?

I guess I don't understand how their behavior in the wild translates to domestic life...

 

[Mindy.Chin]

Here's the bully. LOL

^^He has a very much bully-like expression going on...

And if I was in your situation, I would just separate them. It's not worth getting one of your babies seriously hurt because you tried to push a friendship that just isn't working out...

 

[Essentia]

The metallic green is normal for genetian violet. Whenever I apply it I get that when it dries.

 

[Cuddlebug]

In the wild, chins have the room to get away from each other instead of fighting. We shove them in cages and they cannot escape each other so they fight.

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

Both times that I had to separate, I was torn over who should go to the spare cage. The 'bully' to be punished or the bullied to feel safer in a new, smaller home AWAY from his tormentor.

Obviously, chins do not get the concept of being 'punished', so in both cases I chose to put the victim in the smaller, safer feeling cage. I gave him some of the things from his former cage to help make him feel comfortable.

Good luck...

I should add, that in both cases, I had both chins neutered and was able to have them together again since they commiserated and recovered together, rebonding in the process.

 

[Dewdrop]

The metallic green is normal for genetian violet. Whenever I apply it I get that when it dries.

Ah Ha! good to know. Thanks

Thus far everyone has adjusted to their new lives. I go downstairs and often find a chin pile of the newly formed trio.

 

[Dewdrop]

^^He has a very much bully-like expression going on...

And if I was in your situation, I would just separate them. It's not worth getting one of your babies seriously hurt because you tried to push a friendship that just isn't working out...

Haha, he is a ROYAL brat, he's lucky he's pretty