Introducing 3 males

[qtpie61282]

Just wanted to get some thoughts. If any of you have ever introduced 3 adult males, and how it went. How long it took and how they all did together.

I am looking to introduce 3 of my adult males to make more room....two of which are already housed together, worried they might pick on the third one.
But the smaller male who is now with another male is kinda shy, so thinking that the other two might pick on him once they are all housed together.

thoughts on how to go about this? Going to put them next to one another to start obviously....but wanted to see if anyone else has attempted this and succeeded.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

It is an extremely bad idea as far as I am concerned. It almost always causes problems with the existing pair. Sometimes you end up with 3 separate cages because of the new problem that the pair have by adding in the third

 

[jags]

Not sure how much room you would stand to gain but its going to take a lot of luck to keep 3 adult males together in one cage especially if they are housed near your breeders.

 

[AZChins]

You can do it, but you have to do it the right way and not put anyone at risk. Basically you are going to have to make every single chin feel like they are in a brand new place and none of them can have the chance to be territorial at all. What I would do if they were here is first snip the whiskers. After that I would put them in a carrier, a smallish pet taxi, and keep them in the carrier for a few hours at least. If you can drive them around in the carrier, that would be a good way to make them bond without fighting.

They need to be placed in a cage that has been freshly scrubbed with new toys and accessories that don't smell like any other chins. You definitely don't want any one of the boys to think that other chins are in his territory, and the other part is distracting the chins from realizing that there are other chins in the cage by putting new,fun things in the cage. It isn't too hard to do, but you really can't just throw them into the same cage without any preparation.

I have several cages with three or more males in them, I am very careful to keep a close eye on them. The chins I have the most problems with are those that are between the cages of about seven months to two years old.

 

[Stackie]

I'll never attempt another trio. I've had two failed trios, they seem to work out fine in the beginning and it always goes downhill about 6 months later it seems. I especially don't like to attempt them with an already bonded pair as you run the risk of breaking the pair up as well.