Hello,
I wanted to register to ask advice, as well as say thank you for such a complete list of resources and tips. We own a former rescue who has always had a reserved but nice personality, and have since taken in a couple of other rescues as well as one store-bought chin. Thanks to the advice on this forum, we've taken many precautions as they've all been introduced to each other. Two bonded MF chins we adopted have one cage, our original female chin has a second, and the young purchase (2 months old) has her own. They are in the same room, but with quite a bit of space between the cages.
Our original chin had no problem when we took her to meet the bonded pair rescue, though she was a little skittish. However, the store-bought chin she didn't much care for right off the bat. We've never let them out to play together, nor had them share a cage, but we have introduced them in neutral areas, swap cages after several days for a time, and leave their cages in close-ish proximity, but so far, after 2 weeks, she still harasses the little one, Tweak. I fully expected it to take upwards of a month of the separation and cage swapping before seeing progress, but...
Anyhow, while she was out for her play time earlier tonight, she started trying to pester the Tweak through the bars of the Tweak's cage. Before I could pull our original chin away and separate them, Tweak, who usually just runs and hides, decided she had enough. Tweak nipped her on the left nostril really good, and took a small bit out of it, losing part of her nostril. :'( The bleeding stopped pretty quickly after I cleaned the wound with saline, and it doesn't look like it's interfering with her breathing. In fact, apart from her interaction with Tweak, her personality is about the same. no sneezing or anything, even. She still comes when I call, as well as when I offer up a treat. Even now, she's just running around a separate play area to which I isolated her.
The question is, having read of other people's experiences, I'm still not sure whether it's considered "normal" or whether there's something I can do. Should I keep at cleaning the nose wound? It doesn't look like it can be fixed with stitches. Is this one of the tortuous bits all new-to-multiple-chins owners have to suffer through? If it is, ugh...
we were really hoping they would bond over time, because Tweak and the bonded pair haven't shown a whit of hostility to each other, and have even begun grooming one another cautiously. If they have to be separated permanently, that's fine, we have both the time to give them all attention and the space for them to play separately, but I was very much hoping there was still a chance for them to get along.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to schedule a vet appointment, but since there's only a couple of small-animal/exotic pet vets in the area, we usually have to wait an extra day to get an appointment.
I wanted to register to ask advice, as well as say thank you for such a complete list of resources and tips. We own a former rescue who has always had a reserved but nice personality, and have since taken in a couple of other rescues as well as one store-bought chin. Thanks to the advice on this forum, we've taken many precautions as they've all been introduced to each other. Two bonded MF chins we adopted have one cage, our original female chin has a second, and the young purchase (2 months old) has her own. They are in the same room, but with quite a bit of space between the cages.
Our original chin had no problem when we took her to meet the bonded pair rescue, though she was a little skittish. However, the store-bought chin she didn't much care for right off the bat. We've never let them out to play together, nor had them share a cage, but we have introduced them in neutral areas, swap cages after several days for a time, and leave their cages in close-ish proximity, but so far, after 2 weeks, she still harasses the little one, Tweak. I fully expected it to take upwards of a month of the separation and cage swapping before seeing progress, but...
Anyhow, while she was out for her play time earlier tonight, she started trying to pester the Tweak through the bars of the Tweak's cage. Before I could pull our original chin away and separate them, Tweak, who usually just runs and hides, decided she had enough. Tweak nipped her on the left nostril really good, and took a small bit out of it, losing part of her nostril. :'( The bleeding stopped pretty quickly after I cleaned the wound with saline, and it doesn't look like it's interfering with her breathing. In fact, apart from her interaction with Tweak, her personality is about the same. no sneezing or anything, even. She still comes when I call, as well as when I offer up a treat. Even now, she's just running around a separate play area to which I isolated her.
The question is, having read of other people's experiences, I'm still not sure whether it's considered "normal" or whether there's something I can do. Should I keep at cleaning the nose wound? It doesn't look like it can be fixed with stitches. Is this one of the tortuous bits all new-to-multiple-chins owners have to suffer through? If it is, ugh...
we were really hoping they would bond over time, because Tweak and the bonded pair haven't shown a whit of hostility to each other, and have even begun grooming one another cautiously. If they have to be separated permanently, that's fine, we have both the time to give them all attention and the space for them to play separately, but I was very much hoping there was still a chance for them to get along.Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to schedule a vet appointment, but since there's only a couple of small-animal/exotic pet vets in the area, we usually have to wait an extra day to get an appointment.
