Need advice with my little male chins

[GRose]

O'm hoping someone can help me out. I have two little boys that I took in from a lady who had to give up her chins. When I got them they were about 4 months old. They hadn't been handled much if at all and I have been working with them to stop the biting and such. They have a 4 story cage complete with hammock, wheel, boxes to shred, pellets, hay, shelves, etc. My boys are now about 10 months old and have reached sexual maturity. They have lived all this time together and were fine up until a few days ago. I came home and D'Artagnan (the dominant boy) had beat up Cassanova (the submissive boy) . I noticed right away that Cassaonova didnt come up to greet me and when I opened the cage he stayed cowering a little. I checked him out and he had some bite marks on his ears and was noticeably missing patches of fur. I have since seperated my boys except when I am actively watch them together. The bite marks on the ears have healed and Cassanova is his usually perky self (its been less than a week) but my problem is what to do about the situation. Can I put them back together again? Do they need to be neutered first? I want them to have companionship, they previously were eating, sleeping and playing together. Even destroying card board boxes was a team effort.
Will they be fine living together both being male or will I need to seperate and possibly find them little girl chins for company. (They will be fixed of course). Any advice you can give me on how to handle the situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Ash]

If you get them fixed, you should be able to successfully house them together again. For some chins, it's simply a hormonal thing. Some chins, however, just decide they don't like each other anymore after a while. You can try giving them another week or so to calm down and try to reintro them, but keep vigilante. Or you can go straight to fixing them and then pairing them again once they've healed up. If that doesn't work because Cassanova attacts D'atagnan again, it could just be Cassanova doesn't want chinchilla company and you can see about getting a buddy for D'A. Some chinchillas aren't as social as the little furballs are supposed to be. You really have many options, it's just a matter of which option you'd like to choose.

 

[alli713]

You'll also have to have a vet who is willing and knowledgeable enough to do a chin neuter. They aren't super common as of right now.

One thing though, is if you put them back together and just keep an eye out, they could attack while you aren't home or during the night. That has happened plenty of times and some of the time the attacked chin goes into shock and can actually die.

Personally, I'll only keep my chins paired if there isn't any signs of aggression. There are too many stories of chins attacking to death for me to risk it with my girls.

But it's really up to you with what you want to do. If you have a vet you trust to neuter your chins, then you can try that as some have had success with re-pairing after neutering. Otherwise if it were me, I'd keep them separated.

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

One thing though, is if you put them back together and just keep an eye out, they could attack while you aren't home or during the night. That has happened plenty of times and some of the time the attacked chin goes into shock and can actually die.

Otherwise if it were me, I'd keep them separated.

I agree with permanent separation. Neutering may not help and there is no way to know whether or not it will work until it's too late. I would forgo the neutering and separate permanently.

 

[chinniespet]

need advice with my little male chins

Hey
I just read this post and was wondering if it's common for same sex parings to become aggressive towards each other. Im getting 2 8week old males soon and would hate for them to fight and hurt each other. Do females also become aggressive towards each other? Or does it really just depend on the individual animal?

 

[Riven]

It really just depends on the chins. Either sex can fight with another. They can also mostly get along and have constant fights, random fights, or just one fight and never again.

I know of a gal on this very forum who has similar issues, and had her boys neutered, with no problems and they all lived happily ever after. The main deal with neutering is having a vet who can be competent about doing it.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

Most of the time chins will get along fine in same sex pairs. But like every species, even humans, we have our tifts now and then. There are soo many reasons why they may get in a tift -ex-hormones, fighting over a toy or a treat. Getting a female for your male is not the answer. You will get unwanted babies and they too can get in fights. It would be cheaper for you to just buy another cage then having the boys altered. They will live just a happy life with the environment you provide.

Every chin has their own personality. Even kits born in the same litter will have their tifts. Most of the time it goes very well-but you always have that difficult one. I still recommend same sex pairs.

 

[Riven]

Actually she said get a female after they are neutered, no babies! I thought the same thing, then saw it.

will I need to seperate and possibly find them little girl chins for company. (They will be fixed of course).

 

[3CsMommy]

I tried putting an older male with a younger male, and it went pretty well. But, the older male is very high-strung, which got a little hard on the younger one after a while. I started making sure they had separate play time and one-on-one time with me, and it helped balance the pair. If you do put your guys back together, I'd definitely keep a separate cage, and try to give them time apart as well as together for quite a while, maybe even resorting to separate cages, but shared supervised time.

 

[Rickman]

I noticed you've 6 chins - sometimes a female in heat, if close to their cage, will trigger fighting, especially if they're young! Maybe anticipation! [haha]