play time together.

[brittanyydevan]

i have a boy chin and a girl chin. ruby, girl, is about 10 months and yuki, boy, is about 5 or 6 months. we had them in side by side cages for over a month and then put them out together to see how they would do. ruby seems to be chasing yuki around but we cant tell if its bad what they're doing. ruby will try and chase yuki and jump on her. and when we thought it was getting bad, we caught yuki and put him away. we noticed that his fur looked a little messed up and a little bit fell out. so is that bad or unusual?

 

[ChinnyMom]

chins of different genders should NEVER have play time together. it only takes seconds for them to mate and you don't want to be dealing with pregnancy/kits in chins that you don't know the pedigrees on.

also make sure there is a good amount of space between their cages. mating through the bars can happen all too easily. i believe 6 inches to 1 foot is the minimum distance you should have between opposite gender cages.

 

[brittanyydevan]

but like is it bad that his fur fell out? wouldnt it usually be the boy being dominant?

 

[ChinnyMom]

it was most likely a 'fur slip'. that's when a chin lets go of some of its hair. it's not bad or harmful, but the fur will take some time to grow back.

from my reading, it all depends on the chins personality. some females can be real 'you know whats', and some boys can be grumpy gooses. all depends on the individual.

 

[brittanyydevan]

ok thanks! we wont put them together anymore just to be safe.

 

[Laurie]

It's a misconception that males are more dominant than females in all things--the animal kingdom and the human world. It's also a misconception that the smaller the size the more subserviant a being is.

It is not a bad thing the fur slipped as it won't kill your chin, but fur slips occur when the chinchilla is scared.

It is a bad thing a male and female were together during playtime

 

[chinchatcomics]

I agree with all of the above, if your chins don't live as cagemates, they shouldn't play outside of the cage together (This i what I've been told and heard!)

 

[greychins]

I agree with all of the above, if your chins don't live as cagemates, they shouldn't play outside of the cage together (This i what I've been told and heard!)

We have chins that aren't cagemates, but that can play together... won't get along if put together, but perfectly fine in the playpen. Regardless, people who aren't trying to breed shouldn't put males and females together, because males+females=babies

 

[Cuddlebug]

Definitely, keep them apart from now on. No shared pastimes or time together in the same cage. Breeding can happen in just a few seconds and you will not be able to stop it. And yes, a male can breed a female at that age.