Stress and Introductions

[chin8710]

I have two female chins. Both are three years old. At the moment, they are separated but I'm interested in introducing them and opening up the FN. My concern is one of the girls gets stressed easily. She'll stop eating if something stresses her out and then I have to take her to the vet for fluids and to get her system moving as I hand feed. I'm scared if I try to introduce them she will stress out too much and stop eating. I was thinking of using the smooshing method. Any suggestions? Should I keep them separate and not bother if they're happy as they are?

 

[igotfatchins]

When I did my intro, I trimmed whiskers, dabbed vanilla on the noses, and smooshed. It worked very well.
Have you put the two cages side by side to see how the stress-easy chin reacts?
Best of luck if you try the intro!

 

[chin8710]

I have the stressed one (Koda) freaked out and tried to attack through the cage, my finger was in the way and blood was drawn.

 

[tunes]

If she stresses easily, I would definitely not smoosh her. If I tried anything, I would do a cage within a cage, although frankly I don't know if I would try it at all. A chin who is easily stressed can go off their feed, change their personality entirely, and even start fur chewing. They both have large cages just having the single FN. Many people keep their chins in a single level.