Whisker Trimming

[JessieVictoria]

So the other day I read about whisker trimming as a way to equal out dominance between chinchillas and that if the whiskers between chinchillas are the same length dominant chinchillas will be more willing to be friendly with one another.

I also read that the whiskers will grow back in a matter of weeks, so it's pretty low risk to try it out.

They also mentioned that, in a pair, the dominant chinchilla will trim and twist the submissive chinchillas whiskers. I definitely noticed that Lucy trims and twists Sasha's whiskers. Just thought that was kind of neat.

Is any of this true? Does anyone have opinions or experience with this? I'd love to try, maybe Lucy and Daisy will be friends haha

 

[Zoaea]

I trimmed my male chins whiskers a few months back, he is still in his teenage span but he was being a bigger punk than normal. He had started being aggressive to my girl at treat time, and was being very territorial of the cage towards me when I was cleaning or putting in food, ect. So after about 2 weeks of this new chinattude I trimmed his back. It made a difference instantly, I'm just not sure its a permanent thing...

Oh, and it took more like 2 months for them to be fully grown out again. He still gets spunky but not aggressive.

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

Trimming whiskers can be effective with an aggressive chin but I would not recommend it if you are introducing 3 chins. Introducing 3 chins is more complicated and can cause the 2 who are friends to become enemies.

 

[Encantadora]

That's good to know Kansas City Chins.

 

[becky12883]

When we were trying to get Dale caged with the other 2 already bonded boys, I trimmed his whiskers. It worked great for about 5 minutes. The less dominant of the bonded boys started picking on Dale. We gave up on bonding all 3 after that. The original bonded boys suddenly turned on each other and now Dale and the more dominant one are together and the one that was less dominant (and ~11 years old and a cranky old man) is by himself in Dale's old cage. So basically trimming Dale's whiskers got him bullied, not bonded.

 

[Zoaea]

Yea if its a new bonding rather than an old bonded pair arguing, I would hold off on the whisker trimming. Its normal for them to squabble when meeting a new chin, try a cage with in a cage method until they seem to ignore each other. However, Jessie it seems from your post, the two already know each other?