Males chinchillas no longer friends.

[lovemychillas]

I have two male chinchillas, krewkrew & pumkin. When I got them they came together in the same cage and seemed to get along great. They slept together all the time, played together it was obvious they should be kept together. Well over time I noticed KrewKrew was in their hut alot and wasn't coming out to eat when he normally would. Also, he quit getting dust baths. I noticed Pumkin wasn't having any problems he was eating alot(out of both food bowls), I tried avoiding that from happening by feeding them separately but as time went on KrewKrew didn't want to eat. One night KrewKrew had a seizure while they were out playing and Pumkin got very violent with him after, I had to put KrewKrew in his own cage and once I did that he started eating regularly also wanting to bathe normally like a chinchilla should. I was worried at first to keep them apart because i seem at one point they did have a bond, and I didn't want to cause depression in either one. But I had to make a decision and fortunately it was the right one. KrewKrew is healthy and happy to have his own territory and of course Pumkin is also. I hope to re-introduce them some day and start the process. So someday they can play together.

[davx]

Hello,

how long were they together? And are they brothers?

I'm afraid but I assume that a successful reintroduction isn't very likely. Usually it is easier neutering the males and introducing them with a suitable female.

[natnat899]

Are they relatively young? Sometimes they reach puberty I believe they can get aggressive towards one another, I have luckily never experienced this (as of yet) with my 2 male chins.

However it certainly doesn't seem like a healthy relationship they had before with one completely dominating the other; as I suspect that would be the reason for the shy one withdrawing. When they were living together did the shy one ever lose big clumps of fur (fur slip)? As that can be a sign of being scared.

Also do you know why your chinchilla had a seizure?

[lovemychillas]

well krewkrew is older than pumkin you can tell just by looking at him. When i first got Pumkin though he was very small, his ears weren't even fully grown and we couldnt tell if he was a male or female, eventually a few months later we see that he was a male, he also started getting very hyper and started trying to bully the other one. Yet they still slept together & cuddled with eachother. I read that when a chinchilla first hits puberty they will have alot of energy and can be kind of mean. Thats exactly what happened. Pumkin grew more and got a little older and KrewKrew was already grown and past that stage, also he wasnt very tempermental at all.

[natnat899]

If you are keeping them in separate cages, it might be worth keeping the cages together and letting them out together at play times to help maintain a bond between them (that's if the younger chinchilla isn't too much of a bully!). Sometimes if my chinchillas get a little temperamental over food, I get them to sit on the edge of the cage and I share it out until they look calmer. I also have several hanging balls of hay dotted around each big level of the cage, it means that they have to work for their food and also makes it difficult to argue over; if you do re-introduce them it might be good to dot the food around, so mr bossy can't "guard" them all at the same time. It is also important to have lots of places the shyer chinchilla can go when he gets fed up, like a one-chin tunnel and so on.

How often do you let your chinchillas out for a run?

[chinsight]

You may have to have the males fixed. We had ours fixed and he stopped the aggressive biting and became a big ball of love.