Post by natnat899 on Nov 7, 2018 14:12:49 GMT
Apologies for the long post!
To give you a bit of a background, Peanut and Pickle have been fighting during the winter months for 3 years now, the first time was in nov/dec 2016.
Peanut chases Pickle around the cage, Pickle goes into a safe spot and then aggressively grunts every time Peanut comes near, regardless of what he is doing. Peanut goes up to Pickle making chirping communication noises, it almost seems he is seeing if Pickle is ok; Pickle makes grunting and teeth chattering noises at him and eventually Peanut gets fed up and lashes out - and I’m pretty sure that’s how Pickle gets the cuts on his ears.
Pickle is small, very shy, and very agile. Peanut is big, noisy and boisterous. Pickle can be antisocial towards Peanut and seems to get on better with us than Peanut.
When it first happened it took a few months to escalate, I thought it was dominance so I left them together to see if they could work it out. When I saw Pickle had cuts on his ears I separated them and wrote a post on chinformative, where I was told they should be perminantly separated.
When I watched them together in joint play times, the fact they would always sleep as close as possible and they would have loving grooming sessions, I believed it to be possible to get them back together. In June 2017 after very slow re-introductions they were back to normal; then the next year it only took a few months.
For the past 2 years I’ve been watching them very closely and testing different ideas out. I found that I moved the wheel for the past 2 years during winter so I left it where it was this year. I also reduced the cage size because it looked like to me, that pickle was trying to take one section of the cage (it’s 3 tiers and taller than me, I have to stand on a stool to clean the top so 2 tiers is still enough).
However, they have still fought this year - and I am now wondering if it might be to do with the fireworks. The night they first went off the chinchillas had a scuff and I separated them for half a day, then they were fine; the second day they were absolutely fine, I checked on them throughout the day. Then between a period of 2/3 hours when the fireworks were going off, they had another fight - no cuts on his ears just fur slip, Pickle won’t jump on me at the moment so I can’t check him thoroughly. They are currently separated.
I have no idea what is causing the fights, and I’m just trying to figure it out so I can solve the problem.
Has anyone heard of chinchillas falling out the same time each year?
What could be causing it?
Is there anything I can do to prevent the fights?
What are your thoughts?
It has also crossed my mind about finding Peanut a home with another chinchilla (he hates being separated), and then keeping Pickle on his own with us - but then I worry if Pickle will be lonely after a while.
To give you a bit of a background, Peanut and Pickle have been fighting during the winter months for 3 years now, the first time was in nov/dec 2016.
Peanut chases Pickle around the cage, Pickle goes into a safe spot and then aggressively grunts every time Peanut comes near, regardless of what he is doing. Peanut goes up to Pickle making chirping communication noises, it almost seems he is seeing if Pickle is ok; Pickle makes grunting and teeth chattering noises at him and eventually Peanut gets fed up and lashes out - and I’m pretty sure that’s how Pickle gets the cuts on his ears.
Pickle is small, very shy, and very agile. Peanut is big, noisy and boisterous. Pickle can be antisocial towards Peanut and seems to get on better with us than Peanut.
When it first happened it took a few months to escalate, I thought it was dominance so I left them together to see if they could work it out. When I saw Pickle had cuts on his ears I separated them and wrote a post on chinformative, where I was told they should be perminantly separated.
When I watched them together in joint play times, the fact they would always sleep as close as possible and they would have loving grooming sessions, I believed it to be possible to get them back together. In June 2017 after very slow re-introductions they were back to normal; then the next year it only took a few months.
For the past 2 years I’ve been watching them very closely and testing different ideas out. I found that I moved the wheel for the past 2 years during winter so I left it where it was this year. I also reduced the cage size because it looked like to me, that pickle was trying to take one section of the cage (it’s 3 tiers and taller than me, I have to stand on a stool to clean the top so 2 tiers is still enough).
However, they have still fought this year - and I am now wondering if it might be to do with the fireworks. The night they first went off the chinchillas had a scuff and I separated them for half a day, then they were fine; the second day they were absolutely fine, I checked on them throughout the day. Then between a period of 2/3 hours when the fireworks were going off, they had another fight - no cuts on his ears just fur slip, Pickle won’t jump on me at the moment so I can’t check him thoroughly. They are currently separated.
I have no idea what is causing the fights, and I’m just trying to figure it out so I can solve the problem.
Has anyone heard of chinchillas falling out the same time each year?
What could be causing it?
Is there anything I can do to prevent the fights?
What are your thoughts?
It has also crossed my mind about finding Peanut a home with another chinchilla (he hates being separated), and then keeping Pickle on his own with us - but then I worry if Pickle will be lonely after a while.