thinking about getting our little man a girl???

[loulousweetie84]

hiya

im thinking about getting george a mate, hes 18 months old,
was wondering what the best approch would be as to cage sharing? introducing? until little ones arrive? etc

and there after about neautering him and risks?

any advice would be great no matter how small

lou

[annvole]

chinchillas seem quick to get along or forever fighting. The deciding factor seems to be personality match and if they have grown up alone or not. I would choose a new partner from a group that have grown up to be the your original chinchillas size OR get a just-weened baby. Adults seem to accept babies but you still have a potential fight when the baby grows bigger and decides to be dominant if the original chinchilla wants to hold it's dominance. Chinchillas are much more visual then other rodents at determining who someone is so all those tricks I use for other rodents to make them smell the same do not work with chinchillas... if they are going to fight, it makes no difference if they smell familiar or not. Their determination of if they CAN be dominant is best determined during extended chases. Because of this they are best introduced in a very large room. They need stuff to jump on and off of while running and they will ricochet off the walls. Tunnels (cardboard tubes for new rugs or "weeping tile" plastic tubes work) are good to hide in if there are several openings close together so the one doing the chasing has to stop and check which tube the chased chinchilla is hiding in. Remember they are going to get hot from all that running and could die of over heating if they have not become used to lots of running. For this reason I make sure they are used to running from me chasing them for a few days before I try introducing them this way. Once they have decided mutually who is dominant, they will get along well. It is still a good idea to have more then one run wheel available and for them to be several inches above the floor. If there is any chasing while in the cage, they can defend themselves in a run wheel while the dominant one can blow off steam in the other run wheel.

[Kins]

This is a very old thread so I'm going to lock it