Guess what this is about? Yes, Cheech and Chong still really hate each other, not matter what I try. I'm sorry this is a long post but I want to try and explain everything. I know Chong isn't happy and I may need to take some drastic action.
Firstly these are the methods of getting them together we have tried and the results that followed.
Swapping cages for a few hours a day - Chong loves Cheech's big cage and plays about in it. Cheech gets aggravated in Chong's smaller cage and chews on the bars. Chong's cage was only meant to be temporary until they were together in the bigger one.
Letting them out in the room to play together - Cheech ignores Chong and goes about her daily routine of trying to get everywhere she's not meant to be. Chong stalks her and tries to get on her back and mate with her. She barks harshly at him and usually grabs a mouthful of fur. he retreats only to try... again and again and again... she eventually gets mad with him and chases him around the room and I have to put them both back in their cages.
Putting them together in a tiny neutral cage - it's actually a mouse cage with all the shelves removed. They fly around after each other growling like rabid fur balls. Chong stands on his hind legs in the corner growling and Cheech gets bored and tries to find a way out of the small cage instead. When she goes near him he growls at her, she turns her back to him. Sometimes he tries to mate with her and she will attack him until he gets scared again. After a while she will initiate the fight and pins him to the floor. She sits on top of him and appears to be grooming him. She seems a little rough to me and sometimes he squeaks and wriggles out of her hold. Sometimes they pee on each other too. After maybe half an hour they sit on either side of the cage and ignore each other and go to sleep.
Putting them together in Chong's cage - Cheech hoards all of his stuff and sits in his box, they fight and pee on each other. Cheech also bites Chong's toes through the mesh floor so I never put them in there again.
Putting them together in Cheech's cage (with both boxes in there) - They fight. Cheech commandeers Chong's box. Chong sits on or in Cheech's box and barks and growls whenever she comes near. She is much more aggressive to him but because of they layout they can't really get each other and they end up asleep, apart.
The mouse cage is usually the best option. We put them in there once every couple of days. All the methods have been tried at different times of the day, with a day or more in between.
The main problems I've found: Chong will not stop trying to mate with Cheech. She doesn't want anything to do with that and will be quite vicious in stopping him, but he never learns. I thought Chinchillas were meant to be intelligent but he never learns. Chong is also so scared of her and barks and growls whenever she comes near. And the other problem is that Cheech, although she doesn't seem to mind him at first, after a while of Chong's attacks and barking, can be really vicious towards him and won't let up until she's sitting on him.
But when Chong is in his cage all he does is pine for her. He moves his nesting box to get closer to her cage and sits there and makes pining noises. I've looked up the sounds on the internet and he's lonely. He doesn't play as much as her and to be honest I know he's just not happy and it breaks my heart. He's from a breeder and he's used to being around chinchillas all the time and it's upsetting him being on his own, but I'm just out of ideas to get them together.
This is my moral dilemma. I don't want to keep Chong in this situation. It isn't fair. He isn't happy and so we're not happy (while Cheech is as happy as ever). These are the options I can see for us at the moment:
Keep trying. Put them together ever day or so and maybe eventually they will learn to like each other. Most people tell me chinchillas will learn to like each other rather than live alone and it can take years. But in that time I'll know Chong isn't happy.
Get Chong castrated. It should stop him trying to mate with Cheech and therefore will stop her being aggressive to him but obviously this option has a lot of downfalls. The obvious one being how dangerous it is to operate on a chinchilla, but also it may not even solve the problem. And of course we will never have Cheech and Chong babies (but I doubt that will happen anyway). I don't want to do this to him, but if it has a good chance of solving the problem I would do it. But then I might find out Cheech was the problem and I put him through the risk for nothing.
The last option I can think of and the most horrible one for me is to let him live with another Chinchilla where he will finally be happy. I love him so much, he's my little baby, but I would be willing to give him up if I knew it meant he could be happy. I would put an ad around and he would have a trial week with the prospective mate and if it didn't work I would take him back.
I'm so confused at the moment. Cheech seems to be happy enough alone at the moment but I just know Chong isn't. Does anyone have any advice for me? Thank you for reading my essay.