This is going to be long, so thank you to anyone that reads through this and is able to offer your best advice.
I used to have 3 chins: Bella, Chinny, and Bebe. Bella and Chinny lived together, and Bebe lived by herself due to a situation that happened when we first adopted her. I'd written a bit about this before.
I wasn't a very chin-smart owner, I will say, at the beginning, and still had a lot to learn. Even though I'd heard/read about chins having trouble getting along, I was kind of ignorant since it was so easy to get Chinny and Bella together! After purchasing them a huge cage, we decided to get a third chin so they could be one big happy family!
Well, we were very stupid about introducing Bebe to the two of them. We brought them all to play in the bathroom at first, and things were going great! So we naively decided to put Bebe into Bella and Chinny's cage. Well, as you can guess, they were NOT happy about this, and Chinny attacked her. We ended up removing her and putting her into a smaller cage next to their cage where they could see her.
I now realize, after doing a lot of reading on the internet, this was a stupid move. The neighboring cages can actually be stressful to chinchillas that don't get along, and they obviously felt like Bebe had parked her car in their driveway. *Sigh*. Well, we kept the cages near each other, so I'm sure we've done a lot of damage. We even tried separating out Bella and Chinny's cage at one point, and putting Bebe upstairs, which ended badly as they bit her foot. Now I realize how foolish I was and that all this most likely did was cause a lot of resentment.
Anyway, we came to terms that they will probably never get along, and thought about maybe getting Bebe a friend, and this time being a lot better about introducing them to each other. Maybe even going to a shelter and finding her a compatible chin before just forcing one upon her. Of course, we did keep hoping they would get along as we don't live in a very big place, and having one cage is a lot better than two.
Well, fast forward, and Chinny ended up passing away
. I wrote about this in more detail in memorials. So now Bebe and Bella both live in large cages completely alone. Which is fine, but I read that chinchillas can become stressed if they don't have a companion. And I also noticed that Bella seems to not be doing super well. I used to hear her and Chinny running around all night, and now I don't anymore. Last night at 3 am I checked in on her, and she was laying down as if it were daytime
. Also, Bebe seems to just always be hiding and laying down. She's gotten a bit better around me and my husband, but she's still very timid and seems scared all the time. I think having a companion would be much better for her.
Well, the problem is that I don't know if I have it in me to get 2 more chinchillas. After Chinny passed away, it's been really hard on me, and I don't want to buy a lot more chinchillas so that I have to go through that so many more times!
The ideal situation would be if Bella and Bebe would finally get along. So I've thought of a few options, and I want to know what some of you more experienced owners think:
A. I just go ahead and acquire 2 more chinchillas from a shelter, making sure they are compatible with the chins I have now. That way I'm also doing a good deed, because I'm giving some abandoned chins a forever home.
B. I separate Bebe and Bella to two separate rooms for an entire year so they don't see or smell each other at all. Do chinchillas have good memories? Do you think if I did that they would forget the grudges they have against each other and get along? I do think they are compatible, based on the fact that they did get along for a period of time before Bebe invaded the other two's house. And Bella always seemed a little more open to Bebe than Chinny did even though they both clearly hated her.
C. I give Bebe away to a chin smart home where there is someone that has another chinchilla for her to live with. This would be the hardest option for me as I love Bebe so much, but I sometimes wonder if this would be the best for Bebe. And then I would acquire a new chin for Bella.
Are there any other options that anyone can think of? I'm all ears and open to all ideas.
