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[mike]

Hi everyone. I have a 4 month old female black velvet chin. I am considering getting her a playmate. ( a second female chin )
My questions are, if I do get a second female chin, will they be more likely to bond with each other than with me, thus making them less people friendly and more dependent on each other ?
or, should I get a male chin for my female ?

I am very greatfull for any advice thank you 

[GrayRodent]

Although I've only kept one chin at a time I know of many people who report that it does not make a difference. They tend to keep their personalities. This is unlike the behavioral pattern we see in pet birds.
They will bond to each other but they should still be okay.
There are mixed opinions on getting a second chinchilla to keep the other company. Prevailing wisdom seems to say don't get a second chin for the sake of the other but only if you want to have two chins. I do think there are circumstances where two are better, especially if they get very little human interaction, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having them.

[mike]

I forgot to mention in my post, that my chin gets lots and lots of time out of her cage.I want another chin for 2 reasons
1) Because I feel bad for her when she is in that big cage all by herself. ( she is in a critter nation double stack model 162 )
2) I would like to have a second chin but I am worried about the concerns that I wrote in my first post above

[kageri]

Chins treat their people the same with others around or not.  They are very independent animals and they don't care if their cagemate is more or less friendly toward humans.  If you have established a good relationship with your chin then it should continue that way.  The only thing that might change is that with another chin to bounce around your current one may have less energy to spend on activities out of the cage.  Not by much though since chins are walking batteries of energy.

Keep in mind that not all chins will get along.  The longer a chin has been alone and older it is the harder it will be to intro.  Intro will take many months during which you need a second cage to set next to your current one.  It doesn't have to be as fancy as a critter nation since it's hopefully temporary.  If they don't get along though you will either need a full size second cage or see if the previous owner/rescue will take the chin back.

[GrayRodent]

If you get a second chin I strongly recommend having some kind of box or hutch in the cage at all times. (If you are not familiar with how to introduce chinchillas please research that topic thoroughly. Failure to properly do this will often result in a life-threatening fight.

Once they are introduced you still need to have a place where one of them can hide. This will minimize the possibility of one getting injured or killed in a tussle which is rare but has been known to happen and can happen at any time. Personally I would like to have two chinchillas myself so I don't advise against pairing them up but certainly advise to proceed with caution.