You seem like you have a lot of chinchillas and have experience with them....so.........can ask you a question and get your advice?
We adopted 2 chinchillas from the humane society 2 yrs ago. When we got them, they were a mom and her adult daughter. They were very timid and could not be handled at all, but never bit. With a lot of time and patience, both mama and baby are friendly and social and have their own way to get me to come to their cage to pet and scratch them. They are in a double decker ferret nation cage.
These two were together in their previous home and in the same cage at the humane society. We brought them home and they had adjusted nicely, contently sharing a cage together and usually sleeping next to each other. Then last week, the mom suddenly attacked the baby for no reason. She was Unrelenting and chased her from the very bottom level to the very top and would grab large tuffs of fur in her mouth. I immediately separated them, closing off the bottom two levels of the cage from the top two levels. The baby settled down and has been content in the top half. The mom spends 75% of her time trying to break into the top level. I thought maybe she didn't want to be on the bottom, so I reversed them, with mama on top and baby on bottom. Now mama just tries to get to the lower level where the baby is. I have tried once to put them together again after the initial fight but MOM'S IMMEDIATELY attacked baby again.
I thought maybe baby was sick and that's why mama was going this, but baby has been fine, eating and drinking, and peeing and pooping normally. I do have a call into an exotic animal vet but am waiting to hear back from them. Do you have any idea why the older mama is viciously attacking her adult daughter after being cagemates for atleast 2+ years? Will they ever be okay to be together in the same cage? The big cage divided into 2 cages just seems like they are both in a too small cage (like one has the gross motor toys and the other the chewing toys as they won't fit each thing twice in the cage). Am I gonna have to rehome one of them? Will the one here be ok by themselves or will this cause social adjustment problems?
Please help? am desperate!