So another chinchilla forum I've been a member of, seems to like to ignore anyone with questions. Anyhow, here's my questions.
I've had my little Pip for about 6 months now, he's a very sweet and loving guy! We got him from a pet shop, (I know, bad bad bad!) But he's had no health issues, and is doing really well! I'm going to guess that he's now a little over a year old. Recently we've gotten a second chinchilla, same place that we got Pip, his name is Kylo. Now I've read the basic "how to" on introducing a new chinchilla. Though, the things I'm reading doesn't seem to be the norm of what to expect when introducing them. A few things were. When putting their cages side by side, they weren't really interested in each other. No barking, trying to pull/bite at the cages, no reaching out little hands or anything. Not even a sound out of either of them. So we did the nose to nose meeting, again, nothing. Just looked like they were kissing.
When we got to the point of letting them in a neutral area to play, with chew toys and a dust bath in the middle, they sniffed each other, jumped around and Pip mounted Kylo a few times, but he wasn't biting. Nor fur flying. But Kylo doesn't like it when Pip jumps on him. Kylo is quite a bit smaller than Pip is, he seems to be younger too. Pip wasn't chasing him a lot at all, and sometimes Kylo would mount and chase back. But it was for about 2 second intervals from either of them chasing. Kylo is already nervous because he's new to the house, so maybe we should have waited longer, especially since he's not completely used to us. But at one of the play times, Kylo reared up at Pip for mounting and looked as though he was going to try and pee on Pip. When they jump on each other, how do I tell what is fighting and what's not fighting? There's no kacking or biting, but it all happens so fast. We're prepared to have them live separately if needed, they still are right now just to be cautious. Maybe we should wait longer to have them play together again? If they stand up and go nose to nose, is that good? I've just been watching to make sure neither of them start biting, which, they haven't been done so far.
Oh and Pip has been housed with 2 baby chins at the shop, but they were adopted instead of him. Kylo was housed with another chin for awhile, and they were cuddling and all that when I got him. Should I wait until Kylo is comfortable with people and THEN try to get him to be comfortable with Pip? I know this can be a lengthy process, so it doesn't bother me to have to take my time with it. Does it sound like they could eventually be friends? Or does this sound like I'll have to house them separately?
