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General Chat / Suddenly aggressive chinchilla
« on: June 01, 2015, 06:15:44 AM »
Hi there,
We have had 2 chinchillas for about a year or two now. Both are male and are believed to be brothers. Recently one of them has had a very sudden change in behaviour. Prior to the change he was very friendly and quite social. For about 1 week or so now he has became quite a bit more aggressive.
Through the bars of his cage he will try to lunge at peoples fingers if they are put against/through the bars. The same applies for faces, if a face is to near the bars of the cage he will also lunge and make an angry keck sometimes. He will also bite pretty hard aswell if he manages to catch your finger. He is only aggressive like this when he is behind bars. As soon as the cage doors is open and a hand is put in the cage he is more friendly and will rotate his neck for fingers rubs and is even comfortable enough to stand on my hand/arm and sniff around and come right up to the cage door but as soon as the cage is closed he resorts back to the aggressive biting at keeking through the bars. He gets along fine with his brother too most of the time.
We're not sure why this sudden behaviour occurs and what caused it to begin with. The only thing we can assume is that its a territory thing/hormonal dominance thing. Has anyone had a chin with similar behaviour or any idea what may cause it?
Thanks,
We have had 2 chinchillas for about a year or two now. Both are male and are believed to be brothers. Recently one of them has had a very sudden change in behaviour. Prior to the change he was very friendly and quite social. For about 1 week or so now he has became quite a bit more aggressive.
Through the bars of his cage he will try to lunge at peoples fingers if they are put against/through the bars. The same applies for faces, if a face is to near the bars of the cage he will also lunge and make an angry keck sometimes. He will also bite pretty hard aswell if he manages to catch your finger. He is only aggressive like this when he is behind bars. As soon as the cage doors is open and a hand is put in the cage he is more friendly and will rotate his neck for fingers rubs and is even comfortable enough to stand on my hand/arm and sniff around and come right up to the cage door but as soon as the cage is closed he resorts back to the aggressive biting at keeking through the bars. He gets along fine with his brother too most of the time.
We're not sure why this sudden behaviour occurs and what caused it to begin with. The only thing we can assume is that its a territory thing/hormonal dominance thing. Has anyone had a chin with similar behaviour or any idea what may cause it?
Thanks,