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[sweettuth]

Sunday night I went to feed my chinchillas, and saw my very first and oldest chinchilla in the corner of his cage laying down. I picked him up and saw that his son who he has lived with for 11 years attacked him. He attacked his face, his tail, and the back of his head it was unlike any other chinchilla attack I had seen, and the first time he had gone after his father. Moments later my boy died, at first I thought that it was his son who practically killed him, my husband said the wounds didn't seem life threatening. I'm wondering if my chinchilla became weak all of a sudden and was dying all ready when his son attacked him. I feel so bad for not checking up on my chinchillas in the morning, knowing my poor little boy was near death. Do chinchillas attack a chinchilla if their dying?

[GrayRodent]

I'm very sorry for your loss. I've never heard of this happening with chinchillas, at least in the sense that an animal gets attacked because it is weak. It doesn't mean that can't happen but apparently it is very rare.

I have heard of chins turning on each other for no discernible cause which is somewhat rare but always a possibility. If they got into a tussle (which chinchillas do on occasion) and the other was too weak to defend itself it may have escalated. I have heard it postulated that having a place for a chinchilla to hide in a cage is a necessity when you have multiple chins together as there is always a slight risk.

Unfortunately stress is very hard on chinchillas and any visible wounds are usually pretty serious to them. Considering 10 years is about the normal life expectancy of a chin I think you did well.

[Tiffany's Chinchillas]

It is possible that the animal that died, actually died from shock or heart attack due to shock and not the injuries. People don't realize how fragile these animals can be. It is rare, but it does happen.

Little story - when I first got into breeding years ago, I put a new female in with a male. I was in the room watching them because at that time I just had one other pair of animals and I watched everything (unlike now when the use of runs is amazing and I leave them be). The male was curious and went up to the female and cacked at her. She went into straight shock and died 10 minutes later. I honestly believe she had a heart attack because she just didn't understand what was going on - she'd never had another chin cack at her and was scared out of her mind. No injuries whatsoever, just total shock.

Chins don't always get along, even after being together for a decade. Fights do happen and are sometimes unavoidable.

I'm sorry for your loss.

[Jasonred79]

Innocent until proven guilty... sick animals do bite and injure themselves sometimes... ?

[GrayRodent]

Some animals, especially birds, when there are several together in the same cage, may turn on and kill a sick or injured bird in the flock. It is one way flocks protect themselves from disease. I think this can be true for other animals as well but pet chinchillas don't normally exhibit that kind of behavior. Self mutilation is also rare but usually when that occurs there is a history of nervous fur chewing, fungus, infection, or some kind of pain that the animal is obsessing over. Chinchillas can be aggressive towards each other at random times. If one is weak it won't be able to protect itself. In this case I think it was a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[kageri]

I've had them just randomly seem to snap on each other.  It's not in a small way either.  One female was so torn up in just a few hours after they had been fine.  A hiding place did no good in that situation.  She seems to have been chased in and out of it on the bottom level judging by the fur piles.  She may have been pinned inside the house at one point.  We noticed all the fur and pulled her out to find all up her shoulders and part of her back was torn to shreds, some on her hindquarters, and a couple tail bites.  I'm not sure if she'll recover from the trauma someday.  Since I cleaned her wounds and medicated her I can't handle her.  My husband has to get her out of the cage for cleaning.  She does carefully take treats from me through the bars with lots of complaining.  She will start crying if I stay near her too long or if she sees another chin besides her new, very friendly, and much more stable cagemate.

[sweettuth]

Thanks everyone for your responses. His death has been pretty difficult on me. Having a hard time thinking that his son/cage mate of 11 years managed to do that to him. Thanks.

[GrayRodent]

I've seen this kind of thing happen several times on the forum. When I hear people want to get a cagemate for their pet I always warn about the risk of spontaneous fighting.
Sometimes aggression ramps up and there are signs but sometimes there is no warning and even with the best precautions (having hiding places and a good size cage) doesn't prevent it from happening. It is very unusual but it can happen.