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[Annemarie]

Hello everybody,

Sadly, last Monday my female chinchilla (Basted) died.  She was 12 years old and I am not quite sure what was wrong. She was very weak and just lying on her side and died soon after. I don't think it was anything contagious because my other chinchilla named Ptah seems fine (except that he seems very sad en lonely).

I'm writing this post because of Ptah, he seems sad and lonely. I will keep him alone for a little while to make sure he is not sick but we really want to get some new chins to give him company. He is a 14 year old chinchilla. When he was 2 years old he and his brother started fighting and the previous owner had them both sterilized/castrated. This didn't help and they had to be separated. Ptah was matched to two female chinchilla's (not at the same time but within a few months). I got the three chinchilla's from the previous owner and I have had them now for over 8 years. Two years ago one female died (I think from a heart attack) and a few days ago the other one. Several years ago one of the females was hurt and had to be quarantined for a while and he was very difficult in accepting her when she came back (on neutral ground of course) and only accepted her when the other female had already accepted her. He also wouldn't accept another female (pregnant) when we tried to ad her. This makes me a little bit scared of trying to introduce new chinchillas to him.

Nonetheless we would like to add some new chins. I'm hoping he will be easier now because he is lonely. I liked the group of 3 a lot and maybe 4 would be nice to. I like that they can choose with which chin they want to sleep or play. We have also never had a young Chinchilla so that would be very nice to. I was thinking that females would be better because he has already had some problems with a male. A male and female would be nice to get a baby chin but I'd rather not have to get the male castrated because it seems a dangerous procedure with such stress sensitive small animals. The cage is big and can be separated into two cages if necessary and we could keep two separate couples. So my questions are basically, how long should we wait with adding new chins? Can they be young, and female or also male? Can we ad a few young females or maybe a mother with a baby. Should new chins be added separately or would together be better and if so is it better if they know each other already?

I'm sorry it's a long read and I would greatly appreciate any advice you could give me.

[GrayRodent]

Here is my advice. First do not breed unless you have proven and pedigreed chinchillas and breed for quality. It is not something that should ever be done casually. You may consider joining MCBA or ECBC as well. I strongly encourage breeders to go to chinchilla shows if possible and actively show their chins so they can be evaluated. That is my opinion on that.

Second, I recommend not pairing with a different chinchilla at this point. There's nothing wrong with having separate cages in the same room. 15 years is very old for a chinchilla. He may not be able to defend himself against an attack from a younger one if an attack occurs.
The most accepted procedure for pairing two chinchillas is to have them together in the same room for two weeks. Then introduce them in a dust bath or a place where you can see how they'll interact. Then put them in the same cage once you're satisfied they're not going to pounce on each other and start tearing each other up.
The only thing that really matters with combining chins is the personality/compatibility with the others unless you have a much larger than normal cage where the chins can basically spread out and have their own territories. But no matter what you do as long as there are multiple animals in a cage there will always be a risk of fighting and death from complications resulting from wounds. Always, even if they all seem to compatible at first, and years can go by before something touches them off. So it is your judgment call.
I would recommend staggering the introductions by a day or so, ensuring each new introduction looks legit before making more chaaos. You may also want to weigh each chin ever other day for a while to make sure they are all eating and having access to food and water, and certainly have two sets of water and food dispensers if you're going to have more than two chins in your cage.

[BLS Chins]

You will want to wait a minimum of a month before bringing a new chinchilla into your house. Thats to ensure there is nothing contagious relating to the others death.

With his age and obvious temperament he may not ever accept a new chinchilla as a cage mate. Chins can be very picky whom they choose to get along with. You can get another chin to be caged separately but in the same room so he can talk to another but not have to deal with them directly. I would advise a male buddy rather than a female. Even though he is neutered the hormones still affect them.

An easier fix would be to get him a chin safe stuffed animal to cuddle with. That way you dont have to worry about another cage and them possibly not getting along

[Annemarie]

Thanks for your advice GrayRodent and BLS Chins. You have given me some nice pointers and things to consider. I never considered him to be the one who might need protection from other chins because he has always seemed so difficult in accepting other chins. Because of both of your advice I will be extra careful and accept it a little easier if it doesn't seem to work. Luckily, he is still looking healthy and really seems to like his new 'stuffed cat friend'. I think we will get a new chin and see how it goes with him and if I don't trust it, the new chin will get a new friend. If they can't be caged together, could they maybe have supervised play time or something? I really want to try introducing a friend because he seems lonely and I want to at least give him the chance of not leading the rest of his life without other chins. That and we miss having a few chins and we have the room anyway.

Don't worry about me spontaneously breeding chins, I was merely considering it and wondered if I should make the afford of looking into this. I know there are lethal alleles and I'm well aware of risks with these sort of genetics since I work at a (plant) breeding company.

[GrayRodent]

Glad we can help. I have two chins and they are not calm enough to be left alone in a cage together but they can safely play together supervised and it's fun to watch them interact. But understand this is more for your benefit than theirs. Chins really do well alone and they usually prefer that.