Tifa and Neneko are a pair of bonded females who live in one cage and Mouse is another female who lives alone because the others do not like her and the few attempts to introduce her to them was not successful.
Anyways, yesterday I was cleaning their cages and I rearranged Mouse's cage position so that it was up higher. But this made it so that Tifa and Neneko could see her easier. But they still weren't close enough to her cage for any physical contact.
Well, I guess they were really not happy about this. Last night, while we were in bed, the two bonded chinchillas started fighting with each other. I didn't know until I woke up in the morning to find an excessive amount of bedding out of their cage along with tufts of fur from both their bodies, and loose patches still on their bodies. They don't appear to have injuries. They weren't fighting anymore but were staying away from each other. So I waited. Hours after I woke up, I was busy on the computer when suddenly I heard a lot of racket. I turned around and they were fighting, bouncing around the cage in a ball of flying fur. I broke it up with distraction, and now they are on opposite sides of the cage, continuing to bicker vocally (taking turns barking and growling). Tifa can't leave the bottom of the cage or Neneko starts acting as if she is going to go after him if she does, so she stays on the bottom. I don't know if I should continue to just wait this out or try something. I don't have an extra cage big enough to separate them for awhile. I have another cage but it is pretty small. It's a hamster/gerbil cage, so that's no good. Does anyone have any ideas of where I should go from here?
I feel so bad. This is all my fault. They were so closely bonded and I triggered this with my mistake of making their cages too close to one another. I hope they don't hold a grudge forever now. :/