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[Rachael29]

Hi Everyone

If anyone has read my previous post about my chins .... they are at it again!

Onyx is Humping/Mounting Coco! 
Now i really feel sorry for Coco I know the previous advise was let it happen but it seems to have dies down for a while and now Onyx is back with a bang. No pun intended.

So tonight they were playing as usual, in and out the cage running jumping etc however when they both went back in the cage Onyx started to mount Coco ... now this has never happened before and was worried about it starting in the cage so I moved the house and raised my voice to get them to stop.

They both went in the cage and didn't come back out.

So i went to check the room as i dint sleep well turned the fan on as their wee paws wernt as cold as they normally are, and they wanted to come out ... So i let them out for a bit because they didn't get their usual hour because i think i freaked them out by raising my voice ...

So anyway i let them out and Onyx just wouldn't take the hint! I'm not used to seeing the whole mounting thing as I'm still quite new to chinchilla owning so i stopped him several times because I felt sorry for Coco and when i stopped them the only way to describe it is that Onyx was "checking his bits" so i stopped Onyx several times and he done this 3-4 times.

My question is ... is this still dominance mounting as before? Also they always chatter first before doing so like make noises at each other, its hard to know who starts the chatter but they always chatter first ... i don't know if that's relevant.


Also on a side note I've noticed that if Coco is in the cage at play time Onyx will whine ... like a dog that wants on the couch if that makes sense? Just wondering if anyone will know what that means ... he's only started making that noise in the past few days.

Thanks for any and all advise 

[GrayRodent]

As far as I know what you are experiencing is normal. My own two chinchillas are that way and I've had them together for about 2.5 months and they still go at it at least a couple of times a week. Just this morning I noticed the fur on one of them was messed up from that. I can only hope it will improve over time but it just may be the way it is with them.

Raising your voice and pulling them away will not help. They have a social order they have to work out amongst themselves and this is the way chinchillas do that. It's part of having multiple pets together.

As far as the whining noise your chinchilla makes I don't know what that means. I have one chinchilla that is very vocal and another that makes sounds on occasion and sometimes rather violent sounds that I don't think can be understood and my other chin is learning to make them. So there are a huge number of things it could mean because chinchillas can acquire sounds. In fact I've trained my older one to make sounds by mimicking him. The best thing to do is observe and see if you can find a connection.