Hi all!
I just recently put down a deposit on a chinchilla and will be picking him up sometime in January (he will likely be between 6 and 8 weeks when I get him, as per the breeder's standards). Now I got him with the (hopeful) intention of him being a companion for my current chinchilla, who is approximately 2.5 years old (I don't know his exact age as he was purchased from Petco just over 2 years ago-he has not been housed with another chinchilla since he was purchased in October 2013).
I have 2-3 cages depending on the situation. I just upgraded Mojo's-my 2.5 year old-cage to a 2 story ferret nation from a heavily modified Kaytee Chinchilla cage, so I have both the Kaytee cage (which will work fine as a temporary cage, especially for a small/young chinchilla) and can split the Ferret nation into 2 sections/cages if needed, although right now I think I'm going to keep Mojo in the ferret nation and put the new guy in the Kaytee.
I am planning on introducing them very slowly, as I know too speedy of an introduction can end in disaster, and I definitely don't want that to happen. With the cages I am also prepared to house them separately permanently if I absolutely need to, although fingers are crossed for a successful bonding!
My main question, however, is whether or not anyone has experience introducing chins with a large age gap like this, and also how old should this new guy be before I start introducing them. Obviously Mojo is going to be much larger since he's full grown, and it can end badly if I try to introduce them too soon, just because Mojo will immediately have the upper hand with size.
The breeder did provide me with a lot of information about slow introductions and I've looked here and gotten even more info so I feel I'm pretty prepared to go about introducing them, but I did want to make sure the intro process is still much the same for large age gap chins and wanted to double check on when I should start with introductions since the newbie will be small when he arrives!
I just recently put down a deposit on a chinchilla and will be picking him up sometime in January (he will likely be between 6 and 8 weeks when I get him, as per the breeder's standards). Now I got him with the (hopeful) intention of him being a companion for my current chinchilla, who is approximately 2.5 years old (I don't know his exact age as he was purchased from Petco just over 2 years ago-he has not been housed with another chinchilla since he was purchased in October 2013).
I have 2-3 cages depending on the situation. I just upgraded Mojo's-my 2.5 year old-cage to a 2 story ferret nation from a heavily modified Kaytee Chinchilla cage, so I have both the Kaytee cage (which will work fine as a temporary cage, especially for a small/young chinchilla) and can split the Ferret nation into 2 sections/cages if needed, although right now I think I'm going to keep Mojo in the ferret nation and put the new guy in the Kaytee.
I am planning on introducing them very slowly, as I know too speedy of an introduction can end in disaster, and I definitely don't want that to happen. With the cages I am also prepared to house them separately permanently if I absolutely need to, although fingers are crossed for a successful bonding!
My main question, however, is whether or not anyone has experience introducing chins with a large age gap like this, and also how old should this new guy be before I start introducing them. Obviously Mojo is going to be much larger since he's full grown, and it can end badly if I try to introduce them too soon, just because Mojo will immediately have the upper hand with size.
The breeder did provide me with a lot of information about slow introductions and I've looked here and gotten even more info so I feel I'm pretty prepared to go about introducing them, but I did want to make sure the intro process is still much the same for large age gap chins and wanted to double check on when I should start with introductions since the newbie will be small when he arrives!
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