Hi all!
I recently attempted to fully integrate my two boys after about a month of slow introducing (started with separate cages completely then moved to split cage-I have a 2 story ferret nation- w/ wire bottom so they could interact through the bars, then had playtimes in a neutral area before finally seeing if they wanted to live in the same cage, and this I did after rearranging the entire cage and scrubbing it down entirely).
However, while the integration /seemed/ to go ok for the first hour or so (boys were up and down exploring the cage and had finally settled down and were eating near each other-I had two separate piles of hay so they didn't feel a need to fight over resources) I have noticed that any time I let the boys together for any extended period of time Mojo, my larger and older guy, seems to believe he must mount Eli almost constantly.
I know mounting is a show of dominance and is natural, however, Mojo is definitely almost overexerting this and it gets to the point where Eli, understandably, gets fed up with him and starts a fight. This has happened a couple of times (once during a playtime and when I tried to integrate them-both times I was sitting right next to the cage watching and I immediately broke them up) and Mojo really just does not seem to understand the concept of enough is enough. Eli definitely seems to be more or less ok with Mojo being the dominant chin, he just gets irritated when Mojo keeps trying to dominate him even after he's clearly allowing Mojo to be in charge.
Not sure if there's anything I can do to try and curb this issue, because other than the mounting causing escalations the two boys seem ok with each other-they don't make angry noises at each other and they don't fight on sight, seem generally comfortable around each other and interested in each other. Mojo has not been around another chinchilla in 2+ years so I feel that may be part of the issue as well-he just never learned proper etiquette.
Either way, I would definitely appreciate any tips or help that can be offered, as I really do hope these two boys can get along and I believe they can if they can reach an understanding!
I recently attempted to fully integrate my two boys after about a month of slow introducing (started with separate cages completely then moved to split cage-I have a 2 story ferret nation- w/ wire bottom so they could interact through the bars, then had playtimes in a neutral area before finally seeing if they wanted to live in the same cage, and this I did after rearranging the entire cage and scrubbing it down entirely).
However, while the integration /seemed/ to go ok for the first hour or so (boys were up and down exploring the cage and had finally settled down and were eating near each other-I had two separate piles of hay so they didn't feel a need to fight over resources) I have noticed that any time I let the boys together for any extended period of time Mojo, my larger and older guy, seems to believe he must mount Eli almost constantly.
I know mounting is a show of dominance and is natural, however, Mojo is definitely almost overexerting this and it gets to the point where Eli, understandably, gets fed up with him and starts a fight. This has happened a couple of times (once during a playtime and when I tried to integrate them-both times I was sitting right next to the cage watching and I immediately broke them up) and Mojo really just does not seem to understand the concept of enough is enough. Eli definitely seems to be more or less ok with Mojo being the dominant chin, he just gets irritated when Mojo keeps trying to dominate him even after he's clearly allowing Mojo to be in charge.
Not sure if there's anything I can do to try and curb this issue, because other than the mounting causing escalations the two boys seem ok with each other-they don't make angry noises at each other and they don't fight on sight, seem generally comfortable around each other and interested in each other. Mojo has not been around another chinchilla in 2+ years so I feel that may be part of the issue as well-he just never learned proper etiquette.
Either way, I would definitely appreciate any tips or help that can be offered, as I really do hope these two boys can get along and I believe they can if they can reach an understanding!
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