My Chinchillas Fight (gone wrong....) 

Hey everyone! This was a terrible experience for everyone involved. I certainly didn’t expect it to go this wrong😬 Zorro has been recovering over the past few days. He kept acting like he was injured so I was very worried about him and watched him closely, but he is now getting better. He’s more interactive with me and has stopped keeping his head down so much. He’s eating and drinking normally. Thank you for all the support and encouragement! I appreciate it all❤️✨

I'm getting a second chinchilla soon, but both of them are younger and female so I'm hoping that they can get along together 😭

The smoosh method works when you put the 2 chins without a lot of space to bite or fight each other. I personally don't like this method but it works for breeders. The cage you used for "smoosh" is too big

Merlin said it's on sight! Periodt

Don’t feel pressure to keep trying to bond them. I understand your fear to try another way, because this happened to me too before and a chunk of my less dominant chinchilla’s ear was torn off. It was painful and scary for him. Sometimes it’s best to keep them separate, and don’t feel pressured to do anything you’re not comfortable with. After all like you said you are responsible for their wellbeing. A good owner does what they think is always best for their pets!!!!!😘

I have for them a ferret nation cage. Top unit is there exercise unit, which has like twenty-five ledges. A castle ledge, and a bridge ledge. It has a 16 inch flying saucer. Two cooling stones, and a water bottle. It has some hanging toys, and a few sticks. In the bottom unit I keep it a comfortable unit. With two hammocks, one water bottle, their hay rack, and pellet dishes. A few hanging toys, sticks and willow balls. A cooling stone, and water bottle.

I can't imagine how scared you had to be during this! I am so glad Zorro is okay! I hope you're okay too! Don't beat yourself up, it is hard to know how they'll respond until you try. And the most important thing is that you moved quickly and you got them both taken care of!

Awww, I’m so sorry they did not bond :( But I think you did the right thing be deciding to keep them separate. Thanks for sharing the information, I think it will really help any future chin owners.

NGL this was so hard to keep warching halfway through :-/

I would've stopped after the first few nips tbh, try keeping their cages close and introduce them for a little bit each day, even swap them into each others cages, poor Zorro was so scared I just wanna hug him 😢

I am a young teen, and I’ve had my first chin since I was nine. I got him at only a few months of age, and I love him so much and we’re besties! The first year into owning him I wasn’t smart with chins. It was only a few months before last Christmas to which I started doing god by him. I realized I should get him a partner. I soon found a good chinchilla breeder that sells healthy and amazing chins. I looked into the website, and got some good tips. I then found a chin I really like, and she was small and adorable, and only four yrs old. I contacted the breeder and she said that the one I like is bonded. I ended up buying two female chinchillas, and got them around Christmas. I waited a few days to do a together playtime (which at the time, I didn’t know was a bad idea) and it went bad. They were fighting, and chasing. One month later I (the thirteen yr old) all by myself managed to get them to like each other, and to make the inseparable. Now, all is well, and I take care of them good.

This is exactly why I'm afraid of getting another chinchilla since I already have one, I feel like if they are older they won't bond as well, or even at all.

ive successfully bonded chinchillas before with very similar personalities to yours(one a bit more aggressive and territorial and one a bit more shy and submissive) by cage swapping(putting them in each others cages for a week back and four for a few weeks) or even just swapping and mixing toys and furniture. it helps them get used to the others scent and it sort of mixes their smells so they smell similar to eachother and see them as less of a threat and more familiar. keeping the cages next to each other so they can still see each other is good, but have them far enough apart they cant reach each other through the bars, and make sure they have spots they can hide from each other. another thing ive done is allowing playtime in a large open room where they can get away from each other and supervising the whole thing. make sure its a neutral ground type thing, because in a familiar space it could be a territory thing and they might want to defend that. so if you usually have play time in the bathroom i wouldn't do it there as they could each see that as their territory, try a bedroom or another room. and this could also be applied to cages, sometimes you have to have a new cage all together when you put them together. Once my more dominant chinchilla made sure and realized he was the dominant one and the other was not a threat my chinchillas got along really well and would do everything together, including sleeping eating and playing together, and they were constantly at each others sides. im by no means an expert on bonding, but thats some methods thats worked for me before. both of my chinchillas were around five or six when i bonded them so it was a bit more tricky, the younger the chinchilla is the easier its going to be bonding them. ive also instantly bonded chinchillas by contacting my breeder and figuring out what chinchillas they had that already do well with other chins and would be compatible with the chinchilla i already have. its going to be different with every chinchilla, i wouldnt give up on merlin just yet, it might just take a bit more time with him. but i would deffinetly give cage swapping a try

It took over a year to bond my two girls. I kept their cages close together and slowly moved them until they could touch noses. Even after they stopped nipping at each other it was awhile before they shared a cage. It really takes patience and time. Because of this experience Zorro may never trust Merlin. Even if Zorro is acting ok you may still want to have a vet look at him. The way you described his jaw getting caught could have caused teeth issues. Chinchillas are very good at hiding issues until it’s almost too late.

poor fluffy little babies. But seriously though, i love your channel so much because it has helped me take care of my chinchillas, so thank you!✨

I take care of them every night all by myself while every day I do my homework. I get straight A’s, I’m learning Spanish, Italian, Arabic, French, sign language, and piano. I try to keep myself looking nice. I try to buy stuff for myself, so I have good clothes and room decor. I also like to read a LOT. So I buy myself books. As soon as I’m in High School. I’m going to take as many AP classes as possibly, and do take extra curriculars, I’m also going to get a job. I’ve already started prepping for College hoping to get into an Ivy League. I also hope I can maybe get a scholarship? Anywho I love my chins ❤

100% most important thing is YOUR comfort. So you just go ahead and go at your pace, even if that means never trying again ☺️ But in case you do try again, I found success with a 3 yr old male and 6 month old male by wiping the first level of that same 4-story cage you have totally clean to remove all smells (the older male was very territorial so this helped!) plus block off the top half and take out the 2nd mini floor so it’s all just open on the bottom half. This gives them space to “escape” each other but also be close without forcing it. Obviously I didn’t see the scary part of your guys’ tussle, but it sounds like if Zorro hadn’t gotten his little head squished trying to escape, then they would’ve calmed down eventually. Merlin was mostly trying to mount Zorro out of dominance which is exactly what my guys did.... only the older one is abnormally HUGE and the younger one was tiny so he disappeared under him 😂 after about 10 mins, the little one was sleeping on the big guy’s back and were both totally content. Lol if you try this, I think it’d be best to try Zorro’s cage since he appears to be more submissive. Merlin will be distracted by the unfamiliar smells (even after cleaning) and won’t feel like his space is being invaded + needing defending. But again, do what’s best for you and the goombas ☺️

Merlin casually eating his food like nothing happened... But Zorro....poor thing is traumatized. Merlin was like: square up bro

Merlin: this dude is crazy so are u you your forcing me to stay with this dude Zorro: THIS DUDE IS CRAZY PUT HIM IN A NURSING HOME OR SOMETHING Merlin: dude is just smackin- Zorro: no I was just chillin you were punching me Merlin:let me finish Zorro: ok then Merlin: smacking me

Hey, when 1 of my 2 chins died, my parents got a baby chinchilla. We tried bonding them, but everytime we put them together the older chin started attacking the small one. One time she bit her ear and it started bleeding. We stopped trying after a while. Bonding chins is a very tricky thing to do. I've seen a video now where someone explains chinchilla sounds and realise my baby chin was literally screaming for her life. I hate that that happened. I had my baby chin for a few months and then suddenly my parents called that she got really sick in a short period of time. When I came home she was so happy to see me. I spent 3 amazing last days with her, until she died in my arms after waiting for me to wake up and come holding her. In that same chin sounds video I saw that the sounds she made when I held and cuddled her were the sounds that a baby chin makes when she's with her mom. It's been a while now but I still am so sad about what happened and I never had that kind of a bond with a chin. It's very scary when they fight. But don't feel guilty, it's ok to try and see if it works. Sadly enough it doesn't work out for them.

I did it a different way. I started out by swapping their cages back and forth for a while so they'd get used to each other's scents on everything. Then i halved one of the cages and had them top and bottom in it and Id swap them every day. Then while supervised Id put both of them in the same half of the cage (swapping between top and bottom everyday). I let them fight a bit but not to the point of causing damage cuz sometimes they do need a bit of a ranking. if barking started I'd separate them and go again. I also had food and treats on standby to reward them for getting along. It's a lot more involved but they got along so well to the point where sometimes they'd get annoyed if I tried to bug them to play with me. They both were rescues but my newer one had a lot of issues with being startled easily and unfortunately died (i still don't know how but there wasn't signs of a fight) which was really hard on my first guy. I'm debating on getting a new one in a few years but idk how my current boy will handle it. Sometimes there isn't a guarantee they'll mesh well together.

You should not be letting them do this it might reduce their lifespan oh yeah and by the way I hope zorro will be okay for the rest of his life

I personally think that I found the best or at least the safest way to bond Chinchilla... I have a cage that is both wide and high and actually has a divider in the center. Both Chinchilla had an equal space and were always close. I sometimes exchanged their sides when I cleaned the cage so they would get used to each others scents and sharing the same hides even more. It took a long time but nothing ever happened and they are now a comfortable couple. After a long time we opened the separator occasionally, the cage was big enough for them hide if they wanted to. Once we saw they got more and more comfortable the longer we left it open until eventually we left it away forever. When bonding Chinchilla safety is number one priority and I'd it turned out they wouldn't bond we could just leave it as a double cage.

If you want to have two chinchillas living together the best combo is always two females or two males that are siblings. Or then a neutered male and a female but neutering chinchillas is pretty dangerous for them...

I had a great expirence with a much smaller cage. They need to actually squished together where they cant move around, or even turn around to bite each other thats how squished they need to be, also best to put the least dominant one in first. Hope this helps!

I have 2 bonded males. I used a bathtub and stayed with the in bathroom, then on bathroom floor and me watching them.... That was safe, nott closed in one spot, they could jump out of tub too

what i did with my male and female chinchilla: is have 2 cages and keep your old chinchilla in the cage they were in already and the new chinchilla in the new cage. keep the cages next to eachother for about a week so they can see eachother and then swap the chinchilla over into the other ones cage so they can get used to eachothers scent. keep them in the others cage for a few days and don’t clean it out because they need to get used to eachothers smell. After about 3 weeks of doing that, then put them in the original cage that they BOTH have been in and put them together, they will make noises and all that obviously and maybe seem like they’re fighting but it’s normal and it worked for ours and they were literally bestfriends and had such a good bond. hope it helps :)

With smooshing you have to put them in a much smaller cage where they can barely turn around

Just a heads up, this was way too much open space for smooshing. They can’t have room to move around otherwise you run the risk of this happening. It may look cruel to be in such a tight space but it’s preferred method. Sorry that things didn’t go well though!

We bonded our chinchillas after 2 years of trying. Blood was drawn, pure hatred. Now they love each other. If you want some help i can send it your way.

I had my chinchillas dad with his boy babies. I saw they were stressed and the dad was happy in his own cage. You can't force them to be together if they don't like each other. Please don't stress your chinchillas. RIP my chinchillas and degus. We miss you very much.

So cute, so fluffly, but so vicious

I know how frightening this can be!!!! I’ve tried to bond my chins also. Flash is 4 years old, Gordon is 1 year old and Chip and Dale are 6-1/2 months old. Flash doesn’t want any other chins, he’s super bonded with me only. I have to keep three separate cages also and even when I have them in their play area separated from each other, they go at each other through the gates, scares me to death. I did switch Flash and Gordon cages once so they could smell each other which helped when they were separated but in same play area....so maybe one day. But the older ones are not fond of the little ones. I’m glad the little ones are twin brothers and have each other. Thank you for sharing though. I know that was traumatic for all of you. B R E A T H E 😉

The small cage has to be really small so small that they cannot move but remember those are males

There is too much room in there they can’t have room to run around for the smooch method

The behavior shown was a thing called mounting were Merlin was trying to be the dominant one but Merlin is like one of my guinea pigs were she ripped one of our other piggies fur out

I’m actually surprised after the first time your grey dominated your white chin, that you continued to try several times after. I’m a relatively new chin owner of two male chins that came as a pair, and to be honest if this even happened once I wouldn’t ever put them together again. It’s good that you shared this, as it’s a good example of what not to do I guess. I’m so glad they are both ok. Good on you for sharing it though.

I recently have gotten 2 chinchillas. A male and a female. We bonded them in a couple days by putting the girl in a tiny cage and put that inside the boys cage so they had a barrier between. At first the boy was trying to bite the girl through the bars but eventually calmed down and they get along now. Its safer than smooshing no chance of one trying to dominate. I've also heard its much more difficult to introduce two males to each other, than two females and opposite genders. I'm sorry you went through this panic with your cuties. Unfortunately it may not be possible with merlin trying to dominate. I hope little zorro is feeling better now. 💞

Its crazy how tame and none aggressive the females are in comparison. I have 3 girls thats where so easy to bond together and they've never bit me like ive seen male chinchillas bite/attack their owner

I think a lot of people have already said it but that cage was far too big. They really shouldn't be able to move at all when smooshed. Also now that Merlin has hurt Zorro, the bonding will be super hard, so your choice of not bonding them is probably the best decision. My two lads were fine during the smoosh phase but once in the cage together, the chasing started. So I left it. In the end I'd rather have two happy chinchilla's that are separate then two stressed out ones living together.

If anyone does decide to try this, it's important to use a tiny carrier where neither chinchillas can run or fight. I've had success in a tiny plastic carrier where there wasn't enough space for them to turn around and face eachother.

That cage is far too big for the smooshing method. It is supposed to be so small that they literally cannot move (i.e. turn around, run around mount each other, etc.) Also, I've read that some people who do the smooshing method recommend getting in a car or something and driving around to "disorient" them. But the chinchilla group I'm apart of on Facebook does not recommend the smooshing method just because it can go really wrong really fast. Don't lose faith yet! Some chins take a little bit more time. Just be patient and optimistic!

I had to quit watching. My chinchilla’s teeth were razor sharp and Merlin was going for broke on poor Zorro. Nope, I don’t think they need to be together.

Why didn’t you stop them :/

I totally respect your opinion and you trying in the first place. But, food for thought: I think Merlin was trying to assert his dominance by jumping on a Zorro. This is going to happen with any animal. And to be fair, Merlin should be the dominant chinchilla, because he is older and was there first. I would try this again. Maybe not the smushing method, but you could. Zorro should accept that Merlin is dominant and then they should be fine. I know this was a traumatizing experience for all three of you, but it wasn’t really any of your faults that Zorro got stuck. It was just a freak accident. I would try again in a few months.

Damn okay, so I know this video is a year old and I don’t think this person even uses this account anymore, but I gotta say this incase anyone happens to see my comment. Please please do not do this with your chinchilla (if they aren’t bonded). Damn near animal abuse. This is effectively a cock fight. Two animals that don’t know each other and are scared, in a tight space. Chinchilla teeth are no joke, they can kill each other. Chinchilla fights are no joke, they can happen incredibly fast and can be incredibly short and they can do a lot of damage to each other in a small amount of time. I know the person in this video with going with the smoosh method. By all means, go for it. I did it with my chinchillas and it worked perfect! But it took time; they didn’t love each other the second I put them in their smoosh cage together. More importantly, don’t use a cage this big to smoosh. They should hardest be able to turn around in the smoosh cage, much less fight. It should barely enough room for the two of them and that’s it. Don’t try and rush it. My chinchilla took three months to bond. That’s on the fast side of bonding, and it can take a lot longer. I also want to point out that I’m not trying to throw hate on the person who made this video. She probably didn’t know, and that’s okay, it happens and people learn. I guess I’ll finish by saying, if you’re chinchillas are fighting, break it up immediately. You can always try it again, but if they start fighting, they need to be separated and given time to cool off in their own personal space. Even if they are already bonded. Sadly, two chinchilla who have been bonded and loving to each other for ten years can still flip the switch at any given time and start fighting. And sometimes they never bond again. And if that’s the case, it sucks, but it happens. Above all else, keep them safe and given them the least amount of opportunity to fight as possible

this is terrible to watch. this is the worst way to bond chinchillas, the cage is way too big for this method and usually the process is shaking a small box with both pets inside, so they both have panic. i recommend not to do this because if they bond in panic, they still might not like each other and could bite and hurt each other really bad after weeks or months living in the same cage. never force a bond.

Hi I’d like to share my experience in bonding your chins, a month ago I got a new chin from the same breeder. She didn’t recommend the smooching method since they are both boys and has a year and half gap. However I brought my chin the day I took home the new boy so we can introduce them, I was holding the new boy and the breeder was holding my oldest boy and they were both keking each other but not too much, and the breeder said that when I go home I just let them be out with positive stuff around them such as dust and hay in a small room and which I did, for the next 5 days there was a lot of hair slip coming out from the younger and lots of keking lol definitely like yours so when I think it can go insane in ten minutes I separate them, I put them back in their cage, they both have different cage which was just 10 inches away. The next 6 days they were both civil and doing their thing but the moment they see each other my oldest would chase him the youngest would run but less hair slipping, that was like for the next 5 days,10 days later they seem to start liking each other especially the oldest as every time I open his cage first he would run to the new boy cage but new boy still scared of him. Oh and if they play let the 2 play out or the other Chin will get jealous since they can tease each other. Anyway 16 days later I saw them started grooming each other especially the oldest grooming the new boy like his saying “I’m nice don’t worry”, the 18th day and the new boy has stopped keking with the oldest and he seems to be so excited every time the oldest would go first and greet him, a month later they sleep with each other now and groom each other, I never thought they would be friends, they also share a cage now, I may be selling the other cage soon. I really thought they wouldn’t be friends that I was already resign to that idea but they are besties now and such a short time. I know I should have done the 14 days quarantine but I trust the breeder that she has healthy chins. If your chin comes from a pet store you should quarantine your new chin, that should be a must. I hope your boys will warm up with each other soon.

after zorro went to the top on the fleece, you shouldn’t have put them back in there together, no offense:)

You cant do that you need to give them space

Same thing happened to me 😔 I decided to let my chins live seperate after a scary first session and I'm much happier that way!

3:29-4:13-4:14-4:15

I know it’s a little hard, but try to stay calm during these situations, freaking out will cause them more stress. Good luck bonding! ❤️

I have seen loads of injuried chinchillas ( caused by forcing them together)most don't survive due to the stress and injuries. And the ones that do are left with really bad damage that can't heal ie missing fingers really bad ears chewed. Not everyone gets along its the same with chinchillas

use bathroom space is much safer. make sure they have space to hide if they are scared. I just got my third boy, same month as other two's. first two days the third boy was chasing off with a bit of bites from other two in my apartment, third day the new boy is getting his control suddenly and chased back even jumped inside of other two's cage. I think to be safe, make sure you always watching them when introduce the new one, and be ready to separate them immediately when it goes wrong direction.

Don’t worry😉you will figure something out! But I really hope Zorro is ok:)

I tried this method and they got along well but it was when my new chinchilla (snowflake) got into my first chinchillas (Chika) territory they began to fight viciously. I tried putting a smaller cage inside of the large cage and rotating them every once in a while. Nothing was working. So I ended up put them them both in the cage at the same time and the moment they began fighting I got so mad I started hissing at them 😭. This actually worked! They separated themselves because they got scared. Anytime they tried fighting again I would do something new to scare them so they didn’t get too adjusted to one sound (they would get too used to it, and lose their reaction) They basically shared a cage, but stayed out of each other’s way for a bit. After some time though, they got along perfectly! Grooming each other sleeping on each other! And still til this day i hiss to them as a sign to calm down, and it works. Goodluck though! 🥺

I really am not a fan of this method whatsoever, I used to own chinchilla (had to unfortunately give them away due to my circumstances changing in a way I didn't see coming) two males that I adopted from the same guy. They were not bonded and were extremely slow to get comfortable with each other, we had them close to each other ofc, but separated, which did the job alright, we tried introducing them a few times by having the most aggressive one be in a carrier, and the other being out in the open, so whenever the aggressive one would start trying to attack the other through the carrier, the other one could very easily and safely get away. It wasn't enough on it's own unfortunately, so we decided to castrate the more aggressive one, literally introduced them in person after that (with two people supervising and ready to act if things didn't go well) they were a bit unsure at first about each other, but no sign of real aggression or anything, maybe a bit of chattering and sometimes they'd need space, but absolutely no full on aggression. moved them in together after that point and they quickly became best buds. They would extremely often cuddle together and sometimes forage and play together. It took roughly 6 months to get to that point (considering they already knew each other from their previous owner, I think that's a pretty considerable amount of time lol) Honestly, getting male chinchillas to bond can be an extremely difficult undertaking for even the people that are the best educated, but so rewarding when finally you achieve it. I hope Merlin stops being a lil twat eventually, cuz I'm sure Zorroh would love some cuddles ^-^

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing. Poor ZORRO. Merlin was trying to protect his territory. Keep the content coming. How you have an awesome day

They usually jump on top at first to get to know each other or so, but if they bite, that's absolutely a fight. I guess it's because they were in a very tiny cage together. Even aggressive chinchillas barely bite if they in a bigger cage unless they are fighting for food, they usually just chasing each others. So you can try to let them running out in a room and watch them for awhile. That way they can get familiar to each other and the weak one can have chances to run away just in case

Yikes, that is scary. I'm glad everyone is ok ❤️

Im sry that happened to them. The way I did it was like this: 1. The top, I turned the pan around to cover the hole. This leaves open bars exposed on the left-front corner. 2. On the bottom, I added the shelf high enough so they can nose touch but low enough to lay if desired. 3. I put one on the top and one on the bottom. 4. They stayed like this for one month. The following month, while leaving it setup the exact same way, I switched the chins (only) 5. I did this for one year. It may have been too long but while we slept, one night there was an escape and I woke up to find them cuddling inside of the house together. Note: all of my chins are female and their is a 5 yr age gap between them. Idk if this changes anything but I think it may be worth a try. Especially when you already hv 2 of everything you need to make things work. Best of luck. Even with your vid cut, it didn't look pretty. My oldest is currently 13 and the youngest is 8, for clarification.

You put them in an incredibly stressful situation right away. They are both obviously stressed out and wanting to get away. I always start out with a large open space along with an open dust bath. Putting them together like this is just asking for fights. Also, like all animals, they need to establish dominance. That means some bites and biting. You can’t bond animals without them biting. They can’t stand up and size each other up like this, causing them to bite each others sides. Merlin is trying to establish dominance by humping the other one, a perfectly normal behavior. The white one will obviously not like that, but Merlin is the dominate one. Let them be animals, don’t stress over a few bites. That squeal that the white one did is also normal, he is scared and genuinely scared that he will get hurt.

I once tried bonding two of our chinchillas aqnd althought everyone told me it was best to do it this way, I decided to keep them in a room together where eveyrone had their safespace and could always run away, if they were getting bitten or anything. It definitely took way longer for them to bond, but to me it just seemed less stressful for the chinchillas and in the end it worked well ^^

I think I have a bonding method that is the safest, but will take the longest. Put a ledge to on the outside of both of their cages, and then during playtime to where both ledges are accessable. This will give them the option to jump up on that ledge and maybe interact with each other without them being able to hurt each other. This can take a long time but will prevent a stressful situation.

Aww poor Zorro. Next time don't leave. That could have gotten worse and you could have come back to a dead chinchilla. I totally agree and so never try this again. Maybe even put fleece between the cages so Zorro can recover emotionally.

My chin is currently befriending my degus during playtime. Both groups have their own cage of course, but it makes me happy that they are interested in each other, so chilly isn't alone.

It was good that you filmed this, although it didn’t go as planned. Now we all can learn from this.

What you also need to know is that not every chinchilla can be bonded with every chinchilla. It is also about personality. Maybe they are not meant to be and you have to try to give them other partners they can connect better with. Chinchillas should never have to live without a partner, do not forget that. That Merlin does not want to bond with Zorro does not mean that he does not want to bond at all! Also you should know, that this method is dangerous and absolutely not recommendable! They would just bond because you force them to while they panic. There are many other methods that are much better. If you understand german, here is some good advice: www.chinchilla-scientia.com/soziales-verhalten/vergesellschaftung-gruppenhaltung/

I don’t like this method because it can be very stressful for the animals.

This is what my older chinchilla does to my 3 month old chinchilla. It’s pretty scary when they fight but they got over it already

You already see poor chinchilla running away from that other guy, don’t let it stress anymore.

i’m sorry this has happened, but i have a question. one of my chinchillas has some of his whiskers look like they have been chewed off. i have also found some whiskers in there cage. not very often though. also, i have found clips of fur in there cage. also, the chinchilla with the whisker problem, he has hair missing around the base of his tail. i’m pretty sure none of this is normal. i realized all this after watching your health check video, but you didn’t say what would happen if those things did happen. please help!

Some social animals, if kept in isolation from their own kind, never learn how to interact. I think this may be the case here and Merlin needs to be kept alone. I didn't watch the vid after reading the comments, but I would hope if Zorro was injured you took him to a vet.

Would you ever get another chinchilla to live with Zorro? You did a really good job handling the situation. It was scary and we never know how our animals will react until they do. I have found that my chinchillas really like small spaces, so I have a larger hut for them to live in, but also have a small one for them because I think the small space makes them feel safe. Something else I have done is cover the sides of the top of the cage so that when they want to hide, they can and they don't need to be afraid of me walking to the side to see them. I know that you don't want advice, but I'm just going to leave how I bonded mine down below. Bonding my chinchillas was probably a lot different than how other people do it because I only had my one cage that's like yours, but I put one chinchilla on bottom and one on top - while blocking off the middle. The first time they met I let them run around the bathroom because it allows them to both have their own space, and they did fine with that. My chins are both girls, and when I put them into the carrier to bring them back to put them into their cage, my more dominant chin sprayed my submissive chin. I waited a couple more days and then changed everything in the cage so that neither of them would have their scents on any of the fleece, and then I opened the hole to allow them to go to top or bottom, and they actually did fairly well. I had huts for them to both hide in on top and bottom.

thank you so so much for this. I'm considering getting a baby for our 8 year old who lost his mate about a month ago. We don't have room for another cage, so it's important to see what can happen. You handled that really well.

One thing that people do wrong with this technique is they watch until its too late instead of banging on the cage the second they get aggressive. Chins bond over trauma but if putting them together to bond in a small cage doesn't do anything but force them upon each other. You had the right idea but you simplified the method instead of covering all bases. ANd I don't mean the bars.

Honestly I'm my opinion this is not a good way of bonding them I had 2 chinchillas before I kept them separate for the first month then slowly introduced them I never stuck them together in a cage till they bonded and became friends I would simply let them out togheter and if they were trying to fight I would stop them immediately and separate them do not try to force bonding I feel like it naturally comes eventually . My chinchillas at the time became friends literally after 3-4 months

Hi! Where did you get the cage from? I recently just got a chinchilla and I was thinking of upgrading his cage to a bigger one like yours. If you don't mind giving me a link to it.

I acclimated two boys together by the two cage method of putting them side by side eventually moving them closer until they're next to each other and then I also interchange their poop; I put the new males in the cage that I had and put some of my first chinchilla's in the small cage with the new guy. It worked splendidly, I did it slowly to let them acclimate. Also I wanted to mention the board you're calling plywood is actually particle board, I believe they can chew on plywood as long as it's not pressure treated.

I am so sorry that is so scary and I’m glad everyone is okay. I know animals that have lost their lives from similar situations with the bars.

I've never bonded two chinchillas I only have 1 (hoping to get more someday!) but I have seen videos of people smooshing their chinchillas together and I think your space was too big. I've seen ppl put two in a ball where they can't move but are side by side. But I do not blame you for not wanting to try again and I think it is great that you are putting your chinchillas and their safety first! Also I'm sure you saw it but when you had the camera on Zorro afterwards, you can see where he shot out fur. Poor baby! Glad he's doing better!

I didn't have this issue because my Chinchillas are brothers, but I still think a larger enclousre would be better for introducing new Chillas to each other.

Jumping on each other is totally okay! They are just figuring out dominance. Until there is not furr flying around keep them in. But I would recommend much smaller cage and when they start fighting shake the cage. Do this for an hour- two hours a day 😇❤

Poor Zorro. But what was happening between them is normal. Merlin will be definitely the dominant one. Him jumping on the back of Zorro is how chinchillas decide on the hierarchy so I don't know who recommended the idea of blocking them from the top. My chinchillas are bonded for over the year now but every once in a while they will try to jump on each others backs. It's completely normal. I commented before actually with advice of putting them in a carrier and placing them on a working washing machine, that way you make stress their common enemy and they try to find solace in one another. Also, it's not clear from the video but the meetings between them should be preferably every day. And it seems that they met through the bars, two (or more) weeks passed and the second meeting happend. That's bad. Even 5min everyday is better than 2h every two weeks.

I think we need to focus on the fact that your chinchilla has teleporting super powers 7:00

I know this video is like a year old but have you tried two smalls cages like that sperated by an inch or two air gap. One chinch in each cage. It gives them room to get used to each other but doesn't let them close enough to harm

I seriously cannot get over how much your new chinchilla looks like my Smudge

Have you blow his fur a little to see if there are any bites on his skin? For me it looked as if he wanted to bite his neck, what means that he wants to kill him (sound hard but they do this bite to kill each other) from my point of view they will never get together, so I would think about a younger (maby shy) partner for Zorro, but by choosing one you should do a sniffing test before (hold them face to face with a little space, but only for a few seconds) when they don't try to bite each other you can try this method again (in Germany we use normal cat boxes for this which you can open at the top, to separate them)

I believe if both were babies they will get along better. Because both look like adults

I’m so sorry that that happened, I hope that Zorro will be ok. And don’t fell bad that they didn’t bond it’s not your fault, and all that matters it that their ok!

I have 3 chinchillas but they never wanted to become friends with youngest one. Ever time I let them out so they could interact they just fought for dominance sadly 😔. After watching the video I don't think will be friends ever.

I own 3 chinchillas. 2 females one male. They are all just 1 year old. The females can't get ahold and they both bully the male. But one ended up biting him and freaking him out and I has to separate all 3 into different cages. I hope I can bond them. Open to suggestions.

ahhhh i got finally two chinchillas from a breeder and i love them! their names are picasso(got it from your name idea video) and gizmo they have a 5 feet tall cat play pen thanks for making me love chinchilla as much as i do i know so much now because of you and your my idol for chinchilla thank you again it would mean so much if i could get a reply because i have a question ... why does one of my chinchillas have stiky poop and one doesnt why so? oh also do you think a 4 month old chin can fit thru 3.5 inchs

I feel so badly for Zoro... trying to get used to a different place, finds another chin in the area who aggressively says, "not interested!" But it was definitely worth a shot! Thank you for sharing your experience with us

Merlin was actually grooming him, thats a dominance thing. Its okay, it's actually going pretty well from how far I'm in.

I have experience bonding 2 chinchillas (boy and girl) and first 3 weeks I couldn't do it out of ''fightings". Boy's weight is approximately 450 g and girl's weight is approximately 850 g. Boy always was scared by her and he always tried to bit her. But one day I decided to use one method which is quite brutal but really effective. I took very small cage which has not many holes and it's size was 23x16x17 centimeters (Trixie Transport Box Pico). When they started to fight I started to shake (just a little bit) this cage with them inside and they forgot about their "fighting" and were trying to hug. And I repeat this a couple of days. After some time I stayed them in huge cage (their living cage) and after 15 min they had a light fight and then started kissing. As a result till today they live together and has daughter. But be careful. If you wanna use such method you always need to be on the alert and ready to stop the fight!

This makes me terrified to bond my chinchillas

Im thinking of getting a Chinchilla but idk yet any tips on what i should know about like room space?

Trimming whiskers might actually help! I did that with mine 😊 i just got the 3rd one (all boys) recently also you might want to try a smaller cage than this to put them together like that😅 they shouldn’t be able to walk around or anything