Territorial behaviour in chinchillas

Question


I have a very frustrating situation and thought you might be able to help me
since you must have a number of chinchillas in the same room at one time..  I
have one room that is entirely chin proof, large and quiet.  I do not have any
other rooms in the house suitable for either holding a cage or letting the run
of the room.  

I have one female in one cage in this chin proof room and another cage with
three males (a father and his two sons) in this room as well.  The cages are
both constantly kept "hidden" from each other.  A blanket is kept over the
cages on the sides that would be showing to the other cage (so one group
does not see the other and vice versa) this is done when no one is running
around.  I let each cage "group" out at a time.  So the female will go out for
her daily hour and the other cage will be entirely covered for this duration.  
Then it goes vice versa when I let the males out.

I find that the males bicker at each other quite often, chase each other and
even wrestle with each other.  Sometimes they sit peacfully snuggled
together.  Lately I have been finding one wimpering in one of the hide outs in
his cage because one of them is very dominant and seems to be terrorizing
him.

What would your advice be to do?  Should I look for another home for one or
more of them?  Try to get the aggressive one neutered?  Could I possibly spay
the female and put them all in one big cage?  Or will the males only get
aggressive again later on?

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Kathy  

Answer
Thanks for asking. Now when you are talking about Chinchilla's these animals tend to be more solitude animals and that is why most do better in single cages. The female is usually the more "aggressive" one and the male more timid. If you see that one is not being treated very well then I would suggest getting him his own cage. Neutering is a lot of money especially for rodents and it is not going to make the dominance issue level all together. It is best to house each separately.

I like how you give each one time out of their cage and take the care to cover them to prevent stress. This is a good method that you have adopted and I am glad that you take the time to do so. As you well know Chinchillas like hyperactive and need aerobic and need lots of space for exercise which is not always accomplished in a cage.

See what you can do about making more room if you wish not to give one an new home. And below are some sites for more Chinchilla information and how to build a cage yourself:)

http://www.michiganhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=vetcare_chinchillas

http://chinchillacymru.co.uk/buildcage.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2063965_build-housing-chinchillas.html