Question:
Has something similar ever happened to you?
About two weeks ago I picked up two chinchillas from a student going off to college who can't take her chinchillas with her. I bring them home, give them a huge new cage to roam in, and all seems well...
Today I am having a lovely bath, and hubby and friend are working on a car outside. They come in for a drink and hear a commotion. The two new guys are flying around the cage in hot pursuit of each other and the fur, it is a-flyin!
This a a duo that has been together for years. Maybe the new place, new cage, or new people have upset them and their reaction is one of, "Hey, this must be YOUR fault!"
I take the two of them out separately to check that all is physically well, and both, other than some missing fur, seem fine. I let them both have some run around time and put them back in together.
We have had dinner, I'm putting plates in the dishwasher, and then I get to hear the sounds of angry chinchilla. I go into the livingroom and see them practically running laps around the cage trying to get at each other. Rather like a bad hockey ref, I blame what I see, not necessarily the instigator! So, now I have them separated. The one with the most fur missing has the much bigger cage. The one least damaged, also the larger of the two and definitely more aggressive, in my only other spare cage at the moment, a much smaller space. He is quite pissed off!
I think he has tugged on every piece of wire on the cage, tipped over his food dish twice, and pulled angrily at the water bottle. He has, however, managed to stop in his angry rampage to eat some hay and pellets between bouts of yelling at me and pulling on the cage wire. He really is a little terror!


Answer:
Were they in a room with females? Sometimes when the females go into heat, the males will go a bit crazy.
Post an update when you get a second


Answer:
I was thinking the same thing Lisa,,,
I hope you figure it out and they settle down


Answer:
Yeah, horny males will be horny males.. They could also just be acting out because of the change of environment. Give them a bit of time to adjust.


Answer:
Well, all is quiet right now as everyone is asleep. My hubby also suggested yesterday that having females in the room could be the cause. We have two females in the room. One is pregnant and due mid-October. The other is not quite three months old. I probably should be far more tolerant as I teach teenage boys most of the year and have seen firsthand just how rangy they can be! Still, I'll do a cautious reintroduction of these two males before I let them share a cage again.


Answer:
When these two came to us, we tentatively named them Mutt & Jeff. Here is Jeff with his alfalfa cube. I'm thinking of using Photoshop and turning the hay cube into a Borg cube (StarTrek fans out there?). Then I could title it, "Chinchilla Defeats Borg! Takes over Universe!"


Answer:
I'm thinking of using Photoshop and turning the hay cube into a Borg cube (StarTrek fans out there?).
I think that would be so cute! I am not a big Star Trek fan but hubby is and I know if I showed him the hay cube he would get a big laugh out of it.
I recently put another pair of males together, Griffin and Baxter, a few months ago. I often find tufts of fur in the cage and hear them chasing each other around the cage in the evening. From what I have witnessed they try and mount each other and get aggravated with the act. I think they are still trying to establish the dominance title in their relationship which causes the constant arguments between them. Testosterone can be an evil thing....


Answer:
If you are going to reintroduce them, don't put them back in the same room as the females. Two males could kill each other in pursuit of a female.
Carleen


Answer:
My boys do the same if they can even smell the girls. Mutt and Jeff are adorable!


Answer:
Aw, what cuties! How are they doing now?