Sometimes things don't go well for chinchilla owners. Such was the case when we heard from Jennifer.
Does anyone know if it's common for chinchillas to kill each other or act violently towards each other? I don't know if my chin killed the other one, but we came home and found the female dead. The might be killer was her baby (a 1 year old male). They have acted violently before and if I had known it was going to go this far, I would have separated them. Stupid, stupid me already knew I was supposed to. I feel horrible about it.
I'm also wondering if maybe they were chasing each other and she hit her head. I really don't think so though because I saw that there was a spot by her nose where she was injured (like he possibly bit her) or maybe he was just trying to groom her after she passed away. I only had 2 at the most together in one cage (only mom and baby because they seemed to get along, the other was new because he was given to us out of nowhere.
I tried combining different ones to see if they might get along but they always attacked each other. I really regret having them together that long, I knew I should not have and now the sweetest one had to pay:( I also think her baby has something wrong with him because he's still smaller than most chinchillas and he's fat. He also has smaller eyes. If anyone knows any answers to my questions please let me know. Thanks lots 
We unfortunately didn't have much to tell Jennifer. Her experience was outside of what we've ever dealt with.
Jennifer,
We're sorry to hear about your chinchilla. We've never seen or even heard of that level of violence.
Many, many years ago I had pet hamsters that had a bunch of babies. I didn't separate them soon enough and they started to kill each other. It's a sad thing and acts as a reminder that we need to listen to our gut feelings and take action to prevent such situations from happening.
Entries (RSS)
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 am
Baby chinchillas of "Kits" are suppose to be removed from the parents cage and in their own cage with same sex pairs at the age of 8 to 10 weeks old. Males should not be kept with their mothers after that age.
April 29th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Our chinchilla just had her babies last night. We are wondering if the babies normally fight or if that is just them playing?
April 29th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Bryan,
Recently born baby chinchillas won't fight until they're a little older. You should remove the male from the cage though.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:39 am
a one year old male chin should not be kept with it's mother they will breed or in your case fight and that causes problems. male and female kits should be separated by 12 weeks in age.
October 8th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I feel so bad for Jennifer.That's horrible that that happened,but she needs to forgive herself and now she knows to make sure it doesn't happen again and that poor little chin is at peace.I can offer nothing about breeding or new born chins,but I have a lot to say about aggressive chins.I have 2 chins.We got Bella first.Had her a little over a yr then got Spritie b/c we thought Bella was lonely.We were told she was a boy then found out she was a girl.We were then told 2 females would work perfectly.Common sense should have told me otherwise.I call Spritie my diva cat b/c she has the run of the house.Bella chews too much and will bite sometimes so we let her run in her ball-she loves it!Unfortunately the top has popped off a few times and when the two come in contact the hair is flying.The first time I saw it I almost had a heart attack,they looked liked dogs fighting-up on hind legs.I just reached for the base of one of thier tails(prayed it was Spritie)and lifted.I believe in my heart of hearts that if I left them that they would kill eachother.It's sad that they can't be together.