Introducing Pets

When introducing pets, often people hear of everything going well.  Often, that is the case.  However...sometimes, it's not.

We have had several unsuccessful pairings in the last few days, as have other people.  One family got a chinchilla from us at an expo, and took it home to pair with their two chins.  Their chins weren't a fan of the new chin, so she came by today to return the chin, and hopefully find one that her pair would like.  Her pair had other ideas.  They liked each other, and didn't want a third wheel.  This resulted in no injuries, thankfully.

Not all introductions do, though.  We had someone the other day, who adopted a guinea pig.  She'd brought her guinea pig here to see how they'd do together, and while they were both acting a bit dominant, there was no immediate cause for concern.  She decided to adopt our guinea pig, and put them in a cage with a divider so they could get used to each other.  Her guinea pig decided to take a chunk out of ours, and she promptly brought ours back later that night.

Now, to be honest... while the adopter was absolutely freaking out, that looks worse than it is.  Though the nose is sort of hanging there, the bite did not go deep enough into the nasal cavity and will not affect breathing or eating, which would be the main concerns with a facial bite.  Basically, it'd a really bad flesh wound... that will heal just fine.

Mind you, that is from ONE bite, when the chins were separated by a cage divider.

We put blu-kote (antiseptic) on it, and have been checking on her, and she is feeling better and on the mend.  

Will update another blog with pics in a few days.  She will be fine.  This all said...if they were together, without the barrier, who knows what might have happened.  

This is why, when people ask, I always tell them, there's no way to know if any two animals will get along, without literally trying it out.  From my own personal experience, this guinea pig (Bonnie) is super sweet and loves other gp's.  Heck, when they were here, she was even grooming the other person's gp and trying to snuggle up to her.  The other person said her guinea pig has a similar personality... yet look at the outcome.  Some animals get along great... some not so much.

Update!  As of two days later, this is how it looks (see pics below).  Healing up nicely.