Do Chinchillas Kill Each Other?

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.