One or more chipmunks?

However, the aggressiveness don't always arise from the quantity of chipmunks.... There are chipmunks that always get along well with other chipmunks throughout the year. Then there can be more secluded chipmunks that simply don't want other chipmunks in their territory. With them the aggressiveness is not tied up to any certain season, but to their personality. They can behave always aggressively towards other chipmunks either way. The third group is comprised of chipmunks that get along well with other chipmunks and sleep in a common nest with other chipmunks, but then in autumn or early winter time they suddenly become aggressive towards the other chipmunks. This aggressiveness doesn't arise originally for the sake of other chipmunks, but the approaching winter may cause stress for their inner instinct of the matter that they have to be prepared against the winter and collect food in their stocks as much as they can. In consequence of this obsession they start to see other chipmunks as a threat, even if there were plenty of food available - more than they ever could stock. I have also heard that if there is only one chipmunk and it gets stressed for the approaching winter, the chipmunk may vent the stress on its owner, too. Then it's recommended to leave the chipmunk alone and do not disturb it in vain. This behaviour is fortunately only temporary and after few months (after the winter rest) the unpleasant behaviour is often disappeared. If there is other chipmunks with the aggressive chipmunk in the same cage, it would be very recommended to put the aggressive one temporarily to another roomy chipmunk cage alone. If there is both males and females in the same chipmunk cage, the aggressive one is almost without exception a female, because females are more dominant than males. I have also heard that if the supremacy of one female is very strong in a chipmunk flock, it can influence also on mating season so that only the dominant female will get descendants.

If your chipmunk cage is built entirely from wire netting as my chipmunk cages, you can reduce chipmunks' stress sensitivity enveloping the cage partly with some kind of covering. The covering resembling leaves of trees which protect chipmunks against outer enemies like flying birds passing near the window and they can feel themselves more safe.

However, I don't want to say with this text that it would be a bad idea to keep more than one chipmunk, because it's not true. On the whole, both females and males get along together well, especially if they were siblings and have grown up together from the beginning. They keep for each other company and that's wonderful. The chipmunk owner only has to be prepared for the thing that the circumstances could change so that the owner has to separate chipmunks in several cages temporarily or even permanently and it takes up a great deal of room. The ownership of many chipmunks demands thus the capacity for flexible cage building and besides a lot of room, because at least my own recommendation for the minimum size of a chipmunk cage is a half cubic metre multipling by the amount of the chipmunks. The ownership of only one chipmunk is thus easy and steady in practice, because only one cage solution is sufficient.