Tail biting

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richt7130

New member
Joined
Mar 2, 2018
Messages
2
Location
Dorset
Hi, I rescued 4 chinchillas a year ago and have been experiencing problems!
The rescue was adult pair and two young from two different litters.
I was a little worried when they arrived as all 4 were in a cage together and it was a very tall parrot type cage with wheels,black painted bars and plastic shelves that had been chewed a lot.
One ceramic food bowl between them and the girl was very sketchy on what food they had been on and said that she had ran out but was same as what i showed her i used for my other chins,they were also on a biscuit type treat that they seemed to go mad for.
Within a couple of days of having them in quarantine away from my other chins just in case, i noticed a real pecking order for the food so put in some more bowls. The adult male was peeing in the food bowl and on the hay.
I also noticed that one of the younger chins had what looked like a twitch on her side and she was going down to lower levels and looking sorry for herself.
On inspection i found her to be pregnant and started taking the two younger ones out and putting them in a seperate cage with a center partition so they would be close but couldnt get to each other, this cage was placed in front of the adults cage so not to cause any upset.
This went on for a week or so and one morning very early she had a little baby girl.
Now obviously this baby is the result of interbreeding and im not sure who the father is as there were two males!
She is now a year old and is very large.

The adult male tried mating with the adult female and something went very wrong and i had to take her to vets as she was bleeding badly down there, i think it went in the wrong place. The vet had a really good feel of her tummy and while this was happening she squealed really loudly and within a couple of days she had blood pouring from her mouth and she had died early hours.

Then i noticed the adult male wasnt eating hay and his front teeth looked long so back to the vet and the guy gave him too much anesthetic as he died as soon as i got him back home.

The young male is tiny and is not eating much hay but does eat all his feed, he is very active and seems happy when out his cage.

The young female with the baby started chasing and pulling the fur on her baby when they were out and this started to stress the baby out so i started removing to a separate cage at about 4-5 months old.

Yesterday i noticed that the mum has started biting her tail near the base and had two bald spots and some scratches, today she has bitten into the skin and it look raw!

I am snowed in here since yesterday and will be going to see a vet tomorrow if i can get out.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, i have owned chins for 16 years and have never seen such bad condition chins and have never seen tail biting like this before!

thankyou
Rich
 
I'm having a little trouble following your story, so you have 3 chins now in 3 cages? is that correct? A male, a female, and a 5 month old baby female?

Ok so first the young male who is not eating hay, that is not good, chins need to eat hay in order to wear down their molars, as well as get enough fiber in their diet. Hay should make up about 70-75% of their diet, with pellets making up the rest. I would try to find a vet that knows chins (from the sounds of it the vet already killed two of your chins) and get a dental exam done on him including x-rays.

The female chewing her tail, could be her baby bit her. Tail chewing is commonly started because the tail is injured in the first place. Basically they end up chewing on it because it hurts. If she had a bite or scratch on her tail that went unnoticed and it got infected, or if she somehow managed to get her tail caught and/or broken that would explain it. The most frustrating thing about tail injuries is trying to prevent the chin from chewing it while it heals. Some people have had to resort to amputating the tail.
 
Hi , yes I now have the 3 chinchillas in 3 separate cages.
I do not know any of the history of these 3 as they were rescue but going on what happened to the parents I'm thinking the outcome wont be good.
The male that the vet overdosed had a spur on his back tooth and an ulcer (vets diagnosis).
I think the baby may have chewed the tail as you say but it didn't look infected, it was normal colour and not inflamed.
Hopefully its not broken because she is a bit skitty and that cage they came in really wasn't suitable, I use thickets cages as they are made for chins and degus and are galvanized weldmesh with separate tray underneath so the cage bottom stays clean.
 
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