Chinchilla killed inside of its cage

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CHINCHILLAZILLA

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2015
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2
Hi everyone, My girlfriend and I own three chinchillas (two boys caged together and a female caged by herself). We recently went out of town for 3 days and when I got back monday night I found Paprika (the female) dead inside of her cage.

She was at the very bottom of the cage with two large open wounds on the lower half of her body. Her head was slightly pushed out of the cage bars as if she had been possibly trying to escape. Her body was also abnormally flat and much hair had been lost both near her and just outside of the cage.

Were both very devastated and can't figure out what even happened... there was no blood outside of the cage and practically none inside even. Whatever it was that got inside her cage (assuming thats what happened) had to have been small enough to slip through her 1inch bars. We have left town multiple times before leaving the chins plenty of food and water, and even have someone who swings by to make sure theyre okay, nothing like this has ever happened.

I would love to know if anyone has ever had something similar happen to them, I can only assume that it was a mouse/rat or something but I'm baffled that a rodent would kill a chinchilla over just eating food from the kitchen or trash can... Please help me figure out what happened so that I can determine whether my other two chins are safe or not.

RIP Paprika you were the sweetest little bean
 
It's really hard to say but I doubt that is the case. Hair was displaced all throughout the bottom level of her cage around her body and a lot of her flesh was missing. Hair tufts were also outside of the cage maybe like 6 inches away.

From what I could tell, it seems like she was trying to squeeze her head out of the bars while something was inside attacking her.

She has never once tried to aggressively escape her cage and was a very delicate and calm chin
 
Yeah that sounds like she did it to herself. What a freak thing. sounds like she got spooked and tried to get out. A mouse or rat would or should not cause your chin to die. Do you have a photo of the cage?

I had a chinchilla die over night from what I think was a heart problem that was brought on by my dog scaring them late that night. My chinchilla was a little flat when I found her. They kind of flatten when they have been dead for a little while. Sorry .

Chinchillas can die from a broken leg.
 
Random thought but do you have snakes in your area? Could one have somehow gotten in, realized it couldn't eat her and left?
 
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