Chinchilla Not Eating Pellets

Hello, everyone! I'm new here, so my deepest apologies if I'm doing this incorrectly.

One of my chinchillas is currently not eating his pellets. He'll eat hay, and he ate his raisin earlier, but if I offer him a pellet he completely ignores it. He's been on antibiotics for the past week, due to a cat scratch, and he ended up needing stitches, so up until yesterday he had a cone 'round his head. He's off the medication now, and his stitches are out, so he should be fine, my vet thinks, but I'm concerned that he's not touching his pellets. Should I be concerned, or is it normal for them to be put off parts of their diet when things like this happen? Any advice would be dearly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Charlotte.

First of all, I don't think you should be feeding him any raisins.

Antibiotics have been known to cause some to lose their appetite. My local vet says to stop antibiotics medication if there's any signs of a lost in appetite. Since he's off medication, I'm sure he will get back his appetite soon.

Anyhow, chinchillas can survive solely on a hay diet.

Yes, pls stop the raisin, you're doing him more bad than good, especially now when he's off feed.
Have you given him any probiotics during his antibiotics course? Some antibiotics do upset their appetite, but I wouldn't stop the antibiotics if simply because they go off feed, we should hand feed them with Critical care or other replacement feeds such as EFL, if he is not taking it willingly, you will need to force feed him, at least 60ml/ day.
Did the vet give you any CC? If not, mash up some pellets and start hand feeding him, it's good that he's eating hay, so you might just need to assist him back on track.
Is he drinking water? If not, you can add a bit more water into the mashed up pellets to hydrate him.

You should never stop antibiotics once they are prescribed for an animal (or a human for that matter), it only worsens the issue of resistant strains of bacteria. I find it strange that a vet would recommend this course of action.

Many antibiotics do cause a loss of appetite in chinchillas and it can be necessary to hand feed for a while. If the chin is eating hay in good quantity and drinking, there may not be an issue as they can survive on a hay only diet quite well.

If you are noticing lethary or a weight loss, or a decrease in number, size or hardness of stool, it may be necessary to step in and offer assistance. First of all, I would recommend stopping all treats. Raisins and other fruits are especially bad for chinchillas as they cannot process the sugars and it can lead to a condition known as bloat and then stasis.

You can purchase either online or through your vet a product call Critical Care (CC) made by Oxbow, it is a finely ground product which when mixed with water can be fed with a syringe or on a spoon. This gives the chin nutrients as well as water. You can use the search button on this forum and come up with multiple threads on hand feeding and Critical Care.

If you cannot find CC, a good substitute is to grind up the pellets your chin is currently on very fine and mix them with water (assuming your chin is already on a high quality chin pellet and not one mixed with treats).

Good luck and hopefully your chin will recover uneventfully.

Ah, thank you for all the advice!

I think I may have worded it a bit incorrectly; when I said he was off the antibiotics, I meant that he'd had all of what was prescribed to him, not that we were told to take him off what he had.

Do you have any recommendations on what to give them for treats, if not raisins? Both my chinchillas love them, but if they're not good for their health I'd love to know of some good alternatives. I'd hate for our other one to get ill as well.

I'll try finding this CC product, or crushing up his pellets. With any luck he'll be fine, but if he still isn't returning to normal I'll take him back to my vet.

Thank you all so much for the advice! I really appreciate it.

You can give a plain cheerio, a plain shredded wheat square, a pinch of old fashioned oats (not the quick or instant kind.) or rose hips. They should only get one or two a week, total.

I would not give the chin that is not eating any treats at all until he is completely better and eating on his own.

Thank you!

I'll be sure not to, thanks.

As long as he is eating the hay really good I would give him a couple days. I had one that was on baytril for 10 days and even after he was finished it still took him a few days to completely get his appetite back. For a hay only diet they can lose weight. my little guy that was on the baytril had to have an all hay only diet for about 3 weeks and he lost a great deal of weight. I am not saying that this always happens but it did in his case. Just keep a close eye on him and supplement critical care if he isn't eating. I hope your chin gets better soon.

You can also use twigs/sticks as a "treat." They don't technically ingest them, but they sure have a lot of fun nibbling them down to stubs. My chins get plenty of sticks and occasional plain shredded wheat, rose hips, rose buds, or other chin-approved dried herbs. Vendors on the boards have great products for treats as well.