Going out of country for a LONG time - What do I do with the chins?

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Phoeblie

Active member
Joined
May 6, 2017
Messages
36
Location
Connecticut, USA
Hey guys, my family will be going away for a week in the fall and a month and a half in late fall/early winter. I don't know what to do with my chins while we're gone.

I've gotten an electronic pet feeder(http://store.petsafe.net/5-meal-timed-pet-feeder), a big water bottle(it leaks though :/), and I'm getting an outdoor cat playpen today. Do you think they could be good by themselves with this stuff for a week?

One of my sister's teachers had chinchillas before, but she has a family and is probably busy(she homeschools). We're not too close with her, so I don't know if it'll be appropriate to ask her to take care of our chins while we're gone. Especially for 1 and 1/2 months.

What do you guys do when you're away from home?
 
That pet feeder is not safe at all, it's all plastic and electronics and the chins will eat it and likely die. If you want an auto feeder for chins go with one of those J feeders, most chins don't over eat so they don't need rationed meals. A leaky water bottle is dangerous too, if the chin gets wet it can get sick. I have two water bottles and ad a third or forth if I am going to be away for a night or 2, that way if one doesn't work from some reason they still have water.

The playpen is only good for supervised play, chins will chew through that so they can't be left in it.

If you are gone for more then a couple days (72 hours is my absolute limit) it's best for find someone to at least come check in on the chins. If you don't have anyone that can at least come check to make sure the chins are ok you can try calling around to vets offices, some are willing to do boarding. Also sometimes you get a vet tech wanting to get some hands on experience with chins willing to pet sit for you. As for asking the teacher, if you want to try that route I would have your sister mention it, if she still has that teacher. It can't hurt to ask, the worse she can say is no. Say something along the lines of "you said you had chins before, my family is going away this year and was wondering if would be willing to, or you know anyone that can chinchilla sit."

For the week long trip if you can even just get someone to come a couple times and make sure the chin is alive and toss some hay on the cage (so they don't have to risk the chin escaping) and make sure the water is still good. The biggest issue with leaving them for a time even if they are setup and fine for a week, is what if something happens to you and you end up not coming back for longer then expected? Things happen, cars break down, plane flights get delayed, people get injured or sick, etc.

The bottom line for me though is since I don't have anyone nearby, like I did growing up, is I simply don't go away for long. Though I know that for most people that isn't an option, lol.
 
We put them in the pen and left them near their cage, went upstairs to eat, and there was a hole in the mesh and 3 chins running around when I went back downstairs XD

I do have a friend who lives near us that may be fine with coming over a couple times to check on them for the week we're away in fall. They've seen the chins a few times. Throwing hay on the cage and changing water shouldn't be too bad haha.

I'm concerned about the chins not being able to get enough "running-around" time though. This is their cage https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...earthtone-dusted-rose-rat-and-chinchilla-cage, not the biggest, especially with 3 chins. I usually watch them play in an enclosed area for 45 min - 1 1/2 hours daily. I think the chins will be able to bear it for a week(since the previous owner gave them to us because she didn't have enough time for them), but I highly doubt for over a month. So.. I'm really baffled about what to do about it.

Thank you for all of your wonderful ideas. I try to call some vets tomorrow and see if my sister's teacher is open to the idea of taking care of the chins for a while.
 
I'm also thinking about temporarily moving the chins and their stuff to another friend's house for the month and half. They have bunnies, and I'm not too keen, but I think they are similar in terms of caring for them. Would that be ok?

If it is, one thing I'm worried for is that the may be too stressed. We got them in March. They were comfortable with us by the time of late April to early May... and it's improved even more since. Mama, the fidgety hyper one, has been letting me come up to her and put her in the cage without a fuzz. Nike still has some issues regarding that, but it's much better than before. I'm worried that they'll all be settled down with us and then they'll be suddenly moved to another home, and back again when we're back in the states. I don't know if it's too much for them
 
They would be fine, a bit angry when you get home but fine having to stay in the cage for a month. You can get them a wheel if they don't already have one, just make sure it's one of the safe ones like a chin spin, metal flying saucer, or silver surfer. Honestly it's much safer when you are having someone watch them to just leave them in their cage. It's better to come home to mad chins rather then a sick, injured, dead, or lost one because an accident happened. I normally buy my guys something to give them I get home, new toys, treats, something for their cage, etc, which helps lessen the anger, lol.

The biggest issue with have them go to your friend's house is the bunnies themselves actually. Rabbits can carry a bacteria called Pasteurella that is deadly to chins, so they would have to be in a different room from the bunnies and your friend will have to make sure they wash between handling the bunnies and the chins. The bacteria is spread by bodily fluids, so sneezes, coughs, etc can spread it in the air which is why they can't even be in the same room. It causes an upper respiratory infection (which can kill a chin in a matter of a couple hours), but rabbits can carry it without showing symptoms themselves. The added stress of being in a new place (stress weakens the immune system) and being exposed to a potentially deadly bacteria is a bad combo.

The care of a rabbit and chin are similar, but exactly the same. A rabbit needs veggies and stuff where as the chin shouldn't have anything but it's pellets and hay. Also unlike rabbits chins need specific temp and humidity levels, below 75F and below 50% humidity, so an ac is required if it's warm out.

Another thing, you still have them all in one cage?!?! You really should separate the chins into male and female cages and prepare to have kits (unless I missed a post and you don't actually have a male and 2 females). Count 120 days from when you separate them and if no kits by then you are good. You can't have a male and females together and expect them not to mate, that includes no playtime together. As I said before in a post last month just because they haven't had kits yet doesn't mean they wont, especially if you have improved their lives. It's very hard to tell if a female is pregnant until she has kits, most really don't show any signs, so they could already be pregnant.

If the 120 days is during the time you plan to be away I would seriously reconsider going away. Otherwise you will be also asking the person to care of possibly pregnant chins and possibly kits and the complications that can go along with them. Also, if they do have kits the male will need to be removed anyway since the females go into heat right after giving birth, and back to back litters is extremely hard on a chin and can even kill her.
 
Okay, it'll have to be mad chins then haha. Unless I can find a vet or friend to take care of them, which I hope I can find. I do have a wheel(https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/kaytee-silent-spinner-exercise-wheel-large), but the chins had destroyed the stand before we got them. I put it on a metal rod and screwed it upright with some screws, but it gets loose, so I have to tighten it daily to keep the wheel upright.

I don't really understand why having kits is so bad. Aren't chins able to naturally give birth? I've seen the mummified kits and that sort, and I assume they are like miscarriages to humans, situations that happen from nature. But I've also seen successful births too... so I really am confused why a lot of people discourage putting males and females together, especially on this forum. It'd be great if you could fill me in on why.

We're going away for almost 8 weeks. 56ish days.

I really can't reconsider going away. We're going to visit family, and it's disrespectful to my family, especially my grandparents, if I "ditch" them for 3 big mice(that's what they think of the chins). It's especially disrespectful this year because my grandpa is turning a special age, and my culture views that as one of the biggest things in a person's life. My grandparents are aging, and we don't visit them often because tickets cost thousands of dollars. That's why when we visit, we visit for a long time.
 
Ok, first of all that wheel is way too small for chinchillas, 14" is the absolute minimum diameter, 12" it will cause back injuries over time since chins are not designed to bend backwards like most other rodents. Also, it's plastic, the chins will chew it and if swallowed that can lead to a blockage in their gut which will require surgery to remove if it doesn't kill them first. Plastic is not digestible.

As to why you shouldn't allow them to breed, well lets start with, do you know their generic histories? Do any of them carry any genetic problems? or do any of their parents or grandparents? some issue can skip a generation or two. One of the worst possible genetic issues is genetic malocclusion, which has no cure and genetic malo can be the death of a chin as young as 2, do you know for a fact that none of the chins carry that? or are you ok with the possibility of producing chins that will only live a couple years before dying in horrible pain?
It's not just mummified kits, there are a lot of other issues that can arise (read the horror stories and look at the pics, is that something you really want to get into?), like the mother could have difficulty giving birth, with people randomly breeding chins with unknown defects you do run into issues of females being unable to pass kits naturally. Did all the chins mothers produce enough milk for the kits? it can happen, requiring hand feeding. Did the mother(s) of all three have normal uncomplicated births? If you look at most breeding and show females they are large and stocky, you need a large rear end to pass kits easily, if the chin is too small or has a narrow pelvis they can have issues. If the kit(s) don't come out the mother will need an emergency c-section to remove them, otherwise they could die and start rotting, which will also kill the mother. Other mothers do need a hand to help pull the kit out, which mean having a human on hand to lend a hand. Even if the kits come out the mother can still end up with an infected uterus, or even have a kit rip something in the mother on the way out and the mother bleed to death (I've see it happen and it was horrible and sad). Chins are pregnant for so long that the kits come out fully formed (fur, teeth, nails, with eyes and ears open, and are up and about within minutes), and can be fairly large, unlike most other rodents who give birth to tiny helpless pink hairless babies.

Also do you know for sure they are not all related? if they are then you will also run into inbreeding issues. Also do you already have people lined up for kits? or are you planing to keep all the chins? they can't all just live together in one cage, the males and females will all breed, meaning brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, and you will end up with genetically messed up animals. The cage you have is barely big enough for 3 (1-2 for that size cage is better), let alone more, the less space you have the more likely fights will occur and chins can and do fight to the death.

The bottom line is breeding chins with unknown backgrounds you have no idea what you are getting genetically. You are basically just throwing more genetically unknown chins out into the world and doing more harm then good for chins as a whole. What purpose do you have for breeding? Breeding is something that should be given thought and have a purpose, like improving fur color or quality, improving size or shape, etc. It really shouldn't be just to create more unwanted chins in the world. Breeding is also not cheap, a lot can go wrong because of people randomly breeding, creating more genetic disorders. So you are more likely to run into issue with domestic chins then a wild chin, in the wild the genetic defects wouldn't survive to breed. If you don't have several thousand dollars set aside or credit cards you are better off not breeding, because you chins will likely die if they have complications and you don't treat them. Yes a lot that can happen is like humans pregnancy, but humans generally go to the hospital or at least have a midwife to help give birth. In places where women don't or can't go to a doctor, dying during childbirth is still high.

Another thing is males that breed are more likely to get hair rings, which need to be dealt with immediately. The ring of hair can cut off blood flow to the penis and if not removed quickly you'll end up having to amputate it or the chin dies.

Since you can't (or wont) not go on the trip, make sure whoever you have checking on them comes everyday, possible a couple times a day to check on them. Also make sure you leave either a credit card with the vet or a few thousand dollars just in case one of the females needs vet assistance. Also make sure the pet sitter is prepare and willing to care for and feed kits every couple hours round the clock (day and night) if the mother rejects them or isn't producing enough milk.

I guess at the end of the day they are your chins, and if you are ok with them dying because you want to breed them, and you are ok with the chance of producing short lived, weak, and/or sickly chins, I think that's cruel, but that is your choice. I don't know if you are just a little kid or what, but taking care of an animal is not just something to do when it's convenient for you. You intentionally brought these chins into your home, and you are intentionally unwilling to separate them so they don't breed and then intentionally leaving them. I'm guessing if you have to plan the trip it's not something that just came up, so you knew you would be going away.
 
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