Chinchilla Barking

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cuddskers

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2010
Messages
51
I posted in the 'Chin Emergencies' section a little while ago about my chin's barking behavior, but Im trying to get some more insight. My chinchilla has recently taken to barking in the middle of the night/ during the day out of nowhere. I've been observing her and it seems like the behavior is associated with when she poops at times.

I've read that the loud 'keck' noises, or 'barking' as I refer to it, are signs of annoyance and not pain, but for some reason it seems like pain to me. I took her to the vet and we put her on a probiotic and pain medication (the probiotic was because she was on an antibiotic two weeks prior for a gum condition), but Im super nervous. I don't want her to be suffering, I cant tell if she is in pain and don't understand why she is suddenly barking.

Why would she be annoyed when she defecates? Or what could even be causing the pain? I just feel awful when she barks and at this point I don't know what to do. Any insight would help.
 
my chin has been “barking” but when i looked up what barking sounded like on youtube the comments said it was actually to call out for other chins. your chinchilla may just be wanting attention
 
I doubt it has anything to do with her pooping. Chins have a herd mentality. When they bark, something usually has alarmed them and they are warning "the herd". It doesn't matter to them if there is a herd to warn - it's instinctual. You may think nothing has startled her, but it could be an outside noise, the furnace kicking in, a dust mote floating by. I'm always boggled by what it was that startled them this time.
 
I was also boggled by the fact that it could be her pooping but it really seems to be. She gets plenty of attention. She barks when she poops and then turns around to react like something has jumped on her back. She is also lifting her butt up high when she poops and barks as it comes out. I dont see how something can be startling her to cause the barking, unless a switch has recently flipped inside her, but thats highly unlikely.

She’ll also exhibit this behavior and then immediately start cleaning her genital area. So it really seems like it has to do with pooping. Are you sure it couldnt be because of pain? This is really out of character for her, and Im a pre-vet student so normally Im able to understand when something is wrong but this vehavior is throwing me for a loop.
 
She also normally isnt ever in her hide-hut, she barely ever enters it, but ever since the barking started, she hunkers down in the hut during the day. I know that chins can resort to hiding when they are sick/not feeling well because they’re already vulnerable so this worries me as well. She doesnt seem to be hiding out of fear.
 
What does her poop look like? Is it normal, like about the size of a tic tac? Is it dark brown or black? Is it stringy? Does it have mucous? Is it squishy or too dry? Does it smell bad? Does she strain when she poops? Stretch or cramp up?

I suppose anything is possible with a chinchilla, but you'd be the first in 14 years that I had say that pooping caused their chin to bark.
 
Her poop has been all over the place. Some of them are smaller than her usual tic-tac size, and are more light brown and fibrous, some of them are regular, and some of them are larger, softer, and darker than normal. None of them are diarrhea. And this is all within the same day. Normally she doesn't have much variation.

She is still eating tons of hay and eating her pellets as normal. She is also drinking well. She woke me up at 4am last night and I took her out of her cage to calm her down. Sometimes when I look at her genital area now she will be in the process of pooping but it will be halfway in/out and she will just keep it there for a bit (like she is reluctant to poop which convinces me that it is painful). I assessed her genital area at 4am and slightly opened the external part of her anal cavity to see if I could appreciate inflammation, but it only seemed slightly moist like a small bit of clear lubrication in that area. No discharge is appreciated from that area either.
 
Chinchillas poop without having to push it out. They can push and strain if they are constipated, but if there's poop just "halfway out" of her then it's just working its way out. Chinchillas bark for all kinds of reasons, but from everything you said it sounds to me like she's just barking for attention. My fellas do so all the time.
 
Poop half in and out is completely normal. If I worried about that with my chins, I'd have 200+ chins on my mind all day long. I can't believe it's from pain.
 
It’s unfortunately definitely not for attention but I appreciate all of the advice. We have a vet appointment Monday!
 
Why are you so sure it's definitely not for attention? Everything you have said implies that it is. Bringing your chin to the vet or putting it through procedures because she's barking is just unnecessary stress on the poor thing.
 
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