Chinchilla Weight Loss - What is normal?

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rodneyc8063

Active member
Joined
Dec 5, 2012
Messages
29
Location
Toronto, Canada
Long time lurker, and thankfully have not had to post anything up until now.

I am the proud dad of an approximately 6 year old female chinchilla.

The following is her general current state:

She has been with us since she was about 6 months old, always fed oxbow pellets, timothy grass and varying oxbow treats through out the years (treats were inconsistently fed on and off).

Within the past 6 months, her diet has consisted of oxbow pellets, timothy grass/orchard grass, a small pinch of plain steel cut oats maybe once a week as a treat, apple sticks and newest addition is a kiwi stick chew.

She is generally in good health, and does not appear to be out of sorts or doing anything out of the ordinary. She still comes out on her nightly runs, bouncing off walls. Her eating/drinking habits do not seem to be any less or more then usual. Poop seems well formed and of her normal shape/size and color.

No visible physical abnormalaties, no drooling, teary eyes, no tongue or teeth sticking out.

Usually during the summer months we move her into our basement, and during the cooler months we move her back up to the second floor of our home.

My concern now though is that within the past 6 months I am noticing that she seems to be gradually losing weight.

The following is her weight over the past year or so (all in grams)

2018-08-01 644
2018-10-07 648
2019-01-22 667
2019-02-04 665
2019-06-12 628
2019-07-10 630
2019-08-18 593
2019-08-19 588
2019-08-20 589
2019-08-27 596
2019-08-30 585
2019-08-31 601
2019-09-04 584
2019-09-08 593
2019-09-15 597
2019-09-16 581
2019-09-18 578

From her last years weight to today, she has lost about 66 grams total. Since about August of this year to today, she seems to be holding steady in the range of 580 ish, though today she seems to be down to 578.

As I mentioned, she SEEMS to be totally fine, still doing her thing. Her weight SEEMS to be ok, though over the past while it seems to be trending down a bit.

So I was just wondering, is this considered "normal"?

I understand that maybe shes getting older. Also when we recently moved her into our basement (July) she was still a hefty 630 gm. But she hated the basement and never came out at night, so there is a possiblity that maybe she lost muscle mass from not coming out to bounce around as well.

I just want to be as proactive as possible, and avoid any possible issues as I know that weight loss in any animal is a bad sign. But my chins weight loss seems so gradual, I cant tell if this is "normal"? Or if its a more serious issue

Any insight much appreciated!
 
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