Advice needed on treats & motivation

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A3K3

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
12
Location
San Francisco
Hi all!

My chin has been with me for a few months now and he's gotten very comfortable. I think we've bonded nicely and he seems very trusting of me. When I first got him, I was trying to follow the rules on treat-giving and ended up chasing the poor little guy around to try to get him back into his cage because I wasn't enticing him with a treat. After realizing I was just scaring him, I started giving him a treat to get him back into his cage and things went back to happy times.

Now I feel like the indulgent parent who is spoiling their child..!

My questions:
1) How do you get your chinchilla to re-enter his cage without a treat?
2) Is it okay to give dust baths as often as you want? I live in a relatively humid environment where, even with a dehumidifer running constantly, the humidity hangs out around 55-60% all the time, so I've been giving dust baths liberally. I've read too many can be too drying though. How will I know?
3) Are there things you can feed your chinchilla that are like treats, but that are safe to be given twice a day? Do oats count in that category?

Thanks for the help!
 
most chins dont go back in there cage own there own. Some will hop back into there sand bath house to go back in. Some will just avoid it all.

Usually you can sand bath as needed. Once or twice a week for most chins is fine. But i do know of breeders that do it every day for there show animals. Tho im guessing you dont need to do it that often. Just keep an eye on them. If you do see there skin starting to dry out, then back off some.

The only real 'treat' that comes to mind that is ok to give often are twigs. They usually like them, depending on the flavor/kind. They chew the bark off so its giving there teeth a good working too.
 
1. I use a box to get them back into the cage, put the box near them, they hop in. I know that is not normal though.

2. I wouldn't give more then one dust bath a day. You can tell if they are drying him out much if he is itchy, you notice flaky skin on the ears, feet can get dried and crack, stuff like that.

3. I second the sticks, they can be given unlimited, you can break sticks into pieces so they are smaller though (so the chin finishes it faster). Also rose hip, several pieces of crushed rose hip equal one rose hip, so you can give a few. You could also break a cheerio in half, making two treats. Another option is a piece of hay, something you don't normally feed or if your chin really likes a specific part, like the seed heads for example, you can use those as treats. Oats should not even be an everyday treat, let alone twice a day, a few oats a week is plenty. Oats are high in phosphorus which requires calcium to digest so if given too often it can lead to calcium deficiency.
 
Thanks for your thoughtful answers!

I am going to try the box idea - that seems like a great way to let him get more comfortable with being picked up too.

I am definitely over-feeding oats. Twigs and dust baths seem like good alternatives! I am giving him a dust bath once a day but he doesn't seem to be getting dried out so I guess that's okay so far.

Can I pick up twigs as I'm walking around outside or do I have to buy them from a store? Where is your favorite place to buy them in bulk?

Also, where do you buy your chin's reverse osmosis water? I've been giving mine tap water that I let sit out to let some of the chemicals come out of it, but I read that's not good enough. On Amazon, the only reverse osmosis water I could find comes in fancy little bottles for people to individually drink and obviously I don't need that :)

And finally, my chin's poos have become slightly mushy. I thought I was not switching my chin off of his previous food when I started feeding him oxbow timothy hay pellets, but apparently I was. His last owner, my cousin, said the pellets she gave me to feed him were timothy hay pellets, but she couldn't remember the brand (and she'd transferred them into a new container). So I bought Oxbow timothy hay and switched him to them when the old food ran out. Oops. I should have crossed over more because now his poos are slightly mushy and I'm sure it's because of the food change. Tonight I removed the pellets and gave him lots of extra hay to try to firm them up again. If you have any other suggestions, or if you think I should try a different type of pellet, please let me know!

Thanks again!
 
You can't just give any old twigs you find on the ground, they need to have the twigs properly prepared, scrubbed clean, boiled, and baked dry. They also need to come from organic trees that have never had any chemicals sprayed on them. They also need to be a chin safe type of wood. There are a few vendors on here that sell sticks, Ronda's Chinchilla Supplies for example sells a large variety of wood types and sizes, everything from twiglets to chunks, every chin is different and prefers different types of wood and thicknesses.

I get my RO water at the hardware store, they have a water machine there, but most grocery stores also do, as does places like Walmart. I buy it by the 5 gallon bottles, because I drink it too, but they also sell it in 1 gallon jugs too. If your tap water is not bad, you may only need a water filter to make it safe. If you go with a water filter you need a 3 stage one that filters out microbial cysts, namely giardia. Something like this one from Amazon would work.

Oxbow pellets are alfalfa based not timothy based, but yes you do need to switch pellets slowly. Give hay for a few days and if the poop firms up it was just an upset stomach from the sudden switch. If after a couple days the poops don't firm up, or turn to actual diarrhea, get the chin to the vet. When giving tap water a common cause of diarrhea is giardia, and you'll need antibiotics to clear that up.
 
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