Chew toy issues

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
K

KodigorII

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2016
Messages
5
First off, not sure if this is the right area.

I have been having troubles with chew toys with my sweet Jerry. Exactly 2 months ago I got some round sticks, I'm pretty sure Apple. She did not care for those. She also had this sticks-in-wire thing, that is pretty chewed that she had from the previous owner. Also a pumice rock that she doesn't seem to like from old owner too.
About a week ago, I got a bunch more chew things. I got:
•3 small chew carrots from corn husk
•Willow stick ball with 2 wooden balls inside, put treats inside to motivate
•Pumice cube with wooden shapes on sides

All in all, she likes the carrots best. But I'm worried that she isn't getting enough chewing in. She sometimes makes a grinding sound, after eating, when sleeping, during playtime you name it.

Is this an issue with her, her teeth, the toys, or what? Any and all help appreciated! Thanks guys really appreciate it! This chins n hedgies blog thing is AMAZING! So much help through it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
First of all if the chew sticks came from the petstore chances are they are old and over processed, so not tasty. Try checking out some of the vendors on the forum here (in the classifieds and banner ads), you can get way more stuff for your money in terms of chew toys, freshly processed chew sticks of a wide variety, and other cage stuff that you can feel good knowing are safe and used by other chin owners. You can also buy toy parts in bulk, so you can make your own toys.

Another thing, although you say the corn husk is the only one she likes, it's the most dangerous one, corn can grow a mold on it that is deadly to chins, if you see any black spots on it it needs to be tossed. A much safer shredder toy that a lot of chins love are bamboo finger traps (also known as bamboo crunchers, or bamboo shredders), as well as palm leaf shredder (commonly found in a roll in the bird section in pet stores). The pumice cubes seem to be hit or miss with chins, I found that by drilling a hole through mine and hanging it they do chew on it some. Most chins prefer the lava bites and ledges for pumice chews.

Just so you know chins need a steady supply of chew sticks, not just chew toys in the cage. My two get about a half a dozen new sticks to shred everyday. Most chins just chew the bark off the sticks then leave them, so new sticks are needed to keep them interesting. I generally leave the old chewed sticks in the cage though, they do go back to chew some. They get tossed out when peed on or too small to sort out and get vacuumed up.

The grinding is the molars not the front teeth, to wear down molars make sure the chin has plenty of hay, that it eats (hay should be about 75% of a chins diet). The chew toys they only chew with their front teeth, so only wear down the front teeth, the chew sticks most do eat the bark so that does help molars some too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top