Chinchilla Fur Problem

[chinchillachris]

Hi Everyone,
I have two chinchillas. One of my chinchillas is a grey and white mosaic, named BoBo. I got BoBo on September 30th, 2012. About a month or two after the day I got him I noticed the fur on the top of his head and on his back looked like it was matted. I didn't know what to make of it but I thought maybe it was because they had gone without a dust bath for a few days. However, ever since then his fur has remained that way and lately, I've noticed that on a tiny area of his back, if he bends a certain way, you can even see some of his skin. So here's where I need help, what do you think is the matter? I recently found out about chinchilla ringworm, but I highly doubt that's what he has because his hair has looked like this for over a year and by this time I would have assumed that his cage mate would've caught ringworm too. My other hypothesis is "fur biting." Recently, I've witnessed BoBo's cage mate looking like he was biting or nibbling on BoBo's fur (the cage mate doesn't have any signs of biting, just BoBo). So, do you think it could possibly be his cage mate biting out BoBo's fur? If that turns out to be the case, would I have to separate the two (I wouldn't want to do that but luckily I do have a double CritterNation that can be turned into two cages). Please let me know if you guys have any suggestions. Hopefully I may be able to bring BoBo to a vet soon.

 

[Stackie]

Could you post a picture of the area in question?


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[obcsed]

I had a male come to me as a boarder awhile back. He was a backflipper. He backflipped over his house constantly. As a result, his fur was badly matted on the top of his head, shoulders and down his back. While he was here, I moved him to a big ferret nation with a chin spin. He stopped backflipping and I was able to work out some of the matting. When his people came to pick him up, I talked them into getting him a bigger cage with a wheel and showed them how to keep working on the mat.

 

[Dreamlite]

If the fur is just matted then you can pull them out. If the fur is shorter length then one of them is a fur chewer. Both problems are fine and wont harm the chin. They dont need seporated. If you can post a picture it would help a lot.

 

[chinchillachris]

@obcsed, BoBo (the one with the hair issue) constantly does backflips across his house! Maybe that could be the problem. I do often find little strands of his hair on top of his house.
Anyway, thanks you all for responding. I will try and take some pictures this evening and post them. It may possibly be a combination of the backflips and a little bit of chewing from his cage mate. By the way, does anybody know why some chins backflip? My backflipper is a mosaic and I've heard that many mosaics and whites act a little odd.

 

[obcsed]

Is the top of the cage covered? The backflipper I had here stopped flipping as soon as I covered the top of the cage. I think it has something to do with their worry about something swooping in from above. Make the cage a bit more cave like ie cover the top and some of the side and see if that helps. The wheel was also a big help.

 

[chinchillachris]

I have a board I can put on the top of the cage to try and cover it. As for the wheel, I used to have one but he never really went in it. But, i had to remove it because the wheel I had attached to the side of the cage and after a while would cause the cage bars to break (I have a CritterNaion cage which is kind of infamous for fragile bars). Do you have a wheel you can recommend? Maybe I can look into getting a saucer.

 

[obcsed]

I use cheap fleece blankets I find at the dollar stores or WalMart to cover mine. They are about $3. I prefer the Chin Spin for a wheel. If the bars tend to break with it, you can reinforce the mounts with a couple of pieces of aluminum flat stock. See http://nolachinrescue.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=118701326

Give him a lot of things to keep him busy like wood blocks, pumice, apple sticks and other small toys he can carry around. A couple of good hanging toys will keep him engaged too. Check out the suppliers on this site for some great toy ideas.

 

[akane]

Another cause which one of ours does occasionally is to get pee on their back. She uses her wheel to do it. Pee and then run and it splatters across her. She had spiky clumpy fur for a few weeks irregardless of dust baths. She no longer has a wheel until we can get her a flying saucer. A cage mate spraying or peeing off the edge of something, we have one that sits on the house and sprays backward to pee, could do the same thing.