Chinchilla won't eat his pellets

[jkiveisx]

Hi Guys,

I hope anyone had a similar problem as I do and could help.
My chinnie had a head injury (he got stepped on by my husband) about a month ago and had difficulties chewing on hard things such as pellets, woods, etc.
We took him to an exotic animals vet and he have been examined and Xrayed by some mouth & jaw specialist and there are no signs of fractures or broken teeth and bones. In fact his teeth are in perfect shape and size.
He had a small sign of wounded area in the back of hismouth and we had to hand feed him. We don't have the Critical Care stuff where I live so the vet suggested we grind his pellets and add some mashed banana.
Since the injury he hasn't shown any signs of extreme stress and was and is always playful and happy.
Lately he is also chewing on wood and can eat pellets without any problem.
The thing is - he would not do that. He will eat a pellet or two and that's all!!
He never says no to hay and I give him timothy mixed with alfalfa hay. But he will not eat the pellets and waits for the syringe.
I tried to hand feed once a day instead of three times, but I noticed he lost weight (about 0.04 pounds - 17 grams) during the two day trial.
Another thing to mention is his poop seems thinner and more flat - no color change (dark brown as he always had) + normal amount.

What should I do about this situation? I don't want to starve him so his digestive system won't stop working, but I also want him to start eating his old food.

 

[ticklechin]

He eats hay and drinks the normal amount of water?

 

[jkiveisx]

Yes he eats hay and drinks water. The syringe food has water so he drinks a bit less than usual.


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[jkiveisx]

Update

I have noticed that he is pawing the mouth quite a lot after chewing his wood toys and pumice stone. Also when he chews on wood he seems to do it using his bottom incisors instead of the top ones and the signs on the wood look as if the teeth are not as sharp as before.
I checked his mouth and saw food stuck on the top incisors.
Now he is ignoring his pellets bowl completely, but his appetite has increased and he eats twice as much "Critical Care" now.
I tried resuming the pain killer syrup (he definitely LOVES that one), but I didn't see any change in his behavior so I didn't continue with that.
It's been over a month since the injury and he seems perfectly fine except for eating the pellets, it is driving me crazy!!
Any suggestions?

 

[ticklechin]

Without a diagnosis of the injury, you have no idea what "healing time" it needs. There are some cases when you just have to hand feed without a diagnosis which does drive you nuts but you have no choice-the teeth will overgrow when handfeeding is of a long duration so a filing may have to happen, there are some cases when they become addicted to being hand fed-but in this case you are listing classic dental symptoms which leads me to believe there is still a problem present physically not metally.

 

[jkiveisx]

I am doing some sort of physical therapy with him and giving him wood and other toys to chew on for about 30 minutes to wear the teeth down. He is willingly chewing on them and I don't see any signs of suffering when he's doing that. In addition I gave him the pellets "manually" and he took it and ate one without any problem, but seems like he is no longer interested in the pellets bowl anymore.


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