Diet/Weight concerns?

[brittiny]

My first Chin, Dr. Death, was on Fiesta(?) for the first month we had him. After that point, i had done my own research about good chin food so I switched him to Mazuri. That summer we got Morgan Freeman (his breeder in Texas said he was on a rabbit pellet, but didn't say if it was PANR or not) and we switched him over to Mazuri, too.

Then I joined this fourm. I would read about people who experienced soft poops from Mazuri, but i never did so i didn't worry. Then i did begin to notice the every now and then there would be a soft poop, and one occasion some made poop soft enough to smear on the wheel. I decided to switch and ordered PANR online (jeremy bought a bag of OXvrow from Petsmart, so incorporated it with the PANAR so it wouldn't go to waste). I haven't noticed another small soft poop since the switch and they are completely off Mazuri.

This was around the end of January and we finely got around to buying a scale so I weighted them. They eat twice as much food as they did before ans they gained weight, but for my last weight in they lost weight. The cage is in our room now so I watch them both eat so i know one of them isn't starving himself.Is this normal or are they just evening out?

Here's there weight from Jan:

1/17/10 Morgan Freeman 574g
Dr. Death 484g
1/24/10 M.F 580g
D.D 491g
2/1/10 M.F 580g
D.D 496g
2/20/10 M.F 580g
D.D 502g
3/11/10 M.F 556g <this is a 24g difference. should i be worried?
D.D 500g

I'm not sure what a good weight is for them. Am I doing this right?

 

[Parkerspetchins]

I would not worry yet. 24g is not very difficult to explain away, ate less one or two days, drank less, exercised more...I would just keep an eye on him. If he continues to go down and or he has changes in his output, energy level, appearance then I would get him checked out. At this point I don't think there is enough to warrant the possibly stressful vet visit.

 

[Cuddlebug]

I agree, I wouldn't worry about it unless the weight loss continues.

 

[mishellyshel]

Also weighing at the same time of day makes a difference. I always weigh mine at night before I clean their cages.

 

[brittiny]

we always dust after 9 when everyone else is asleep because we dust them in the area behind the kitchen counter so dust doesn't get in the carpet on in our room because of my allergies. We weigh them right before we let them play and dust.

I just wanted to make sure i wasn't doing something wrong.

 

[Spoof]

Chins gain and loose a lot over the course of a year. It is normal to see a 50g weight variance for chins the size of yours, some of my larger ones will go up and down over 100g.