Excited new chin owner, few questions

[Brstin2flames]

Hi, I am new to the world of Chinchillas and recently purchased my little guy named Sketch over the weekend. I have a few new owner questions as I want to be sure I am provided my buddy with the best care I can!

First, I currently have Planet Petco Crumbled Paper bedding in his cage. This is what the employee at Petco recommended to me and what they use in their Chins cages, but I know sometimes Petco employees can be clueless. Is this an ok bedding for him? I did notice last night he seemed to be grabbing bedding pieces and nibbling on them. Is this safe?! Is there something better I should switch to?

Second, I'm concerned my chin isn't drinking. I marked the bottle with a piece of tape and it just didn't seem to be going down at all the first 4 days I had him. I revisited Petco to see the type of bottle they used and noticed the bottle was mounted inside the cage so I switched my mount inside. Luckily this morning it looks like he may have taken a few sips. Should I be worried?

Lastly, when I spend time next to his cage to get him used to me I've noticed him making light peeping sounds similar to a guinea pig. I'm hoping this is a happy noise! Any help you guys can provide would be amazing. Thanks so much!

 

[akane]

The bedding is fine. I find the other brands besides carefresh to be rather dusty though. It's also a clumpy, heavy dust and it's caused some of my animals to get runny noses from irritation.

The water problem may just be he didn't know how to find the bottle with it outside the cage. It's more noticeable inside. I've also had several not drink or eat much for the first few days until they've settled in and then everything suddenly goes down a lot to make up for it.

The squeaky noises are conversation. Especially made by young chins but some adults are talkative too. They'll squeak that they want attention, friendship, "don't hurt me", "i don't want touched"... The number of noises, length, and other things tell you if they are happy squeaks or negative squeaks. You have to learn your chinchillas. All the chins seem to calm down if one of the older ones makes this series of squeaks that sounds like a warbling noise. They mostly do it when very young ones are squeaking a lot and then often the young ones do it back and everyone settles down. I wish I knew how to mimic that cause for reasons I can't figure out mine have been rather nervous lately.

One other important thing that pet stores are horrible for is what to feed chins. You should have a plain pellet with none of the dried fruit and colored bits mixed in. If you can't find oxbow or mazuri some use rabbit pellets from the feed store like nutrena or manna pro.

 

[Brstin2flames]

Thanks so much for the response. Petco did tell me about how much protein and fiber etc they need. We currently have Carefresh complete menu food that the only extra stuff in it is little heart shaped "biscuits" and hay pieces, no fruits. I have been doing research and plan to switch to Oxbow gradually. I also noticed hes been picking out the little biscuits over the pellets so when I put food in for him I've been limiting how many there are in the bowl vs. how many pellets so he doesn't only eat the "tasty" stuff!

The Planet petco crumbled paper doesn't seem too dusty but I will keep a look out for any runny noses. My biggest concern was the eating of the bedding, I'm worried about impactions occurring, is that possible?

 

[EternallyCynical]

If he's eating the bedding, its probably not good to keep using the recycled paper. I've heard others warning against using CareFresh if the chins are prone to eating it, I stopped using it with my guy because he was eating it and it was messy. Aspen or kiln dried pine shavings can be used instead and shouldn't cause problems if he nibbles them. Lots of people (myself included) use fleece as bedding instead of shavings or recycled paper, and that's an option. If you're not much of a sewer or can't get good polar fleece in your area, there are people on here who make custom fleece liners and other things for Ferret Nation and Critter Nation cages, but if you don't have one of those and no one will customize to your cage's dimensions, it could be tricky unless you have a sewing machine, although if you've got a fleece chewer than fleece won't be a good plan. Can't go wrong with aspen shavings though

 

[akane]

Eating small amounts should not cause a problem. It's no different than the ones who chew on a bit of cardboard and lots of people use cardboard for things. Usually animals give up eating the paper bedding after a few days. Fleece is greatly preferred though. You don't have to sew or anything. We just buy a yard, fold in half, set on the FN or CN tray, and fold the extra bits over. Sometimes I put chiller tiles or bricks on the folded edges for the ones who like to pull the fleece up. Some like to pack their houses with squishy piles of fleece.