Found a dead animal in my chinchilla cage- ?? graphic

[jessonehundred]

sorry if this is at all disturbing to anybody but I have to explain it for answers

I noticed my chins had been pushing the hay from the shelves and onto the floor over the last week or so. I was cleaning it out and I noticed a clump of what I thought was chinchilla hair on the bottom of the cage. I picked it up (thankfully i had gloves on).. and was absolutely shocked to notice it was a dead animal. for some reason I assumed it was a dead mouse, and then my boyfriend asked if it was a baby chinchilla. It looks as if it has been there a while, it is very decomposed and flat. It has quite a bit of fur, and all i can see is a small tail and a little foot. It is about 2 1/2 inches long. I am very sad and disgusted, and scared of what it could be..

I determined it is either
a) a dead mouse that was somehow in the hay I had been giving them
b) one of them had a baby and it passed away without me knowing or realizing
or c) (although it looks too big to be a mouse that ive seen around here) it is a mouse that got in the cage and died????

I have a mom and her baby in the cage right now. the mom is 4 and the baby is 2. I know the mom is a girl (she had the baby) and the when I brought the baby to the vet when I got her, I was told she was a girl.

I am just very confused and wondering what people might think?
If they happen to have been wrong about the baby, and they did reproduce together, what are some signs that the mom could have been recently pregnant besides any obvious ones that I could have noticed???

thank you for any input... hope everyone is safe in the storm!!

 

[EMSChins]

Well without pictures it is hard to tell what it could be but it is not uncommon for mice or other rodents to be found in bags and/or bales of hay so that is a possibility.

 

[Luci]

This actually happened to me a month ago. I noticed some random clump of fur in Gizmo's cage and took it out. I realized it was a dead mouse. It totally stumped me as to HOW it got in there. I looked around the cage, and there was no blood so I didn't think an "attack" occurred. Turned out the mouse came from the bag of hay I was feeding.

Here's a few things to think about:
1. When did you last clean the cage? Depending on that time frame, you can determine if decomposition could've happened in that short amount of time. In my case, I had JUST cleaned Gizmo's cage 2 days before. There was no way "my" mouse could've died/decomposed in those 2 days. So I knew it was dead once it entered the cage.

2. Look at the mouse, if it has pieces of hay on it, it most likely came from the bag.

3. Check all areas of the cage for signs of blood, and check over your chins to see if blood is on them. If not, then its more than likely the animal was dead prior.

4. Keep in mind the location of the cage. Is it in an area prone to mice? Is it at a height where a mouse could jump in?

Regardless, clean the cage right now. Scrub it really well, clean wood, throw away any loose toys, etc. Perhaps taking a picture could help us determine if its a mouse or a dead kit.

 

[Sdo9396]

You could check to see if you could see the nipples on the mom which would indicate she had been pregnant or is currently pregnant. You could post clear close up pics of the baby's genitals and someone could sex the baby for you. Maybe you should separate them until you find out for sure the sex.

 

[jessonehundred]

ty

I really appreciate the responses!
I have no camera at the moment so I can't provide a picture, but the last time I cleaned the cage was a little over a week ago. I want to assume it is a mouse, because it looks quite decomposed. The only thing that was freaking me out was the coloring, it was similar to my chins, with the white underneath and different layers of color, but the foot was very small, and ive always laughed out how big chinchilla feet/legs are, so I am going to conclude it must have come from my hay. I will definitely be cleaning and sanitizing the cage today.

I think I was just very shocked at the time it happened, and needed some other opinions since my parents just said "aww, thats sad" and didnt understand why I would be concerned.

 

[Spoof]

It is not uncommon to find dead mice in bales of hay - not sure how you get yours, but we get a few (that I notice) every year with the horses.

 

[starleomach]

I have found a dead mouse in hay before.

 

[jessonehundred]

good to know this is more common that i thought! it just really freaked me out.
I usually get my hay from a local store that keeps it very fresh and reliable, but they were closed due to the storm, so I had to make a visit to Petco. (nothing against petco I suppose, i just prefer to support other small/local/quality stores)
So I am thinking the mouse came from a bag of Kaytee Timothy.

 

[alli713]

I guess I would be shocked to find a mouse in the bag of hay from Kaytee! I always find more random things in the bales of hay I get from the feed store, seems like the bagged hay from the pet stores is more "clean" for lack of a better word. But I guess it would be possible.. You could always look up pictures of baby chins, and see if it resembled one at all. I'm pretty sure there's graphic pictures of dead ones as well in the breeding and babies section as well if you need to compare.

 

[starleomach]

The best way to be sure look at the tail...a chinchilla baby would not have had a mouse type tail