Fur Chewing question

[mishellyshel]

I am chinsitting 7 chinnies this week (got a full house!!) and one of them is a fur chewer. I was wondering if additional dust baths would help this problem?
i havent seen him actually chewing and my son is home 1/2 days this week so i am around them alot. maybe he does it at night??
None of my boys chew their fur so i have NO experience with this.
anyway was just wondering dusting more often would deter him from chewing in addition to making his fur look better. i call him chunky cause his fur is well......kinda chunky.

 

[Riven]

Chewing can be genetic or environmental. Did the chewing start before moving? Offer lots of alternate chewing things, sticks, toys, lots of hay. Additional baths will help his coat look nicer, but probably not affect the chewing.

 

[Brittany]

I am chinsitting 7 chinnies this week (got a full house!!) and one of them is a fur chewer. I was wondering if additional dust baths would help this problem?
i havent seen him actually chewing and my son is home 1/2 days this week so i am around them alot. maybe he does it at night??
None of my boys chew their fur so i have NO experience with this.
anyway was just wondering dusting more often would deter him from chewing in addition to making his fur look better. i call him chunky cause his fur is well......kinda chunky.

7 chins plus your 9? Dang Michelle, you should consider opening up a chinnie hotel ;-) Hope you have a wonderful week with all those crazy chins.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

Boy have you be busy!!! I really don't think an extra dust bath would help. Usually a chewer is a chewer. Sometimes they stop but you often don't even know why they stopped.

 

[Essentia]

I tried pretty much everything with my chewer, and more dust baths didn't help.

 

[mishellyshel]

she uses the pdz as dust, i know in the past she has used blue cloud. do you think the better dust would help?? i can give her some of mine.

also........specifically for those that have fur chewers......do you often see them chewing??? or is this something they do in private.

i have spoiled him a bit & given him some of my wood and hay and put some different items in his cage to encourage him to chew other things beside himself!

 

[Riven]

You don't see them do it, it will take months before you notice a difference unless you pluck the fur where it's been chewed. PDZ is just not dust. I know some people use it, and if it's for allergy reasons I understand, if it's just because you're cheap, that's not fair to the chins. It's like the difference between a fully loaded shower and a cup of water and a bar of lye soap...

 

[feistychins]

You usually don't see a chin chew his fur. I wonder if he did it before she started using the PDZ? I wonder if that is irritating for him? If giving extra dust baths stopped chins from chewing their fur, that would be the miracle everyone is looking for....if it were only that simple.

 

[mishellyshel]

okay thanks. she is picking them up tomorrow so i will mention the dust and the additional chews and any other advice.

 

[SarahKay]

You usually don't see a chin chew his fur. I wonder if he did it before she started using the PDZ? I wonder if that is irritating for him? If giving extra dust baths stopped chins from chewing their fur, that would be the miracle everyone is looking for....if it were only that simple.

That's weird because I always see my chin chewing. He sticks out his arm and pulls out his fur right in front of me. I try to make noise and startle him out of it but he only looks up for half a second before resuming his chews.