Hair around back legs is short and patchy

[dyanaf]

Hello!

This is my first post, but Ive been reading the board for several weeks in preparation of buying a chin.

Last week my wife and I finally bought a wonderful female. The breeder says she is 8 months old and warned us that she was a little "skittish" and would take some extra 1x1 time to calm down. We were totally ok with that, as we expect to give her a lot of attention.

She was right, the chin is a little fussy, but nothing we werent prepared for. We just love her very much and can be patient waiting for her to settle down.

However, I am worried about the hair on her hind legs. It looks almost like you would expect a dog that is shedding to look. I've read people mention fur chewing, but never actually seen a picture or even know what the cause is. I tried to take a photo, but she wouldnt sit still long enough to get a good photo. On the rear leg, at the bottom where there is white hair, that hair is actually a good 2-3 millimeters longer then the hair just above it.

This is the best photo I have: http://imgur.com/sPM5z

Is this something I should be worried about? I've never seen her bite at the area or even do anything special there, so I dont know if it's just normal for her or if something is wrong.

Also, that is a 9" pie pan (We bought a "house" thingy for her baths, but she would never come out of it, so I switched to the pan) and she seems awfully large for 8months. I dont have a scale yet, so I cant say exactly how much she weighs. I know its difficult to tell, but does she look normal size for her age?

Thanks for any help, really looking forward to life with our new chin!

 

[tunes]

That looks like she's fur chewing. They generally tend to target their hind quarter areas first and some move up from there. I have never caught a chin fur chewing. I'm guessing they do the majority of it during their more active times, when we generally aren't around or awake.

Was she caged with someone else that could have chewed her? Or did this just start happening while she was in your home?

 

[dyanaf]

It was already there and I dont have any details about her situation before we got her.

Is there any reason to be alarmed? Or is it just an appearance problem? Im kind of worried about the reason for it though...

 

[mistywaterwoman]

Fur chewing can be a genetic trait, but most times it is just a response to stress. (Think about a human chewing down their finger nails.)
Her cage looks a bit too small from that photo, it looks very narrow. My best advice would be to put her in a bigger cage, give her lots of toys to chew instead of her fur, and to generally let her have a bit more privacy while she is settling in to her new home.
Chins develop a lot more trust in their owners if you let them do it on their own terms instead of forcing it.
Check out the behavior section of my website www.petchinchillas.info for more tips.

 

[ticklechin]

Chins don't chew because of small cages, if that was true ranch chins would not BE in small cages.

A better website that belongs to a forum leader that does not have errors or incorrect info in it is http://www.chinnation.com/, you won't go wrong following the advice there.

 

[dyanaf]

Well, I guess that settles that, and there's no immediate worry? I can just keep doing what we're doing and make sure she's becoming comfortable. That's a nice relief.

Im not sure the cage is too small, though I definitely want to upgrade at some point. It's 18" wide, 28" long and 24" tall. We'll probably invest in one of the larger martin's in a month or so anyways. But, she had the fur problems before we got her, so the cage didnt cause anything, but obviously it might not be helping.

Anyways, thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it!

 

[ticklechin]

Sometimes chewing will start when a chin is moved to a large cage from a small one, they start and stop chewing because the wind blows, know one knows why they start and stop, they still make great pets.

 

[tunes]

Small cage size has absolutely nothing to do with fur chewing. Anyone who breeds in runs will laugh at that "fact." Fur chewing IS genetic. All it takes is a little something to set it off. Chins don't fur chew because they are bored or because the wind blows in from the west. They chew because it is programmed into them.

Fur chewing pretty much just affects the aesthetics of a chin. They have a funky hair cut that can be hard to look at for some folks, but they don't get hair balls or any of the other myths that are out there.

I really don't understand why people would be referred away from this website to another one. Any information you can find there, you can find here, and you can get opinions from other owners who have experienced the same thing.

 

[ticklechin]

My 17 year old fur chewer chewed since he was a 10 week old kit, he never had any heath issues because of it nor was there any prediction on starting or stopping. He would chew for a few months, stop for a year and repeat. Its genetic IMO set off by whatever like Tunes said. He always had a large cage, chew toys, outside playtime and lived the good life.