Hello! We're from Singapore! 🇸🇬 ♥️🧡💛

[diiyawn]

Hello! I'm diiyawn and I come from the small, sunny island known as Singapore. It's nice to meet everyone!

I'm the proud owner of 3 chinchillas but unfortunately 1 of them passed away last year.

Here are some information about my children!

1) Toto
Color: Standard Grey
DOB: Nov 2016
Died: Oct 2020
Age: 3 years 11 months old

Personality: Friendly & greedy, eats everything in sight, always asking for scritches, ear rubs and likes to bend over backwards to get my attention.

Extremely special because he's bought with my first paycheck. Relatively cuddly. A lovely round boy!

2) Chuchu
Color: Dark Ebony
DOB: Jan 2017
Age: 4 years 7 months old

Personality: Extremely independent, selective with his food, is a health junkie & rejects everything 'sweet' tasting. Loves herbs!

Not a cuddly soul but allows me to give scritches every once in a while. I've learnt to come to terms with that. I bought him with my second paycheck heh. He's also very slim but the vet said he's really healthy and will probably never grow fat in his life.

3) Riceball
Color: White Mosaic
DOB: Feb 2021
Age: 6 months old
Personality: Super duper greedy! Eats anything & everything. At the age where he puts everything into his mouth so I've gotten some nips & chomps.

Quite alright with humans and is the easiest to handle out of all the chins that I have. One week into our relationship and I can at least give head rubs. Fastest progress I ever made!!! A relatively round ball now.

~~~

It took me a few months (10 months to be exact) to move on from the death of my 1st chin (he was very special because I bought him with the very first pay check I received!) and to be honest I don't think I'll ever fully get over it.

However, I also knew that I wanted another chinchilla so after some lengthy pairing sessions for Chuchu, we've recently welcomed Riceball into the family.

It's been quite some time since I've dealt with a young-ish animal and it's been a pretty wild week so far! I enjoy reading through the information provided by this forum and look forward to learning more with everyone.

~~~

My chinchillas are currently on Sherwood Pellets & an unknown brand of Timothy Hay (I got it from the pet shop he came from). I add in Oxbow Oat Hay & Alfalfa Hay on alternative days to add variety. Just a small handful~

Other supplements that were recommended by the pet shop were Brytin Therabiotics, Kalahealth Probiotix Plus & Sherwood Small Animal Recovery (also known as SARx! - - - > this was recommended to me to ensure he got enough nutrition even in his early stressful days in my house. It's fed as approximately 20% of his diet with the rest being hay & pellets)

~~~

I must say that I'm super jealous of the resources & community that most of you guys have overseas as Singapore has quite a limited selection (I want to buy healthy treats & hay cookies too!!! )

I've been lurking these few days reading up on Chinchilla cookies recipes and just purchased a blender online so we'll see how that goes

~~~

Should anyone have any advice on how to help a growing chinchilla gain more weight healthily, please share it with me! I'm ashamed to share that I wasn't so well educated with my first 2 chinchillas so I did not do the basics such as weighing my chins and tracking their progress so I don't have anything to refer to. I have tried to start on it with Riceball at least!

It took about 5 days or so for him to be comfortable enough for me to minimally handle him so I only started weighing him yesterday.

He was 428g yesterday and 440g today! Not sure if a 12g increase is considered average?

~~~

Anyways, thanks for reading till the end! As you can tell, I talk a lot because I always have questions & I'm always wondering about things. I'll stop for now and continue reading through the threads heh. Cheers!

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Toto 01


Toto 02


Chuchu & Riceball 01


Chuchu & Riceball 02


Chuchu & Riceball 03


Riceball 01

 

[Amethyst]

Welcome, sorry to hear about your first chin, sad when they pass so young. I just lost one myself in June, but he was over 14 years old so at least he was getting up there in years, and I still have his twin brother.

You shouldn't need any supplements if feeding a good quality pellet, the ones currently recommended by pet owners are, Oxbow Essentials, Mazuri, and Science Selective. Sherwood is not normally advised, but it depends on who you ask (it doesn't look as bad as it use to), maybe that is why you are recommend to add supplements when feeding it. Brand of timothy doesn't really matter, hay is just one ingredient so the best is what they will eat. The primary diet should be hay, about 70+% of the diet, and mostly timothy, other hay can be added as a treat but alfalfa should be limited if given at all, like a small handful total every week or two. It's high in calcium and protein, which can cause urinary tract stones in some chins. For chins over 6 months they should get about 2 tb of pellets, but no need to restrict it to that unless they are overweight or not eating hay, I just like to measure so I can tell if they are eating and how much. Kits under 6 months should have unlimited pellets, as well as unlimited timothy and alfalfa hay, that's it, they should get all the nutrients they need from the pellets. After 6 months they can also have treats added to the diet (let me know if you need a safe treat list).

It's a good idea to keep a weight record of all your chins, even past being kits, commonly one of the first signs that something is wrong is weight loss. Try to aim for about once a week or at least once a month, no need to do it daily past the first few months. It's also a good idea to weigh them at the same time each time, their bladder and stomach can each hold about 5-10g so if the chin has just drank, ate, peed, or pooped that can all effect the weight, so a fluctuation (up or down) of up to about 20g is normal if you don't catch them at the same "fullness" lol. Past 6 months they also slow down on growing, but should still be gaining for about another year or so (ebony mutations tend to take up to two years reach full size).

 

[Chinmin]

Hello, diiyawn, any updates on Chuchu and Riceball? Thanks.

 

[TTtheChin]

Awww! They're super adorable!