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I noticed that my new chin, Chinzia, still is not using her litter pan. She must have sat in her urine because now her bottom is full of matted hairs. What do I do?
My new chin has mess on her bottom
- Thread starter ARS3358
- Start date
Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:
You can clean her up with unscented baby wipes or a damp towel, then dry her and give her a dust bath. Keep an eye on it too make sure it's just pee and not fluid discharge which can indicated an infection. Also did she pee on a shelf? or are you using tile or fleece for the flooring? If using fleece you do need to make sure you wick the fleece before using it, so it's absorbent, and don't use any fabric softener or detergent with fabric softener when washing it. If using tile though, since she isn't litter trained you will need to wipe up the pee as quickly as possible throughout the day.
Also not all chins will pee in a litter box, it really is more a situation of you put the pan of shavings where they already have chosen to pee. If they don't already have a spot they prefer to pee then it can be hard or even impossible to get her to pee in one spot. They aren't like cats that want to pee in the litter to bury their waste, it's more they pee in the pan because it just happened to be where they want to pee. You can try to encourage her to pee in the pan though, basically every time she pees outside the pan soak some if it up with some shavings and put it in the pan, then clean up the rest. Most chins will eventually catch on, and pee in the pan at least most of the time, but it can take weeks or even months to "train" them, and they can decide one day they don't feel like peeing in a pan anymore for no reason. You can also put a smooth rock in the pan, big enough for the chin to sit on, for some reason a lot of chins like to sit on rocks to pee.
Also not all chins will pee in a litter box, it really is more a situation of you put the pan of shavings where they already have chosen to pee. If they don't already have a spot they prefer to pee then it can be hard or even impossible to get her to pee in one spot. They aren't like cats that want to pee in the litter to bury their waste, it's more they pee in the pan because it just happened to be where they want to pee. You can try to encourage her to pee in the pan though, basically every time she pees outside the pan soak some if it up with some shavings and put it in the pan, then clean up the rest. Most chins will eventually catch on, and pee in the pan at least most of the time, but it can take weeks or even months to "train" them, and they can decide one day they don't feel like peeing in a pan anymore for no reason. You can also put a smooth rock in the pan, big enough for the chin to sit on, for some reason a lot of chins like to sit on rocks to pee.
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Thanks again for your help. I did put the pan where she was peeing, but now she seems to pee all over the place. What does "wick the fleece" mean?
Wicking is where you wash the fleece a few times to get the original fabric softener chemicals off it. Most fleece is coated in them, which makes the fleece look nice and feel extra soft, but makes the fleece not absorbent, so when the chin pees it creates a puddle rather then absorbing into the fleece.
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Oh thank you, yes guilty as charged. I need to wash it more.
