Need to fatten her up!

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lrdst64

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Just got back from the vets. My daughter's chin Ebony had her leg amputated a month ago and she keeps losing weight. Right now she is at 350. The vet said she should be at about 450. She has on an ecollar so I am sure that has to do with alot of it, but we let her go without the collar a few times a day and moniter her carefully so she will eat. What can I do to fatten her up? She will eat hay, a raisin a day, and sometimes she will eat the pellets, but that is about it. I bought sunflower seeds and she hated them. Any suggestions?
 
skip the raisins & any type of seeds.
go to www.chocolatechinchillas.com and get some lifeline & dyne. i use lifeline everyday for my chin with malo & about every other day for my new rescue.
dyne is a high caloric supplement that is sweet & can be syringe fed. it's purpose is to add weight.
give her free range of both food & hay. for a daily treat, alternate one of the following: rosehips, cheerios, unfrosted shredded wheat, steel cut oats. also many members on here make chin safe cookies that can be given as a treat.
 
Don't know what pellets you're using, but PANR put 10 - 15% on my herd, after a Mazuri/Calfmanna mix!
 
I am definitely going to get that dyne stuff- she LOVES to be fed from a syringe for some reason, and I was just saying today I wish they had protein shakes for chinchillas. I do have the shredded wheat but she doesn't like it that much.

Where do you get PANR? I am just using the Vita Prima chinchilla formula- it's pretty much all they had in the pet store.

Can she gnaw on a baby carrot? I offered her one and she gobbled it up, but don't want to make it a habit if it's not good for her.

Thank you so much- if you can think of anything else let me know. Her vet today said I can feed her lettuce and leafy greens but I thought I heard somewhere else that is not good for them?
 
Fresh veggies are not good for chins. It can cause bloat. I don't think 1 will harm her. Just for future reference. :)
 
PANR is called Purina Advanced Nutrition Rabbit, you get it at any purina feed dealer. I'd call around the phonebook and see if you can scare up a dealer (as in the ones that serve up livestock feed), then see if they have it in and how old it is. This time of year it's touch and go with the quality, if the bag is more than a month old get whatever they cycle through the fastest. Usually the green bag. Same feed without the veggie oils and acidophilus. There's also Tradition, it will be at a non-purina dealer, don't know who does that one.

I am just using the Vita Prima chinchilla formula- it's pretty much all they had in the pet store
I've been given this with rescues for years and I've never actually seen a chin eat it. All I can figure is it doesn't taste good.

I imagine once you get her on a more palatable food she'll fatten right up. Be warned that the above bags only come in the 50# models. They only cost $10-$15 so quite a bang for your buck there.
 
Well, she may need to be syringe fed. When my chins wouldn't eat because he was recovering from an illness, he was syringe fed with Critical Care. I believe you can only buy Critical Care from the vet (not commercially available). Ask your vet if s/he carries it. I had 2 different ones: normal & apple-flavored. I'd mix them sometimes so he wouldn't get bored with liquid food.
 
no to the fresh veggies.
you would be better off ordering PANR from someone online because feed stores only sell it in 50 lb bags. I buy 25 lb bags of mazuri for 3 chins and i still have to donate a lot of it, i also buy PANR and mix it with Mazuri. I know Essentia is selling it very cheap right now and she has awesome cookies that chins love and will help fatten up.
It is good to have critical care on hand and you probably should supplement her with some to get her weight up. You can get it from the vet but also Menagerie sells it here and it benefits her rescue. She has a banner at the top of the page and has the best prices. make sure you get the apple bannana as most chins like that better than the regular.
 
I just saw an add on here for some reasonable PANR - look through the 'supplies for sale' section.
 
Just looked - it's Essentia having the sale - that $20 package is a real deal!!
 
I was just saying today I wish they had protein shakes for chinchillas.
Critical care which you can get from your vet or from menagerie on here is like a protein shake for chinnies :)). I would definitely be syringe feeding since she can't eat normally with the collar and it is probably a little daunting to eat normally with people watching lol.

Where do you get PANR? I am just using the Vita Prima chinchilla formula- it's pretty much all they had in the pet store.
The feed store or a member on here is the best place to get it. If you only have one chin getting it from a member may be your best bet since you don't want to have more than you can use in 6 months after which it can lose some of its nutritional value.

Can she gnaw on a baby carrot? I offered her one and she gobbled it up, but don't want to make it a habit if it's not good for her.
Fresh carrots are not good for chins. Any fresh vegetables and food loaded with sugars can upset a chinchilla's GI tract. Opinions do vary on this but the majority stick with what has been the rule for many years, that a quality pellet, hay, and fresh clean water are the only things they need.

Good luck to your chinnie and you!
 
Wow I am so glad I joined here. You guys are great. Writing down all the names and will start ordering tomorrow and try to find the PANR locally. I still might just try a few to see which one she likes the most.

Thanks again!
 
Don't feed anything with "treats" in it. You may be able to get Mazuri or Oxbow pellets at the pet store, just check the date on the bag since they seem to sit there for a while sometimes. When you do a feed switch you have to do it slowly so as not to upset your chin's GI tract so find a feed your chin likes and does well on and stick with it. With a less than healthy feed you can speed up the process but watch for any signs of changed stool and slow it down if things get wonky.

The general rule of switch is:
75% old feed and 25% new feed the first week,
50% old feed and 50% new feed the second week,
25% old feed and 75% new feed the third week,
100% new feed the fourth week
 
When my chin was sick, I'd coat 2 of his pellets with Nutri-stat as daily treats.
 
Just did some calling around- Petsmart does have Mazuri. I am going to go with that because I want to get her on something quickly, and the other stuff takes too much time to order. She has an infection going on now too from the surgery site and I have to go get some more antibiotics for her today- don't want to have her overloaded on too many new things all at once.

If anyone has some advice on the infection I could sure use it. She was doing so good, now all of a sudden pus is oozing out of two different places on her wound.
 
If she has an infection and they put her on Baytril, make sure and give her something after you give her the oral Baytril. The Baytril tastes horrible so it tends to make chins stop eating, which is the last thing you need with her weighing so little. So if you do get Baytril, you can chase it down with a piece of raisin. Don't be overloading her on raisins or anything as the sugar isn't good for them, but one after the medicine will be fine to get rid of the horrible taste. Also, Baytril kills off their bacteria in their digestive system that digests their food. So you're going to need to get some probiotic to give to her about 4 hours after giving the Baytril. This will help get the bacteria back up. You can get probiotics at health food stores, you want either a capsule that you break open onto their food or a tablet. Just make sure that the active bacteria count in them is in the billions.

Also, I would get some Critical Care from your vet if they have it, in case she does stop eating completely. Most chins it seems prefer the Apple Banana flavor. If your vet doesn't carry it, you can order it online. It's a food replacement and also has probiotics in it.

Perhaps they will prescribe a different antibiotic, as there are others that aren't as horrible on the chin's digestive system as Baytril, but that's up to your vet.
 
When I posted I figured that most common chin owners are not going to be getting the injectable kind, as most aren't comfortable giving their chin a shot when needed.
If you do get the injectable kind, you also do run the risk of burning where the injection site is and causing an ulcer. I believe that they can dilute the baytril to help prevent this though.

So this is why I spoke of the oral Baytril.
 
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Oh, no- she LOVES the antibiotic! I give it to her twice a day with a syringe. It's doxycycline and it is tutti fruity flavored. i get it from a special pharmacy the vet uses- they only make compound prescriptions- nothing bought from drug companies.
 
Thanks Allie. I hadn't thought of that.

It's good to know that your chin likes the meds. It makes things so much easier.
 
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