New Chin not active

[niknoo76]

So last Saturday we bought our new chinchilla Penny from Pets at Home (not recommended I know), and I'm a little worried she is very lethargic. I have a few questions if people could help out with that would be great.

1. Is penny actually a Sheldon?? When she has been out running about I can see a pinkish/red triangle/cone shape hanging between her legs. She won't let us near her long enough to examine but this hangs quite low.

2. She doesn't seem to move about to much and when she does she bangs into a lot of things. Is this normal?

3. How active should a 16 week old chinchilla be?

Any help would be great, thanks x

 

[alooper19]

1. We would have to see a picture to know help tell the sex of the chin. You can also look up in the forum, I know others have asked that same question and there were sources to help you identify the sex of the chin!

2 and 3. I'm guessing she is getting used to the cage. She is probably confused because she's not in the same environment she was. If she's banging into things... Maybe she's blind? I'm not too sure about that though.

I would just leave her in her cage, let her get used to her surroundings. To help her do this, I would suggest not playing with her much. Let her get use to her cage and do stuff around her cage so she gets used to you being around. Then you can open the cage and lay your hand in there and see if she comes to you. Don't force her because she might freak out. Give it time! It's only been a week!

Hope this helps!

 

[niknoo76]

Thank you for replying. I'll try and snap a pic but it's like she knows. We have bought a playpen tonight and using a carry cage to get her from her cage to the pen and she seems to like this more than picking her up. X

 

[Newt]

What's the temperature at your place? Lethargy could indicate it is too hot for her.
Yeah you'd need to put up a pic before we can decide if you have a girl or a boy!
Not sure about the banging into stuff though. That does sound a bit odd.

 

[niknoo76]

It's always about 18 degrees at our place. I bought a room thermometer to keep an eye on it so it didn't get too hot. I'm just mega worried that she doesn't to have much energy. She will have little bursts but then stop and pant (her chest goes up and down quite noticeably). I'm probably just being a worrier so I have booked her in to see a vet on 22nd march to get her checked over x

 

[Cheech]

Chins do breath pretty hard, so that's normal. Although that thing you describe between her legs is what I'm concerned about. But the best thing you could do is make sure shes eating her hay/pellets and visit that vet.