New Chin Owner Mistakes

[RichInGB]

Seeing what other people changed, i'm guilty of having plastic shelves and using unfiltered water and I gave too many raisens. Now it's all wood shelves, reverse osmosis water, and plain cheerios for treats.

Rich

 

[Stackie]

Hmm...I didn't have plastic shelves but I did have a plastic bottom cage along with a plastic wheel. I bought Sunseed chinchilla food which was full of banana chips and raisins. Unfiltered water. Pretty much the basic stuff!

 

[KrisLynn]

I knew I wanted a chinchilla and when I found out the rescue had one... I adopted him that day and bought everything I needed that day AND THEN decided to do research when I got home.

My room was almost 90 degrees the day I brought him home... and I quickly found out from CnQ this was a HUGE HUGE problem. I had to buy a window unit the next day.

 

[SunshineChins]

Wow.. first mistakes.. that would have to be with my very first pair way back in 1993. There wasn't a whole lot of info back then and when I look back and see how I cared for them I cringe.

• Fed them guinea pig food, there was no chinchilla food I could find at the pet store and no internet yet to buy online.
• They were in a wire bottom cage with wire shelves with no toys, no chew things nada nothing.
• I didn't realize that they could not get hot and our temp. in the house was in the high 70s.

I did thankfully feed them hay and let them out for playtime and didn't put them in a plastic ball. I don't remember the pet stores selling plastic balls or there even being the big box pet stores then. Our pet store was a small mom and pop the next town over.

When I got back into chins in 2004 I found C&Q and was a lurker for years and realized what I needed to fix.

 

[TillyChinchilla]

I started out a little differently. I had 8 chins dumped on me and knew nothing, though I had guinea pigs, rats, rabbits, degus, most small animals. Spent the next few days doing hours of research, and made changed to what they came with (wire wheels, no hay, bad shelving, plastic houses, greasy coats)

I'm very lucky to have learned what I have here

 

[Mystic]

I actually joined CnQ a few months I got my chinchilla so I could do my research. I'm glad too because someone at my work told me raisins were a great treat and the starter chinchillas cages at petco were awesome. I'm SO glad I didn't listen. I think one of my only mistakes was getting a small plastic pet carrier.

 

[TAF]

I had a solo chin for several years before I moved to multiples so most of my mistakes were made with her. My worst mistake was too many treats. She lived a long life but I attribute that to her own health and genetics. It makes me sad to think she might have lived even longer had I gotten a clue sooner.

 

[chinchewy1]

I was pretty lucky and found a good breeder right after I got my first chin. We were also lucky to have bought the right kind of cage and food already. And it was cold out so I didn't kill Speedy that way either. At the time raisins were the norm along with bananna chips, almonds and other goodies. But we soon reformed.. So I guess my biggest mistakes were in their treats.

 

[Harleychin]

I bought the ball of death.I think I used it once,he peed and pooed in the ball and got in his fur.
I also used to give my first chin raisins as a treat.
I'm so glad I know better now

 

[amsue0222]

Had the stupid run around ball-- the breeder sold it to me.
gave him raisins and dried fruit.
Wire Stupid wheel (again the breeder sold it to me)
Plastic cage
That is all I can think of right now but I am sure there is more.

 

[Idgie]

There weren't any websites about chins, in fact, I didn't even have the internet when I got my first chin. I read a book and did my best considering my first chin was a gift. I made a lot of the usual mistakes with feeding raisins, cheap food, etc. The biggest one I made was letting the chin run all over the house to play. In the beginning, it seemed to be okay except for the inconvenience of trying to get him out from under the furniture and a few chewed books. Then it was the electrical cords. But the last straw was when he bounced off a piece of drywall that was leaning on the wall and it fell on him. I thought that it killed him, but we got him to the emergency vet where they helped him to breathe through his swollen nose. It was quite a scare.

 

[chin_gal]

Ugh.. I'm not so sure I should even say. I got my first chinchilla when I was 11 years old, right after I lost my first pet (hamster). At the time, we didn't have any internet, so, no research was done. I wanted one because I saw one at the pet store my stepmom worked at, and after feeling how soft and seeing how cute they were, I just had to have one. I asked my dad after my mom's approval (divorced family), and he bought me one from a "breeder" he found through petsmart. My step-mom wanted the male they had there, and I got his sister. They told us to feed them guinea pig food, so that's what I fed them.. Luckly I didn't make the plastic mistake. But we had no idea about the temperature, and I remember it getting HOT somedays. Now I know, but I didn't then. All I can do is be thankful nothing happened to Lucy, which was her name, during those hot days. I never used the run around balls, but my step mom did. I always would get mixed fruit packages where I would feed the chins everything in it, many pieces at a time. I used Kaytee dust, and fed them all kinds of things from the petstore, including those large seed sticks. I never even fed them hay, except occasionally when I thought they'd enjoy it. Eventually I ended up with Schroeder, which was Lucy's brother, the one my step mom took. She didn't want him anymore. So, he had the same care Lucy did. Unfortunately, I didn't know these things were wrong until I was about 14 and started looking things up on the internet, and found the forum. By this time, Lucy had passed away from getting her foot caught in the inappropriate wire cage I had her in, but Schroeder? My buddy's still alive and doing well at the age of 13, which shocks me from the care he was given. I lucked out with Schroeder, but everyone PLEASE, do their research BEFORE getting their pet. If it wasn't for the 1"x.5" wire cage floor instead of the appropriate 1/2"x1/2" wire, I may had still had my baby girl. Now, I know I said no research was done, but I did have a chinchilla book from the petstore.. but you know what that information is worth...

All I can say is thank god I found this community! Now, 8yrs later, I have 10 happy and healthy chinchillas!

 

[Lisa]

Thankfully, I had found Chins & Quills prior to getting my chin, so I knew the basics. However, I didn't take into account that my chin could still gnaw on the things I had on top of his cage even though I thought he couldn't get to them. I had a plastic temp gauge, his plastic bath house, and boxes taped up with duct tape on top of his cage. He gnawed on everything. I forgot to look at things from a chin's view and not my own!

 

[Carol~Anne]

I remember now: It took me something like three plastic water bottles placed on the inside of the cage that got chewed and thrown out before I realized that I should place the water bottle on the 'outside' of the cage. Seems simple enough... looking back.

I also had the wire/mesh wheel that had poky thingies sticking out the sides and when my guy ran on it, it poked into his sides and spun his fur into wool. I replaced it with a Saucer and added a Chin Spin a bit later.

 

[andymilo]

thank god i discovered CnQ at about the time I got my baby...i am very new to the forum world lol....i didnt know there were forums on just about everything....luckily this one has been extremely helpful...I would say that for the first 2 weeks i fed my baby raisins a couple of times a week...it's surprising how often raisins are recommended on other sites...luckily i found out sooner rather than later....i also learned that when experienced owners and breeders tell u chinnies chew anything....you should listen...even things u never dreamed possible....laptops...shoes....mirror stands...etc lol

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Oh let me tell you I can list them lol I got my first 2 chins from my uncle who adopted them from his brother. His brother gave him info that he gave me. I did research and found out some of what he was doing was wrong.

Before I got them:
Treat = you name it they got it
No bedding
No wheel
No toys
Kaytee food
Kaytee Hay
Kaytee Dust
Water bowl
Death ball
Unfiltered water


Mistakes after I got them:
Treats = Nut/fruit mix that came with them
Mesh wheel
Kaytee Food
Kaytee Hay
Kaytee Dust
Plastic houses
unfiltered water
Plastic water bottles


Changed After Learning More:
Filtered water
Mazuri Pellets
Timothy's Hay
Blue Cloud Dust
Wood houses
No wheels (atm)
Safe treats
Toys out the woots
Was using aspen bedding now using fleece liners
Glass water bottles

 

[3CsMommy]

Crappy Hay
Raisins (though not many)
Not being a good enough door guard. I had a lot of escapes to deal with in the first year.

 

[Tulula]

I had plastic ledges in my first cage and fed raisins as treats. now its only wooden ledges and shredded wheat and oats for treats. oh yeah... tap water in the beginning and now only bottled water.

 

[hermajesty]

I originally found my very first chin on Chins and Quills randomly, so I was lucky to run into this site before I got my chin. Unfortunately, I still made lots of mistakes. The worst one was that I bought corn cob bedding for my chin and had the whole cage set up ready to bring Louis home and sat on Chins and Quills the whole evening reading up and was like...uh oh....had to scoop up all the bedding run to the petstore and switch to Carefresh. Now I use fleece liners. I also got a plastic ball, but read up on here that was a no no and never used it. I also had the wrong kind of hammoack at first that wasn't fleece and had long straps that were for a ferrett that chins could chew.

 

[XavierRox]

My chinnie was given to me in a plastic-shelved cage, with these removable ramps that he used for giant plastic chew sticks. I replaced the cage as fast as I could. It's not perfect, but it has wire shelves with a few wooden perches for his feet and a pull out tray for easy cleaning.
I was feeding him Kaytee food, I switched to Mazuri and Oxbow hay.
I was feeding him raisins as treats. Now I give him wooden chew sticks.
I kept him too close to the wall and he chewed a nice hole in it.
I used to frequently leave the cage unsecured and would find him bouncing around the house at 3 in the morning. Fixed that.