New Chin Owner Mistakes

[dabou]

I was told by a BREEDER that feeding him raisins was okay, I read a rather sasd story on CnQ and immediately banned them raisins, now he gets unsweetened cheerios. I'm planning on buying rose hips for him too, because I think the pet store "crock herbs" are giving him soft poo issues...I dunno, I'll make a post about it XD

He has a plastic bottomed cage, but he's not eating it up...Though I am planning on getting him a new cage, all wired. I was actually planning on buying a ferret cage, remove the plastic shelves and put wooden ones. those thick ones that I'd make sure would be safe for him, and without any treatment on em. That's the plan, though I'll make sure everything's safe before buying anything

Aside from that, I was feeding him pellets and dried banana mix, which I found out later were really bad, so I switched to Mazuri and he loves it! He has apple branches as treats too ^_^

 

[Illusion]

As a newby, I can say I've made a view mistakes, but knowing I'm not the only one helps. I have had my two for two days now, so I am learning what not to do, before any damage is done. I love forums like this, and am really happy I found this one, I'm gonna spend as much time here as I do on my Rabbit forum.

 

[LannyCoop]

I am sure learning a lot here which is awesome.
I was wondering if anyone has heard of living world brand
of food and hay... any thought in it??

 

[Sasha]

The hay would probably be okay but I wouldnt recommend the food. Most petstore foods just contain a lot of junk, so better to stick with the high quality feeds or find a mill near you. I dont know where in Canada you are located, but you can find high quality food from someone like Serena (lilchinchilla on here) on the West coast, and www.chinchilla.ca on the East coast. Some good brands include Mazuri, Reidstra and Oxbow.

As for hay, I order my Oxbow hay from canadian pet connection. But if for some reason I run out, I have used the living world hay before. I dont know what brand it is, but I saw that they now offer orchard/brome/botanical hay like Oxbow has, but it's a different brand.

 

[Lil_Branchette]

living world brand
of food and hay... any thought in it??

Yes! The pet store I work at sells it. It seems ok, but I've never used it before. We just used the Living World houses for our animals on sale. However, lots of people who come buy our merchandise like this brand, and lots of people buy stuff from it...

 

[LannyCoop]

Yeah I am in the west, and its pretty much the only brand I can
find in store, that and charlie chinchilla but i dont think thats good??
He seems to like the food... but if theres something better
maybe I should look into it.

 

[Sasha]

In which case, I would recommend PMing lilchinchilla. I order my feed from her, and shipping isn't bad at all.

 

[Essentia]

LannyCoop, I also sell two different types of feed. Mazuri and PANR. I can fit 11 lbs. in a flat rate shipping priority shipping box, so I try to get you the best deal I can. Just click on the link in my signature to go to my page where you can order if you decide to.

As for mistakes I made, I thought of a few more since my first post.

Plastic shelves
Pleastic cup to hold food in
Too many treats (though they were rosehips and such).

 

[CTChin]

My biggest mistake as a new chin owner was feeding my guys 3 raisins each every night! This was before I got a computer many years ago and all I had to rely on are books...many with bad information. I also believed the pet store owner when he said the chin I was buying was a violet. Turns out she was a dark tan! LOL

 

[seachin]

Well, since I always research everything before I buy it....I luckily came across the old C n Q website and I actually havent changed anything. thanks to everybody for their good advice! yay!

 

[Cuddlebug]

Placing heavy crocks, houses, etc. on upper levels without securing them in some way.

 

[Chin_r_great]

I am still new so there maybe more mistakes that happen while being a chin owner but one mistake that I really remember and stands out is when I gave my girl a to small of cage so she started to yelp and became nippy. I have her in a bigger cage now and now I have learned that she enjoys activities where she can hop around and sweat a little. She is very energetic but I love her so much!
Al

 

[Chingal]

Let's see if I can remember it was so long ago!! But pretty much if it was wrong I did it, I was 13 when I got my first chinchilla I ma 33 now!! They were from a pet store ( a few were totally missexed! and were probably related!) but I had them in 55 to 75 gallon aquariums!! ON cedar bedding! Fed them like a guinea pig! No Dust! I was so ignorant and just believed what the pet store said!I had so many losses the first 4 years I even gave up on chins for a few years! The second time around I found Dea and learned sooooo much and then I found the forums and so many chin friends that it has gone much easier and and now it seems like when I do have a loss it is so devastating because they are so few and far between.

 

[Raela]

I got my first chin because a friend no longer wanted her. I knew nothing about them. I had never even heard of them, and boy did I make some mistakes:

1) I cranked up the temperature in the house because I thought that since they were a South American animal they liked heat.

2) Raisins.... lots and lots of raisins. Until her poops were so big and soft that I got scared.

3) Plastic ball o death. I let her run in it until her ears were as red as a frickin fire truck.

4) Kaytee fiesta food. Gotta love that crap right?

5) Plastic water bottles that had to be replaced every week because she chewed holes in them.

6) Tiny awful cage butshe got to run around the house, which brings me to...

7) I would let her run around my house and chew on everything (including electrical cords) that she could get her little chinnie teeth on.

8) Shortly after I got her I decided she needed a friend so I got another girl and immediately put them in the same cage. She got bit right on the nose.

Luckily she survived my blundering idiocy and I learned the proper way to care for her and her now best friend, and both are doing very well and are getting proper nutrition and no more plastic balls or bottles, and I have air conditioning!!!

 

[JoshB.]

Luckily, I found this site before I got my chins, so I don't think I've made any mistakes.

This thread makes me cringe every time I read a post though...

 

[Nancy S]

The mistakes i made were crappy food, raisins (like so many others here), I've never had a problem with plastic water bottle. Kept on outside,,with woodwedged between cage and bottle. I switched to oxbow hay not that long ago. I was using Kaytee
I think it pays to smell it-especially if buying at pet store. And, i think everyone's
right--stay off the Kaytee. I'm switching my Kaytee dust to Blue Cloud A.S.A.P. So
after 5 years of owning chins---i'm still learning and changing things for my little
buddies. Oh, and the "Wheel of Death"--they sold me at the pet shop---my first chin
did ok in it---maybe used it a month or so---then figured how stupid i was putting
that thick furred, can't handle the heat --into this plastic ball with a few holes in it.
I remember thinking--"I'm so glad i didn't kill him!!!" --then threw it away...Dahhh

 

[kendra]

Luckily most of my mistakes were short lived since I got onto this site the day I got my chinny- even doing a bunch of research of course I made stupid mistakes!

I got the superpet cage full of plastic- shelves, igloo, even a little plastic head on the chew kabob thing. It was pretty funny, I literally ran out and replaced the igloo- petco is down the street, and made temporary fleece covers for the shelves, broke the head of the kabob and got new chew sticks since I was so freaked out about getting crummy stuff.

yeah I get a little obsessive

I was going to get the ball-o-death but the lady at petco actually told me not to, which was cool- especially since later on when getting chew sticks or something another employee was talking about how he had one who ate a whole cigarette and was oh so funny... grrr

 

[HaleyGoBoom]

I did all the research on this site before getting my chinchilla, I got him yesterday and noticed he wasn't drinking very much. Now I asked the petco staff about the water bottle I got him, and they said it was fine for chinchilla. I could not get the water to come out when I checked this morning so went to Pet Food Express up the street and there was the bottle I had purchased, and right beside it a GIANT version with a picture of a chinchilla on it instead of a mouse. No wonder he wasn't drinking! It was too small for him. I felt so terrible but he's had a ton of water today and I'm glad I caught that before anything bad happened. Be sure all your supplies are suited for them! :]

 

[kaykay]

I joined CnQ right after I got my first chin....that was a fun time... :OSarcasm:

1)Kaytee Food
2)Super Pet KIT---I was uptown with the Super Pet stuff: crappy water bottle, carefresh, plastic toys, unsafe chewing toys, Super Pet Sand (not dust, despite their labeling)
3)Kaytee Hay
4)And we won't mention the cardboard boxes...cat...etc...:wacko:

Despite events, I'm glad I found the forums. :thumbsup:

 

[stampinchick]

As far as Kaytee Dust goes, it can cause problems for the chins. Laverna has an eye infection right now from using Kaytee dust, which I had only purchased until I coulf get some ordered online. It's not like you can buy anything else in ANY pet store. I have also hearad that they can even have respiratorty issues from poor quality dust. Sorry.