New Shin owner, reason to worry or being overly sensative?

cabanaeclipse · Jan 21, 2013

Hi there! I am a first time Chinchilla owner. I bought a pair of 11 week old male Chins a week ago from a local breeder. They have different parents but they were cage mates once they were big enough. One is an ebony and the other is a beige, not that that is particularly relevant. The day after we brought our chins home we had a little incident with the beige one. I was adjusting a shelf in the enclosure for a minute and all of a sudden he went stiff, slowly stood up on his hind legs and stood there rigged and unresponsive to my touch. He hadn't let me touch him since I brought him home and I was trying to give him space not to overwhelm them but then that happened. He flopped over and spread out on the cage floor a minute later and he seemed back to normal within 5 minutes after that. Naturally I was like, omg my chin almost died from a panic attack!! The temp was a little under 70 degrees so it wasn't heat related and he had been eating and drinking just fine (and still has been). I ended up getting him a cuddle bone in case it was something to do with a calcium deficiency. I haven't had any other problems like that since but I've noticed that he spends all of his time sleeping either in a corner or in his house. We're talking day and night. He comes out when I put in fresh hay and he is a little inquisitive but his cage mate is extremely active, like bouncing off the walls happy, and very inquisitive in contrast. The active one doesn't let me pick him up but the calm beige will let me scoop him up with only mild resistance. They seem to get along just fine, no angst or anything. They even cuddle together. I read that an active chin is a healthy chin and I've just been freaking out like a crazy first time parent. On the one hand I'm like great I've had them a week and I may have a chin with a medical problem that I wasn't anticipating to have to immediately be able to fork over money for, and on the other I just want to be sure he's ok. I know it's stupid because I knew that vet bills came with having an exotic pet, but after just buying them and they were darn expensive... Advise? :wacko:

Thanks!

Chefscott · Jan 21, 2013

Dont worry my gus goes into these trances where he stands up tall and and is stiff and is unresponsive for about 5 seconds the he snaps out of it its so weird but hes fine

Spoof · Jan 21, 2013

That sounds like a seizure to me. Might want to let the breeder know he has them so they can split that pairing as they can be genetically passed from parents to offspring.

Standing in a "trance" and being stiff and collapsing are very different things. One is being alert and a response to danger. The other is a seizure.

ticklechin · Jan 21, 2013

Agree with the above post, sounds like a seizure.

Amethyst · Jan 21, 2013

It sounds like a seizure to me too. My first chinchilla had seizures (we didn't know, and stupidly just thought she was being weird), she died when she was only 3, she was a dwarf which I was told can have neurological issues, as well as being a pet store bought chin. This was about 20 years ago and at that time we were told there was no way to treat seizures in chins, I'm pretty sure there is now. If it was simply being alert to danger or sleeping standing up with his eyes open (yes chins are weird like that) then he should have snapped out of it as soon as you touched him. I think your best bet would be to go to the vet, there are a number of things that can cause seizures in chinchillas, some genetic, some environmental or physical like low blood sugar or head trauma. Either way I'd contact the breeder to let them know, a good breeder is going to want to know when something happens to one of the chins they produced so they can look into it and hopefully prevent it from happening again, if it's genetic.