New to site & to taking care of a chinchilla

[kupcak]

Hi all
We recently adopted Charlie, a 1yr old, male, chinchilla.
I'm searching or trying to at least search some things I would love to have answered... and advice is appreciated.

1) Charlie has fleas! I know that the books, forums, websites, etc say it's not possible but... he is itching, flying across the place (like a cat I had once did when bit), and my husband's ankles are bitten, he even went to kill one on him today and it jumped off!! (eeewwwwwwwww yuck!!!) I have no other pets (unless husband and daughter are countable?)

2) How much is too much? This dude is the Poop-master and it’s everywhere!!! It’s in pellet form and only flattens if you pinch it so I don’t believe it’s diarrhea.

3) Can you train your chin to use a “potty” area? I have a square litter box with wood chips in his cage now.

4) How much water does a chin drink? I had a bowl in the cage and now a water bottle but I have never seen him take a drink (oh “Stackie” if you read this... how did you modify your water bottle to fit in the FN142 cage?

 

[tunes]

1) Charlie has fleas! I know that the books, forums, websites, etc say it's not possible but... he is itching, flying across the place (like a cat I had once did when bit), and my husband's ankles are bitten, he even went to kill one on him today and it jumped off!! (eeewwwwwwwww yuck!!!) I have no other pets (unless husband and daughter are countable?)
If he does have fleas, I don't have a clue how to treat them. I don't know if any of the topical treatments are safe for chins. Your best bet would be to contact a chin qualified bet or pm chinvet on here and ask her if she's deal with this before.

2) How much is too much? This dude is the Poop-master and it’s everywhere!!! It’s in pellet form and only flattens if you pinch it so I don’t believe it’s diarrhea.
If a chin is breathing, he/she is pooping. They walk, poop, eat, poop, sleep, poop, play, poop, stare, poop, blink, poop. You get the picture. Lots and lots of poos are normal. Diarrhea in a chin just means the poos are squishy and stick to everything. There should be a little squissage going on when if you press them (too dry means constipation), but they shouldn't be sticking to everything.

3) Can you train your chin to use a “potty” area? I have a square litter box with wood chips in his cage now.
Most chins just tend to migrate towards one area of the cage to pee. You can try keeping the cage really clean and putting lots of urine stained shavings in the litter pan, but other than that, watch for where HE likes to pee, then put the pan there. You can't train them as far as poop goes.

4) How much water does a chin drink? I had a bowl in the cage and now a water bottle but I have never seen him take a drink (oh “Stackie” if you read this... how did you modify your water bottle to fit in the FN142 cage?
They only drink a couple ounces a day. Don't look for them to down an 8 ounce bottle each day.

I'll leave the last one for Stack to answer - and welcome to CnH!

 

[EnslavedByNinjas]

Hi all
2) How much is too much? This dude is the Poop-master and it’s everywhere!!! It’s in pellet form and only flattens if you pinch it so I don’t believe it’s diarrhea.

Never too much! The more poop the better as long as they're of a texture like you described and roughly tic-tac sized and shaped.

3) Can you train your chin to use a “potty” area? I have a square litter box with wood chips in his cage now.

You can typically train a chin to pee in a litter box - by finding the pee spot and placing the litter box there. They're not like cats, they don't magically seem to know, you have to find their spot and place the box where they choose to pee. As for poop, no such luck. A healthy chin's gut is constantly moving, which means a trail of dark matter wherever they may go. As well, their gut is more active when they are, hence lots of poops during playtime. The emphasis here should be read that as a general rule, poo=healthy.

4) How much water does a chin drink? I had a bowl in the cage and now a water bottle but I have never seen him take a drink (oh “Stackie” if you read this... how did you modify your water bottle to fit in the FN142 cage?

Monitor the water levels. That's the easiest way (besides also verifying the proper texture of poo - meaning properly hydrated. If he's not drinking, you can try rubbing a raisin on the ball of the water bottle to get his interest.

ETA - sorry tunes! we posted at the same time.
also Edited To Add - WELCOME to CnH!

 

[addictedtochins]

Ditto to the above
Well, since you haven't done an intro post yet, I'll say hi here!
:hithere: :useless:

 

[kupcak]

lol... @ the all the poop comments *sigh... well on the plus side I'm sure Charlie is "happy and health"

He does seem to pee in the litter pan, are wood shavings ok? they say on the bag for 'bedding'? I don't want to confuse him :S Today there was a few pee spots when i cleaned the cage but... typically the cage is 'dry' and filled with poops!

 

[Puddles&Chubbs]

welcome! just a note: make sure the shavings aren't cedar. Those are toxic to chins. Congrats on your new little guy!

 

[Dragonflye]

I have a bunch of chins here, some drink alot, some don't. It depends on the chin. As long as they always have fresh water available, a functioning water bottle, and not small hard poos it should be fine.

As a side note: I always keep an eye out to make sure they are peeing a little bit every day, as I do have a chin who has had a bladder stone. (it was removed without incident)...

 

[cuddlycuddles]

:welcomewagon:

To answer your question re:water bottle: you can use WaterBuddy bottle with a bottle guard on FN142. That's what I have and it works great! Let me know if you need help finding one in ON!

 

[saphire]

Welcome to CnH, enjoy your stay.
You will find this place to be a treasure chest of information.

 

[kupcak]

Thank you everyone... I put on his water bottle to the cage *which he didn't drink from for the first day, even when i touched it, it wouldn't drip as it was dry i guess... so i played with it and got it working then touched his lips with the water... BINGO he went over and drank for what felt like 2mins!!! *sigh* I'm happy again.

 

[Stackie]

oh “Stackie” if you read this... how did you modify your water bottle to fit in the FN142 cage?

Just buy some wire from Lowe's or Home Depot or anything like that. Figure out how high you want your bottle to hang, and cut the wire long enough so that it can hang from the second horizontal bar on the FN (you have to bend the edge so that it can hang), loop down to sit under the Lixit bottle (where the sipper screws on), then back up again for the other side to hang on the horizontal bar. Voila. It's kind of confusing to explain over the net, so I can take pictures if you want.

 

[kupcak]

Just buy some wire from Lowe's or Home Depot or anything like that. Figure out how high you want your bottle to hang, and cut the wire long enough so that it can hang from the second horizontal bar on the FN (you have to bend the edge so that it can hang), loop down to sit under the Lixit bottle (where the sipper screws on), then back up again for the other side to hang on the horizontal bar. Voila. It's kind of confusing to explain over the net, so I can take pictures if you want.

I'm sure a pic would be helpful for all that end up reading this link and have a FN142 home for their fuzzy friend.
Thank you!