Question on foot health

[dustychinchilla04]

Hello all,

New member and fairly new chin owners here. We have a 5 year old female chin received from a friend who could no longer keep her, we've had her about 2 months. Yesterday we noticed her back feet seem a bit swollen and dry, and we're concerned about bumblefoot. She's kept on pine bedding, although there are two solid metal shelves in the cage. The cage is cleaned about twice a week. Is there anything else it might be, or specifics to look for on the feet? Chin doesn't like to be held so we don't often have opportunity to see the soles of the back feet well. She's not limping or giving any appearance of the feet hurting. It doesn't look bad currently and so trying to see if this is normal since we don't see the back feet much, if there's anything we can do or if a vet visit is in order. Thank you in advance!

 

[Amethyst]

The feet being dry is normal, they should have callouses on their feet, but they should be thin and flexible like the soles of shoes. Just like shoes they help protect the chin's feet, but if they become too hard and thick they can crack which is not good. If they seem to be getting too thick or cracked you can apply a small amount of bag balm on them. Also if you only have flat surfaces they tend to end up sitting back on their heels, causing them to widen a bit, which can cause them to crack as well. To help with that offer a variety of surfaces, including ones that aren't flat, like wood perches, clay pots, and lava ledges. Wood shavings can also dry out their feet, not much you can do about that unless you want to switch to fleece liners or tile the cage.

Here is a photo I took of one of my guy's feet to show what fairly normal chin's feet should look like.

 

[dustychinchilla04]

The feet being dry is normal, they should have callouses on their feet, but they should be thin and flexible like the soles of shoes. Just like shoes they help protect the chin's feet, but if they become too hard and thick they can crack which is not good. If they seem to be getting too thick or cracked you can apply a small amount of bag balm on them. Also if you only have flat surfaces they tend to end up sitting back on their heels, causing them to widen a bit, which can cause them to crack as well. To help with that offer a variety of surfaces, including ones that aren't flat, like wood perches, clay pots, and lava ledges. Wood shavings can also dry out their feet, not much you can do about that unless you want to switch to fleece liners or tile the cage.

Here is a photo I took of one of my guy's feet to show what fairly normal chin's feet should look like.
View attachment 21443

Thank you for the reply and the suggestions, very helpful! We were able to get another better look at her feet and they look pretty similar to the photo you attached.