Some Chinchilla questions (with pics)

[rjb852852]

Hi all,

Have some questions about my Chin - we got him a few weeks ago at the age of 4 months from a local pet shop, hope I can get some of my questions answered here

1) He's got some small patches of fur missing, but can't see the skin underneath - would this be caused by fur biting? I've only seem him scratching (cleaning?) himself but not biting his own fur. You can see on the picture below. Is there anything we should do, could this be caused by fungus infection also?

2) Noticed some red skin on the nose and going slightly bald , from looking this seems to be fungus infection - was recommended to give him daily dust bath with fungus/athletes foot powder, is this correct or should it be less frequent than this? Dust gets discarded after every dust bath.

3) He doesn't seem to like chewing lava blocks/wood that much, just a lot of hay and pellets - is this normal?
4) Scratches inside his ear with his foot sometimes, anything to worry about , or does he just maybe have some dust/hay in there from playing around?
5) Put a few more pictures - does he look healthy otherwise? He seems happy and very active (especially when out of the cage)


[IMG=http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8205/kukomisc3.th.jpg][/IMG]
[IMG=http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/9893/kukomisc1.th.jpg][/IMG]


Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[momenteller]

Hi. Welcome to the forum!

1) It does look like fur-chewing to me, but I have no personal experience with this so can't say for sure. From what I understand, it could be either genetic or stress-related. Hopefully for your guy it was the stress of the pet shop, and he'll stop chewing now under your care. I don't really think there's much you can do for it aside from providing a big clean cage, quiet when he's resting and stimulation when he's awake!

2)The advice you were given on this is consistant with what's usually advised on here. Not sure about frequency of the medicated dust bath, but if no one answers your question directly, do a search on here for "fungus" or "tinactin". This may be under health FAQs also.

3) What kind of wood chews are you offering? Ones sold at the petstore may be older and not so tempting. Try buying some apple wood from one of the vendors on here. I think Ronda is selling some on a current thread. It will smell much sweeter and your chin won't be able to resist! Also, one of my girls took awhile to catch on to the wood chews; I think she didn't have any prior experience with them, and she was leery of anything I was offering! So yours may just still be settling in.

4) I think this is normal.
5) He looks good! Cute lil guy! What feed do you have him on? He looks a little skinny but he is young and I'm sure he'll fill out under your care.

My advice is to read read read through FAQs and previous threads. There is a wealth of info on here! Enjoy your new friend!

 

[rjb852852]

Thanks for the reply.

1) I'm hoping the same - that it was whilst he was in the pet shop , on another forum someone commented it could be fur priming or fur slip rather than biting , anyway we haven't caught him biting himself and hopefully it all grows back smoothly :

2) Thanks, will do a search!

3) Have some wood chews from pet shop - not sure what they're called , will see if I can find the packet. Also have some other chin-safe wood that you're supposed to hang, but he chewed the the string (made from hay I think) in no time! I also have a couple of lava stones inside he has only touched a little bit (until I rubbed a raisin on them!)

4) Good, was just getting worried in case there was maybe something in his ear, but doesn't appear to be any discharge or anything unusual in that department

5) We thought the opposite - maybe it's the angle of the pictures? His belly has increased size a fair bit in the last week or so! The feed we have him on is Versele-Laga brand, details of it are here : http://www.versele-laga.com/nutri/n...kt=11963&fam=224&ani=5334&ran=19809&pro=19821 he has a lot of hay in his cage which he's constantly chewing on. Got him a tunnel made from hay , but he got rid of half of it within a week :hair:. Have a ball which we stuff full of hay, but he empties it every night - keeps him busy at least !!

When we first got him, his poo was a little sticky for the first couple of days - now all is fine, solid oval pellets - and a lot of them!

 

[Spoof]

He does look like he is chewing in some of the pictures. The nose looks normal but the fur thinning (and perhaps chewing) could be due to lack of nutrition. Keep him on a good pellet/hay and he should grow it back.

 

[ChinnyMom]

i took a look at your link there rjb, for the pellets, and not sure if they are very good quality. the link you provided doesn't list the ingredients, but merely lumps the different components of the pellets into different categories:

Ingredients
Derivatives of vegetable origin
Vegetable protein extracts
Herbs
Seeds
Minerals
Fructo-oligosaccharides
Yucca extract

there should not be any seeds in a good chin pellet, and that 'derivitives of vegetable origin' as the first ingredient worries me. good chin pellets should have alfalfa or timothy as the first ingredient, and all other ingredients should be listed out individually. 'Herbs' is also something i'd be concerned about, since you have no idea which herbs are in the food and some are ok for chins and some are not. You might want to consider switching your chin onto Oxbow, Mazuri, PRSC (Purina Rabbit Show Chow), or Tradition pellets.

and welcome to CnH!! :wave3:

 

[alli713]

The OP is in Malaysia so I'm not sure that they can get the same type of feed we get here. I'm not familiar with international food brands, so perhaps someone else can comment on the type you're feeding.

The fur does look like chewing, not priming nor fur slip. Priming doesn't leave bare chunks missing, and a slip you would be able to see all the way down to the skin. One of my chins chews and it can be genetic or stress driven. Perhaps over time he'll stop with good feed and lots of love. But if not, it's nothing to worry about either.

The nose doesn't exactly look like fungus to me, but I don't have a ton of experience there either. It just really looks like it's just really fine fur, like there's not much fur on his nose. Does he ever squish his nose between the bars, perhaps he's rubbing it off?

 

[Jazicat]

Our Jackie came to us with his fur all chewed up but it was from a cage mate. If your chinchilla was housed at the store with others it's possible they did it and that's why it's stopped since coming to your house. Just a thought and you will see in time if it continues.

 

[rjb852852]

Thanks for the replies.

As for the food, what I have here now seems to be a Belgian brand - all these items here are imports.

There's also other brands available, I need to take a look at the pet shop later this week. We do have other imported toys + things from Oxbow etc. so shouldn't be difficult to find

If I was to change the food over, would this need to be slowly - to get him used to new feed?

Oh and yes, he does try to poke his nose through the cage a lot - don't think can do much to stop that?

He just loves to come out of his cage and play .. that's probably why !

 

[rjb852852]

Just got back from the pet shop and picked up a 2kg bag of Oxbow pellets (Chinchilla Deluxe) - Quite expensive here at $20 USD, but I guess the bag should last a while

 

[alli713]

Yes, when switching over the food you should do so gradually or else you could end up with loose poo. The first week do 75% of the old food 25% new food. Second week 50%/50%, 3rd week 25% old food 75% new food and then the 4th week he would be completely switched over.

Oxbow is a good food, so I'm sure he'll do well on it!

 

[StevieP]

If I was to change the food over, would this need to be slowly - to get him used to new feed?

Usually we recommend to gradually switch to a new food, but sometimes you can cold switch if the old food is really bad. In your case, I would do a cold switch to the Oxbow and make sure to offer plenty of hay.

Just got back from the pet shop and picked up a 2kg bag of Oxbow pellets (Chinchilla Deluxe) - Quite expensive here at $20 USD, but I guess the bag should last a while

Oxbow is a great food.

 

[rjb852852]

Thanks for the replies.

Given him some Oxbow pellets today and he loves them , good stuff Was worried he might not like it

 

[rjb852852]

Just a little update here in case anyone is interested.

Giving him a mixure of Oxbow pellets and the old ones - he doesn't touch them anymore and only eats the Oxbow ones, so he definitely likes them more.

Also his poop has increased in size compared to the size they were before

 

[alli713]

That's great! If he continues to just eat the Oxbow then just switch him over to it completely and give him lots of hay. If he's not eating the old I wouldn't waste my time mixing it, he should be fine )

 

[ChinnyMom]

i agree with alli. sounds like your chin is cold switching on their own, and no sense in offering the old food. toss it outside for the birds, lol.

 

[rjb852852]

Will do. I'm sure can find some birds to feed it to

Is his poop being bigger in size a good thing? Its a little softer than before, I'm guessing that's because he's switched onto new food.

 

[ChinnyMom]

from what i've read, food switches can bring on poop changes in size. as long as his poop isn't mushy, sticky, or smelly, and he's being a poop machine, lol, then i wouldn't be concerned.

 

[rjb852852]

Well, it is a bit soft compared to before but I'm sure that'll settle once he's used to the new food , when we first took him home his poop was watery for the first couple of days too. Not sure what they fed him in the pet shop, but looks like they didn't have any hay available for him in his cage

 

[Cuddlebug]

Really watery is not good. They must have been feeding him raw veggies or something really off the wall.

 

[rjb852852]

Really watery is not good. They must have been feeding him raw veggies or something really off the wall.

No idea what they were feeding him - but saw another chin at the same shop the other day and the water bottle he had was nearly empty and water looked yellow-ish , guess it hadn't been changed for a while considering how little chins drink. Also only had pellets available for them and no hay around the cage to chew on

He still seems to be getting on well with his new diet - and I think his reddish nose is due to him constantly poking it through the cage illowfight:

Weighed him today (well, took the scales out and he hopped in, didn't need much persuasion !) and he's 360G, about right for his age isn't it?