Strange noises, change of behavior. Cautious chin mom

[Wolfie]

A little background: Hi, my name's Rain, I'm 19, I have two chinchillas. One chinchilla, Pikachu I've had for nearly a year now. The other, Moogle I got about two months ago. Both happy active little females. Currently integrating them, but very very slowly. I work at a pet store, and just instantly fell in love with Pikachu. She came a little younger than we're used to, and I played/handled her every day like I do all our chinchillas. so we just bonded immediately. Almost like I was her surrogate mother. I'd like to say I'm a fairly decent pet mom. I take them out for at least an hour each day, clean their cages once a week, water changed every two days, fresh hay and pellets every day, and then dust baths every other day. I check their ears, their teeth, fur health, skin under their feet, and their tails/bottom/genitals once a week. Their personalities are so fascinating and it's just amazing how unique and special every one of them can be.

Now, Pikachu has never been very vocal. The only time I hear her make noises is usually at night when she is lonely. Or when she is sleeping and having a bad dream. This noise is the typical barking noise that I (funnily enough) didn't expect at first. But I realize she was just trying to get me to give her attention, comfort her, and love her whenever she made this noise. It's like a high pitched vocal bark. Almost like a puppy whimpering. Sometimes Pikachu and Moogle bark angrily at eachother, which I've found typical of introducing them. Sometimes I hear them using that high pitched bark to vocalize and check if the other is around.

The issue I'm having: Pikachu had a sudden change of behavior a few days ago. She's become much more sleepy even at night. She bites at her fur, but I've not seen any spots missing so I think it might be intense grooming. Sometimes she sleeps huddled (she always has done this) but this seems more like curled over I suppose. The thing that worries me is that she's making these squeaking noises I've never heard her make before. And they're quite frequent! They're squeaks like a dog toy almost. She makes them a lot when she's awake not so much when she's sleeping. And I've become so scared that somethings wrong with my young girl that I've no idea where to turn.

Her stool is fine, not clumped, little oval-like black drops. She's been drinking and eating. She'll run around like she always has, take dust baths, let me pet her. And overall everything seems fine. but I just have this gut feeling whenever she makes this new noise that something may be wrong. And if I can't figure it out maybe someone can tell me more about it.

I don't know if these noises are typical and maybe she just picked them up or if something may actually be wrong with her. I've not found anything about this particular noise so it worries me. I'm hoping that someone who's heard/experienced these noises can help either calm my over-cautious nerves. OR tell me it's something serious and to seek vet help.

I've had a lot of other questions answered in the past by coming here but this is my first day making an account and actually posting. Either way I appreciate the help.

Luckily I have a video of her grooming herself and the noises she keeps making! So I hope it helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93os-k4yaFk

If you don't feel like watching the whole five minutes, there are time stamps in the description that lead directly to the noises. She's not usually in such a loud room lol but I wanted to keep an eye on her and get some videos of the new behavior.

Thanks for reading! And hopefully I'm just being an over-paranoid mommy. <3

 

[EternallyCynical]

My chinchilla makes similar squeaks, usually when he's unhappy with me about something. For example, he doesn't like me petting him too far back (probably cos he thinks I'm gonna try and get the base of his tail and pick him up) and will sometimes squeak like that if I'm petting too far back for his comfort. Sometimes he'll squeak like that too if he's just generally uncomfortable with a situation (that's the only vocalization I ever hear from him - even when stressed he's never barked or made any other noise). I don't know what the noise is called (if there's even some special name for it) or whether all chins make it for the same reason, but that's when I notice my boy do that. It LOOKS to me like the 'fur biting' is grooming.... I could be wrong about that but if she's been doing it for a while and hasn't given herself a 'bad haircut' that's probably all it is (or at least that's my thought). It didn't look like she was biting anything off or pulling anything out. My little guy looks the same way when grooming.

Dunno if that helps or not but hopefully its some reassurance.

 

[Amethyst]

How often is she getting a dust bath? From the video it looks like it could be her skin is a little dry, ( due to the grooming then scratching) does her skin look flaky at all? If this is what she does a lot then my thought is dry skin, but if it's just sometimes it could just be normal grooming.
The little squeaks almost sound like little sneezes to me, once again basing solely on the video it did appear she wiped her nose after making that noise and wiggled her nose when making the noise like trying to sneeze something out. Does her breathing sound normal? If her breathing sounds fine it could just be dust, and she could have a little dust in her nose, one of the times she made the noise was after sticking her head in the dust jar.

 

[becky12883]

Sounded like sneezing to me too. I agree with Amethyst. If her breathing is normal, it's probably too much dust. If her breathing isn't normal you should get her to a vet asap, it could be a URI which can turn really bad really fast.