What Is A Normal Weight Gain?

[caiti]

Ok, so I've had my chin, Chloe for about 2 months. When I got her I brought her to the vet for a regular exam a couple weeks after. I totally forget what her weight was but it was either 524 or 542 (see what my brain did there?). I know that's on the small side, expecially since she's a female.

Since I had been freaking out that she might have malo (turned out to be new owner jitters), I got a gram scale and have been weighing her regularly.

She has been gaining weight, but I don't know if it's rapidly or not. My question is what is a normal weight gain for an adult chinchilla (she's appr. 2 years)? How much do their weights fluctuate once they've plateaued, so to speak?

These are her weights (I got the scale recently and it's hard to keep her whole weight on it for more than a second):

4/18 - 580
4/20 - 581.1
4/25 - 589.1
4/27 - 591

That's a bit over a gram a day. Thinking, she was at least 38 grams (could be up to 56 g) lighter 4 weeks before I started weighing her, is she gaining too much weight? I don't think she was ever with a male chin so pregnancy is not really an option.

When I got her, I could feel she was too skinny. I could feel her ribs too much and now she feels a lot better when I am holding her. So maybe she's just filling out?

 

[ChinDaddyFL]

Chins can take a bit to acclimate to new surroundings, and like anything stressful, they can lose weight/eat less.

Since its been 2 months, I'd say she's calming down and getting used to her new home. Chins can gain a lot when they relax and start chowing down on hay and pellets!

I'd double-triple check with where you got her from to make sure she wasn't with a male prior to acquiring her, though.