my chinchilla keeps yelling

hey everyone so i got teddy in march 2017 and he was fine he was a rescue and hes 4 years old, for the last like 2 months hes been doing this thing where he pops his head foreward and starts making this like yelling noise and he only stops when i go give him attention or speak as soon as it goes quiet he starts yelling again untill i respond its quite worrying is this normal? is he too spoilt maybe and trying to have all my attention? i do give him a lot of attention and toys hes already had 2 new cages since i got him but he is alone with no other friend but me as im not sure how well he'd respond to being with another chin as he was alone when he was up for adoption. could he maybe have some ptsd from before? thanks <3

3 chins vs 50lbs hay- how much to keep on hand?

So despite the tempting price of timothy hay at Trickee Tack, I had a very difficult time motivating myself to make the 50 mile trek there and back just to spend less than 20 bucks for a couple of flakes even if the boys DO love the freshness of it compared to the stuff I can get at the much closer supply store nearby. The time it takes to get there in traffic just made it much too daunting without some other necessary errand to run in that neighborhood. By the time I figure in gas and time, it almost becomes just as economical and far more convenient to get the 9# box close by. In order to make it worth the trip, even if each flake were 7-8 lbs I would still have to buy three or four of them and lose some of the freshness in storing most of it until it could be used, and freshness was the main reason I would even bother to go at all.

But I couldn't justify spending $35 bucks on only 9lbs of not-SO-fresh hay nearby once I learned that the 50lb boxes of Oxbow hay were actually pretty good quality and seemingly fresher than the smaller quantities available from the retailers nearby and would save me trouble of going anywhere at all with free 1-2 day shipping to my door. That meant that I could get more than 5x the volume of hay for just $15 bucks more than the box I was buying local, and it would probably be fresher too. I figured I would just try it out and see, expecting that there would be a lot more waste with discarding less desireable bits due to the higher volume equating less quality control.

BUT I didn't count on Oxbow quality being so good that nearly all 50lbs of it is green and fragrant and almost as appealing as the farm fresh flakes I was so reluctant to drive to get...

Now I am trying to figure out how much of it I should actually even attempt to store for my boys vs maybe listing a couple giant bags of it in a local ad or something, because I don't even have this much room to keep it, and I doubt they would be able to eat it quick enough for it to stay tasty fresh by the time they got even half way through it.

I don't really know how long my boys take to go through a pound of hay on average because I always seem to buy varying sizes depending on whatever is convenient at that time, and I don't have any idea how long it might keep either. I was considering trying to unload maybe as much as half of it, just for the sake of not having space to store much more 25 lbs, as it would still be an economically better value than what I'd been getting before even if I gave it away at no cost, and certainly if I sold it for maybe a buck a pound while it's new and fresh...

How much of this makes sense to try to keep on hand for my 3 chinchillas to be able to still enjoy it before it gets too "stale" to be worth it? I purchased 2 flakes before, and they went through both quick enough that stale or spoil didn't figure into play, and I would have not minded to have another on hand vs .going to get more, so I figure at 3 flakes worth of hay I come out close to even on storage time and cost per pound without the hassle of the drive. Trouble is that might be anywhere from as little as 20 lbs or as much as 30lbs depending on variable flake weight, so I'm not sure where that leaves me in terms of deciding how much of this to keep. I might have trouble finding the space to store more than 30 lbs here anyway, but I COULD store the remaining 20-25lbs about a mile away at my mom's if it made sense to do so in terms of it staying edible that long. Or I could try and unload it with a local ad, or maybe find some use for it in the garden as straw mulch or something...(I do have a neighbor with chickens. If they use hay for anything maybe I could barter with them in exchange for some chicken poop fertilizer or occasional fresh egg?)

I guess my main query boils down to this: With 3 chins, how long would it take to go through 25-30 lbs of hay? Should I bother to try to hold on to more than that or does it make more sense to see if there's anyone who might use what I can't easily keep here? Or is 25-30 lbs already probably more than is usable before its too old? Anyone got thoughts on this?

Do I need to get a dehumidifier?

The past few days have been soooo hot and HUMID in eastern PA, I worry about my chins getting moldy. I keep the temp in their room in the upper 60s, and humidity is usually not more than upper 40s, but the past few days it's been upper 50s and even lower 60s.

They don't seem to be in any distress, and neither really use the chin-chillers

I have central air, but bought a separate window unit for their room. They don't like the sound, and I'm hesitant to make more noise in the room.

I ordered a dehumidifier online this morning and was planning on picking it up on my way home from work today. But I'd rather not spend another $200 right now if it's not necessary.

Am I being a neurotic worry wart?

Thanks for your input!

Trish

Possible cut??

Hey! So I've had my chinchilla's for nearly two weeks now and they're settling in pretty well :) However I noticed today that one of them has a little red mark under his nose (as shown below). I'm not sure if this is a little scratch or what (he may have fallen off a ledge and caught himself a little bit) but I was hoping someone would be able to tell me if it's anything to worry about? It's not scabby or anything like that. I've asked two breeders and they said to keep an eye on him but he should be fine. He's acting fine and I'm gonna do a weight check tonight. Do Chinchilla's often have small cuts like this? Is it fairly common (as they're like toddlers and fairly clumsy).

http://ift.tt/2eI9qBf

Sudden eye problem?

While I wasn't home my chinchilla gave birth, I didn't know she was pregnant.. but she had a health baby. Some conflict must have happened, however, as her eye was completely swollen! I used a warm cloth and drained some pus from her eyelids. Her eye has slowly been getting better, and now that she can see out of it it appears enlarged. She's eating and drinking and taking great care of the baby, but I'm frightened her eye could be deadly. She can close it, and I've been putting eye drops in her eye to rinse it (doesnt have antibiotics in it) - I know she can see out of it too.

But, can she be on antibiotics while she's nursing?

I don't have a good chinchilla vet in my town, if I get a checkup and specifically ask for a product they will give it to me (as they have only even seen MY chins before) What should I give her?

Need Advice on Hand Feeding Critical Care

I need advice: trying hand feeding again cause I don't feel like Spooky is eating nearly enough on her own (she is recovering from surgery last week and weight loss from not eating before and after). She REFUSES to swallow when syringe feeding, just holds it in her mouth and looks at me stubbornly. I tried a trick I saw of tickling her nose, and it worked only one time, now she will not chew or swallow. It's stressful for both of us. Are there any other tricks anyone can recommend? I've tried pumpkin mixed in with Critical Care, which she liked the first day and ate off my hand, but no longer. Part of me thinks I should 'wait til she's hungry' but that won't be enough right now and I'm worried her meds are making her loser her appetite in addition to the pain she is most likely having in her mouth from recovering from surgery.

I'm back!

For some reason my old account got locked or expired and I haven't been on in years, so I started a new one.

Hi I'm Gella and I used to be pretty active on here before life got in the way. I think the last time I posted I was living in NH, now I have been in Colorado for four years. I've kept in touch with some of you through FB, since I am on there more often than anything else.

I have a chinchilla Spooky who has been with me for 10 years and was diagnosed this week with a myxosarcoma, a malignant tumor in her mouth and she doesn't have much longer to live. It's a sad occasion to rejoin the fold, but I'm hoping chatting with everyone will help me and Spooky keep our spirits up until it's time for her to go.

Chinchilla hand infection please help!

Hello I have a chinchilla with a hand infection. He cut his hand so I put antibiotic ointment to help it fight against infection and it got infected. I don't know what to do because I can't afford a vet so I'm asking someone for help before my pet get worse please help me. One finger fell off and I'm so scared and worried. It's been 3 days since the day he cut himself. Anyway information to help save this chinchilla is very serious so please comment away on what I should do!

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What is the best water bottle for chins?

Hello everyone! I just joined this forum today and i'd like to know the best chinchilla water bottle brand? I'll be getting a chin for my birthday and did all the research I can. So I've found everything alright until I tried to find a water bottle for a chin, everyone said the kaytee water bottle is too leaky and will get their fur wet, i'm considering getting the lixit water bottle but still not sure if it's the best solution if anyone has any recommendations i'd really appreciate it! :)

Overheating worries

I have had my new little guy for about a week and I know I am over worrying most of the time. Tonight however, after a good play session, I've noticed his ears a brighter red than I'm used to seeing. They're usually a soft pink color. It's about 70 degrees in the house and he has a marble slab in his cage but he won't use it. Is there anything else I can do? I tried to take some pics but they aren't that great.

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Hello

Hi everyone. My name is Sam. I'm a proud dad of my two hedgehogs. I actually started with Teddy bear and Siberian hamsters. Now, I joined the community to know more about what it takes to own chinchillas.

Underweight Hedgehogs

I am concerned about my hogs. Tofu has always been thin since he runs constantly on his wheel. I got Suki about a month ago and have been horrible financial problems as of late so I haven't been able to purchase a second wheel for Suki but here's my concern with BOTH of them when I got Suki she was very chunky to the point that her previous owner believed she may have been pregnant? I don't think such is the case now, I think she may have been overweight on the very crappy cat food she was being fed (meow mix if I'm not mistaken) well now she's lost an extreme amount of weight and I think that it's the cat food I bought for them. I previously had tofu on merricks purrfect bistro real chicken recipe which had 40.00% protein and 14.00% fat and it was keeping tofu at a healthy weight but when it ran out I misunderstood an article on another brand of Merrick called Healthy weight recipe and accidentally got it causing the fat percentage to drop to 8%! NOT GOOD! They have both dropped a significant amount of weight and I'm worried so further researching I discovered a pretty good brand of cat food called Halo Spots Stew which has 18% fat and 40% protein absolutely no grain of any kind (first ingredient is chicken) it seems like a good choice. Has anyone fed there hedgehogs this brand? What were the results? What about Suki and her need of a wheel? I'm hoping I can get her one when I get my next paycheck. I'm just the only person working right now and money is extremely tight right now..

Fly Problem (want to keep chins safe)

I have a fly problem seems like it's coming from the downstairs where the chinchillas are. I want to use fly spray, but I know it's unsafe for animals. How long would I have to remove the chinchillas to use fly spray downstairs?

Do my bonded males need to be seperated after fighting?

I have two male chinchillas, a five year old and a six year old. I recently adopted them as a bonded pair and was told they had never fought before. They have gotten along fine and have acted like brothers until just now. They fought over the food bowl and started barking and making loud noises as well as wrestling, sort of. I opened the cage and they stopped but then started again. For tonight I separated the two levels so one is on the top and the other the bottom, both with food and water. I don't want to have to keep doing this because they normally get along well, but I'm scared to put them back together. What should I do? I'm new to owning chinchillas and I don't know what to do or how to handle this!! Thanks!

July Specials and Foraging Fun Hay!

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• Free Organic Broad Spectrum Supplement (105g) is included with orders of $49-58.99 before shipping, excluding hay purchases.
  
  
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Also, Foraging Fun hay is now available!

~Tanya

White and red on heels

Hey there! My little girl had a bit of loose stool (not what this question is about though, I gave her some pet kaolin/pectin for it) so while I was cleaning her up, namely the back of her feet, I noticed that the back of her heels are red with a white spot. I've had to put an ointment on her feet before when they got red and they got a bit better (more pink than red), but they haven't had this white on them before. She doesn't seem upset or in pain when I press on them, but it still concerns me. Her feet are a wee bit glossy in the photo since I had just put on a bit of bag-balm. Anyone know what this is and what I should do about it? Thank you so much!

Further information about what her feet come in contact with:

Her cage is a ferret nation with metal pans and fleece liners and she has wooden shelves and fleece tubes. Some of her wooden shelves have fleece covers over them since the vet had suggested adding more soft surfaces when I had first brought her in for red feet about a year ago.
She pees in small pyrex dishes filled with kiln dried pine shavings.

Edit: Attachment isn't showing up on the post for me, so here is an imgur link. http://ift.tt/2sSUW3U

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how much should a 4wk old kit eat?

I have 2 four week old chinchilla kits and unfortunately the two of them have torn up their poor moms nipples 😪. shes started barking and even bit them once. Ive been hand feeding them for 3 feedings a day trying to give mom rest. I feed them 21/2cc's of goats milk every 5 hours. Is that enough? Or too much? They love it and eat well from mom as well. Im juat not sure what amount they should be eating in one sitting. Also someone told me to add critical care to the goats milk? I havent cuz im not sure about that for kits so young.

Chinchilla wheels!

Not planning on buying a wheel for a year or so, but does anyone know where I can buy a nice, silent wheel in the UK from? The only one I've found is by the company tic tac but we also like the look of flying saucer wheels! :)

chinchillas for sale near southern indiana

Looking for a young female chinchilla that can be sold separately(only looking for one, could be swayed for two if price is reasonable). Please post information if there are any known breeders in Southern Indiana or the immediate area (Northern Kentucky). Thank you.

Rabbit in FN?

So I'm probably a moron but since I loved my double Ferret Nation for my chinchilla pair I thought it'd work fine for our little dwarf rabbit. The cage we got when we first got him hasn't worked out well so we were looking for a new solution. Now in just one level he seems to have enough space to meet space criteria we'd found online. However, he hasn't been able to make much use of the second level. He can actually get up and down the ramps with the fleece ramp covers on. He doesn't seem to have an issue getting up. The problem is once he gets up to the second level he can't get back down again. Anyone have any clever ideas how to rework this cage to be more appropriate for him? I've thought about just reselling it and calling it a botched experiment as well. Or you know, holding onto it to take in some more adorable fluffballs.

17 Year Old Had Penis Amputation Surgery - Looking For Others

I am hoping by posting this i can find those who have had first hand experience with penis amputation surgery and recovery. I tried to keep this as short as possible without doing into every little detail but am happy to provide more in the event anyone wants it.

Again, I am looking diligently to find any chinchilla breeders, owners, rescuers, etc, who have had any of their male chinchillas over the years undergo penis amputation. The reason being recently my 17 yr old hetero eb male had to have penis amputation surgery due to a prolapsed penis, which would not retract on its own after 5 days of trying.

He was originally admitted to our exotic vet after hours for a swollen prolapsed penis and subsequently stayed there for supportive care trying to get the penis' swelling to go down and retract on its own.

By day 5, parts of the penis began to look pale pink, blue tint, dry even after lubing and skin was toughened. *

All the while, he was bright, alert, eating, drinking, pooping and aside from the prolapsed penis and stepping on it, he was in very stable condition.

We only had 2 options - surgery or euthanasia.

Even though he is 17 years old and has dental and root disease, he is and has maintained good quality of life and the dental has only come into the picture in the last year (first teeth trim May 2016 and second June 2017. Xrays were done 2016 too to get a baseline).

I elected to go ahead with the surgery despite the risks involved including the fact that he is 17 years old and the exotic docs (3 total from the practice we go to covered him and his penis) had not done one before or were able to successfully connect with a dvm who had.

We reached out to a variety of exotic experts in and around the US including Dr Quesenbery over in Manhattan, NY and Dr Bennett in Louisiana. Dr Q had not done one nor her surgical team at AMC and Dr Bennett was not reachable and out of the country on a speaking engagement. We couldn't find much information on the topic or any papers authored by vets, who had done surgery.*

As of today 7/2/17, Yen is 16 days post op and his recovery has been phenomenal (not to jinx myself here...fingers always crossed).*I will spare everyone by not attaching the pictures taken throughout the surgery (in the event anyone is squeamish).

I have canvased various groups, sites and sources over the last 2 weeks and have found very little. I would love to find others out there who have had the same surgery performed to talk about their experience, if it was a success, what complications were encountered either during or after surgery, how long ago the surgery was performed, whether the chinchilla successfully recovered or not and if it is at all possible to connect my exotic vets with other vets, who have done this surgery in chinchillas.

If you or anyone you happen to have first hand knowledge and experience, please let me know.
Also if you know of any credible sources of information on the topic whether forum, papers, websites, or have heard of particular vets who have done the surgery again, please let me know.

I really appreciate your time in reading this and thank you so very much. 😃🖒

- Melissa M from CT

Normal?

My chinchilla is still cleaning and pulling at the hair on her belly two days after she gave birth. Is this normal?

Re-introduce dad to mum and female baby after hes been neutered

Hi there, not posted before but need some advise! We had surprise baby Chinchillas nearly 4 weeks ago. We immediately moved mum and babies to a low flat cage, unfortunately mum got a bit freaked out and attacked one of the babies and it sadly died. We moved mum and the other baby back to the main cage and she was fine (dad was put in the low flat cage instead and he has been neutered). Baby girl is now 4 weeks old and doing well - question is, we would like to keep them all together again now that dad has been neutered but how do we go about reintrodung him as mum is quite skittish and I'm frightened that she may attack the other baby without thinking about it. We do have a new cage for them all (ferret nation 182 + 183 so plenty of room) that no ones been in yet as they can get quite territorial. Any help or advise would be great, thanks

Tail hair loss

My 5 1/2 month old chinchilla lost a chunk of hair from his tail while being chased his brother chin.

Does this coarser tail hair grow back like the body fur? And what things do I need to know to rectify this?

Thank you all :)

So frustrating...

http://ift.tt/2t984UQ

Articles like these make me so mad. There are people who read these and get all the wrong information, and unknowingly mistreat their pets. I really hope people do their research before purchasing animals...

How can you tell if your Chinchilla is Pregnant?

I've recently noticed weight gain, strange behavior and I'm pretty sure large teats, as I've been researching - that is one of the main tell, tell signs. Although, I've only seen one once and this is before I read that you probably shouldn't be handling your chin if she is pregnant.. as I don't want to disturb her or potentially hurt kits.. Are there any other signs?

(She has joint play time with one of my male Chinchillas)

Hello From CT-Chin Owner 22 Years & Counting

Hello,

I am new here and wanted to introduce myself really quickly.

My name is Melissa Mastroni. I am a 38 year old woman from upper Fairfield County in Connecticut, who works on Wall Street from a career perspective and am the owner/guardian to 5 dogs -2 Labs and 3 Pit Bulls - and 8 chinchillas. The dogs range in age from 9 years old to 13 years old while the chinchillas range in age from 13 years old to 18 years old.

I have had chinchillas for close to 22 years focusing mainly special needs and seniors and have done rescue, rehab and rehoming. I'm also involved in dog rescue volunteering for a few orgs in the northeast.

While I use to frequent chinchilla forums and groups in the passed, I have not been heavily involved or part of any for some years. I'm looking forward to talking with others here.