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Post by meichinchilla on Sept 2, 2008 22:47:09 GMT -5
Hi everyone, It is our first post here. We bought two chinchilla 2 weeks ago. One of them is a male and the other one a female. The previous owner said that they are around 2 or 3 years old, and the female give birth one time to some babies. The female chinchilla is sick. She don't eat a lot. She don't want to eat alfafa, sunflower seeds, timothy hay. Actually she seems to only eat the pellets. Also sometimes we give her a raisin (not more than once a day) as a threat. She hold the raisin in her hand and then it takes her one minute to eat the raisin and she drop some parts on the ground. Also she seems a little bit skinny and not active. Below her mouth it is always wet. Also there is fur missing under mouth (we can see the skin). I bought a stone for her teeth. She is always bitting the stone. And my other Chinchilla doesn't. So I'm really worried that she has a teeth maloclusion, or something like that. We tried to look at the chinchilla but she don't open her mouth a lot. But her front teeth seems normal from what we can see and what we know (we don't know a lot about chinchillas). We took some pictures. Look carefuly at the second picture, you can see the skin under her mouth because of the fur loss.    So, I would like that you guys give us some advices. Really, we don't know if the previous owner took care of them properly. They bought a cage with plastic. I think this is written on every chinchilla website that we should not by a plastic cage for chinchillas. So we are thinking why is the chinchilla sick? what we should do ? Returh her to the previous owner? Hope that the stone will fix her teeth? Carry her to the vet (but it is expensive)? Thank you for your time reading this, and we can't wait to read your advices! By the way, nice website. Cindy & Philippe |
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Post by LotsofChins on Sept 2, 2008 23:00:40 GMT -5
Sounds like your female has a dental problem and in pain. That would explain why she is not eating much. A visit to the exotic vet and x-ray will tell you exactly what you are dealing with. Dawn our forum resident dental expert will be on here in the morning so she can tell you more. Is your male and female together? If they are, they need to be separated. With your female having dental problems, she can pass that trait to her babies if your male and female mates.
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Post by meichinchilla on Sept 2, 2008 23:58:44 GMT -5
Thank you LotsofChins. We will be waiting for Dawn advices!
Yeah, good idea, we will separate them.
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Post by Inked Up Tara on Sept 3, 2008 5:57:53 GMT -5
I dont know that i would wait. I would take her to the vet ASAP. I wouldnt mess around with it. If she inst eating and her fur is wet. Yes it is probably going to be expensive.
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Post by meichinchilla on Sept 3, 2008 7:01:51 GMT -5
Big update : She had two babies this morning!    I guess she was sick because she was pregnant and she was going to give birth. Is is possible ? By the way, we plan to change that plastic cage  Thank you, Cindy & Philippe |
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Post by Inked Up Tara on Sept 3, 2008 7:07:55 GMT -5
I know nothing of breeding but all that plastic that has been chewed worries me big time. Also the fact that she was drooling possibly is a worry too. I still say take her to a vet, and remove the father. If you are already worried about financial issues with taking her to the vet, letting them breed is NOT something i would recommend.
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Post by tagna on Sept 3, 2008 7:39:40 GMT -5
I am so glad you came on the site for help! I was the one on facebook that responded to your question and directed you here!
I hope you have the male separated as you really don't want a breed back at this point. Chins can mate right after giving birth.
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Post by dawn on Sept 3, 2008 7:59:33 GMT -5
What are your intentions for the kits? They may very well have malocclusion due to the fact the female is drooling. The male needs to stay separated for good and the female needs a dental exam under gas and xrays but she is at a real risk now since her body is depleted from the pregnancy of nutrition and minerals and the malo can get worse. I do not breed nor have I dealt with a malo chin who has given birth so some of the breeders on here may be able to help nutrition wise but in the end the chin may have to be put down if malo exisits. Do not ignore the drooling, it has nothing to do with pregnacy and she may die a horrid death without care so you need to find a good exotic vet to look at her. The kits may also develop malocclusion so if sold or kept they will also need to go to the vet at around a year old.
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Post by tinam on Sept 3, 2008 9:12:47 GMT -5
I would do the vet visit asap in my opinion.
Could you please resize all your pictures that you posted? They should be forum size so that our board is readable!
Thanks!
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Post by ♥Pam AB Chins♥ on Sept 3, 2008 9:40:45 GMT -5
Momma chinchilla is going to need some extra TLC and good nutrition if she is going to be able to look after these little ones.
What type of food do you have her on? Eating her pellets is a good sign. She really doesn't need too much else but that and good timothy hay.
It would help her though if she could get some Jags Formula which would help her with milk production and it would help the babies grow once they were able to eat on their own.
Here is the Jags formula recipe. Keep it in the cage at all times.
JAGS formula
1 part crushed chinchilla pellets
1 part calf or goat milk replacer powder (Available at feed store or you can just get powdered goats milk from the health food store)
1 part 1/2 baby rice and 1/2 baby oatmeal cereal
The pellets need to be crushed up in a coffee grinder into a powder form.
I also second the fact that the mom should see a vet right away.
Can you weigh the kits and let us know how much they wiegh. They need to be gaining about 2 grams a day.
We will help you all we can.
I'm also a bit worried about the cage. You need to cover those holes and how big is the bar spacing? Kits can get out if the spacing is any bigger than 1x 1/2 inch.
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Post by sasha on Sept 3, 2008 10:05:00 GMT -5
What kind of pellets are you feeding? And I think they would be better off without the sunflower seeds.
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Post by Inked Up Tara on Sept 3, 2008 15:22:22 GMT -5
How is the momma and kits doing?
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Post by dawn on Sept 3, 2008 18:05:41 GMT -5
Please do not ignore your chinchillas problem, it will not go away on its own.
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Post by tagna on Sept 3, 2008 19:14:33 GMT -5
I hope they get help for that chin!
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Post by meichinchilla on Sept 3, 2008 19:45:48 GMT -5
Hi Everyone, Thank you for all your advices. You are very kind! The young babies are going well. We separate them & the mom from the father (thank you for telling us!!!). Because we have only one cage, we set up some place outside where they can be and put some food and water. The mom and the kits stay together and hide in their small wood house. :-) We have actually two kinds of pellets food : * The first one is a mix of seeds, cereal ts and nuts for chinchillas. It is the "Living World" Classic chinchilla food. This food was given to us by the previous owner * We also bought another one that is only pellets. But we threw the original package. We have also: * 1.36 kg of "Prairie Timothy Hay" by "Pestel pet products" (from previous owner) * 800 g of "living world" chinchilla bath sand (we bought) * a small bag of "living world" alfalfa (from previous owner) * a big bag of sunflower seeds (from previous owner) Actually we are trying to repair the plastic cage. We put some metal grid at the botom so that the chinchilla cannot go in the "plastic bottom" part of the cage, and so that we can use the plastic bottom as a tray to clean the cage. We will soon replace the two plastic layers, with some wood. Then the cage should be plastic free!   @tagna thank you for the link to this site! ♥Pam AB Chins♥ Thank you for the recipe! We will buy these stuff and prepare that recipe for the mother. We will try to go tdhe vet very soon to check the mother. We have a phone number in Montreal of a exotic vet. We will check this in the next few days! About the sunflower seeds, are you sure that it is not good ? The male really like them! Thank you very much agains, Philippe & Cindy |
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Post by puddlesandchubbs on Sept 3, 2008 19:57:51 GMT -5
Definitely no sunflower seeds or raisins. And the food with the nuts, seeds, in it is not good either.  Just like humans, much of what tastes delicious is not healthy, and that goes for chins too. I'd stick with just the plain pellets for now. I'm thinking you are in Canada? There are some good suppliers of better food, dust, and healthy "treats" and "chews" for your babies there. Check with Tanya (tagna) as she is in Canada. Having babies sprung on you is a tough road. Definitely get your mama to the vet to check out her teeth. She could be in a world of pain and not show it. |
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Post by Inked Up Tara on Sept 3, 2008 20:04:38 GMT -5
I agree with Deena (puddles) I would not wait days to call the vet. You would not want someone waiting days to call you a dentist if you were in so much pain you were drooling. Hopefully it is just an infection and not malo.
I hope all goes well. Good luck with the babies.
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Post by Tara on Sept 3, 2008 22:59:38 GMT -5
Here's a link with lots of info on proper food, caging, etc: www.freewebs.com/mistywaterwoman/I would also recommend getting the mom to the vet as soon as possible. I hope her babies are okay. |
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Post by sasha on Sept 4, 2008 0:44:14 GMT -5
If you are in Canada, you can try www.chinchilla.ca for some good foods like Mazuri, Oxbow, Reidestra. Or you can contact lilchinchilla on here - that is Serena, a breeder from BC that I get my pellets from. I'd stop all treats for now. But some safe ones are rosehips, plain cheerios and plain shredded wheat. |
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Post by dawn on Sept 4, 2008 7:55:56 GMT -5
Mom and kits really need a cage, not a play area. If Mom gets out and away during the night the kits could starve. Look in your local classifieds, I am sure you can find a cheap cage. You need one anyway, Dad should not go back with Mom.
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