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Chinchilla Health & Hygiene
The normal color of a chinchillas teeth should be dark orange. If the teeth are chalky, yellow or white this is a sign of calcium defficiancy. A calcium suppliment should be used and the chinchillas diet should be reviewed. Using a good quality pellet should not result in a calcium defficiancy. Vit C is also a important part of a chinchillas tooth heath. The chinchillas teeth are not imbedded in bone like most animals-they are free floating are are connected in the socket with connective tissure. They grow through out the chinchillas life so this is why they have the constant need to chew and file them down. Provide plenty of chew toys to help them fulfill this need along with plenty of hay and good quality pellets. Vit C helps keep the tissue tight-if the tissue is loose the chinchilla could get tooth spurs resulting in a loss of appetite, possible absesses and maybe even death. The first signs of tooth spurs is the chinchilla will sample their food and drop it, possible drooling, swiping of the mouth with the paw after eating, acting like they are choking, and acting like is a painfull experience to eat. You should watch your chinchilla eat on a regular basis to check for warning signs. Weigh on a regular basis to moniter weight loss. A high quality chinchilla pellet and supplimenting young chinchillas with a 150-200 mg dose of Vit C a day will help you acheive good tooth health. There are cases when teeth problems are hereditary and regular teeth filing by a vet is required. These chinchillas should not be bred but can have a good quality of life.
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What do chinchillas do?
(they chew and poo, thats what they do!)
Hair Rings are a concern for any male chinchilla. Not just males in breeding. Every owner of a male chins should be familiar with how to do this and do it on a regular basis, to ensure the health of your chin.
Males need to be checked at a minimum monthly, some say every two weeks, for hair rings.
Hair rings occur when hair gets wrapped around the penis, the hair tightens and cuts off circulation. This can be a life threatening situation.
Symptoms:
Soft, sticky, squishy droppings. They may smell. In severe cases it can be runny.
Causes:
Bad hay; algae in the water bottle; too many treats; too much alfalfa; ingestion of a foreign substance; bacteria; parasites; Enteritis
Preventions/Treatments:
Bad hay: Hay should be fresh and sweet smelling when you stick your nose in it. It should appear faded green to yellowish beige. Do not confuse hay with straw, which has less nutritional value. Straw is pale white beige all the way through and very dry. It is from a grain plant that has been allowed to mature to seed so a great many nutrients are lost. If the hay smells bad or dusty, if its moldy or mildewed discard it immediately.
Algae in the water bottle: While water bottles are essential, they must be kept clean. Algae are tiny plants that grow in water. All they need are sunlight and water with nutrients in it. Tap water has tons of nutrients. Sit it in the sun and itll turn green. Long before it turns green itll make the walls of the bottle feel slimy. Check the bottle when you refill it every day to make sure its clean. Once a week scrub and sanitize the water bottles, stoppers and nozzles or tips. Do not allow the bottle to sit in direct sunlight.
Too many treats: Treats with high sugar content or high moisture content can cause diarrhea. One raisin a day, a raisin size bit of dried apple, a Cheerio are fine. By giving in to the cute, adorable, absolutely precious begging with just one more treat, you are killing your chin with love.
Too much alfalfa: Alfalfa is a very rich legume hay. It is much too rich for chinchillas and should be fed sparingly. Timothy, a grass hay, is much more suitable for their digestive systems. To safely switch, gradually mix in a small amount of Timothy into the Alfalfa. Add a bit more Timothy every day or so until the switch is complete. Changing drastically may cause a chin to quit eating the hay.
All of the above circumstances can be treated at home. Treatment is pretty simple. Remove the cause first, then give the chin either a spoon size shredded wheat (NOT sugar coated) or Weetabix cereal. Burned toast is also good. Burned means in the toaster until its black and there is no moisture left in it. Dry dry dry. Feed one inch squares a couple of times a day. If it begins with runny diarrhea, remove the pellet and feed only Timothy and water for 24 hours. If there is no change, its time to see a vet.
Symptoms:
Small, hard, crumbly droppings that are thin and pointy; they may smell and be infrequent. A normal chin pretty much poops non-stop. 4 or 5 smooth, firm poops in a pile while sitting a moment or two is normal. Normal poop is not sticky and has rounded ends. Straining or hunching of the back when trying to pass stool. Peeping or chirping while straining is also possible.
Causes:
Lack of hydration; dehydration; improper diet; too many treats; not enough exercise; disruptive lifestyle; hairball
Prevention/Treatment:
Lack of hydration or dehydration: Make sure the water bottle is working correctly AND the nozzle or tip is the right size for the animal. You do not want to use the smallest size tips. If a chin has to work too hard to get the water out, it will stop drinking sooner. Make sure the water is fresh and clean. Water bottles are nice, but they must be refilled daily. Keep them clean. Run your finger along the inside to make sure it isnt building up slime. SNIFF the bottle. It should have no smell. Make sure the water is of good quality. Water with a strong mineral or chemical taste will put a chin off. If you are drinking filtered water, your chin should be, too. Mix in a bit of UNSWEETENED apple juice or cranberry juice to encourage drinking. If there are multiple chins in a cage, consider providing more than one bottle in case someone is being a bottle hog.
Improper diet: Feed meant for other species may not be the best choice for your chin. Make sure the pellets contain only chin healthy ingredients. Diets high in corn are not suitable for chinchillas. Make sure the food is fresh. It should smell good, it shouldnt have bugs or worms or webbing. The bottom of the bag should not have more than a minimal amount of crushed food on it. Too much crushed food means it may be old. If there is any concern about outside contamination, replace it. Its a lot cheaper than vet bills. Switch to a better quality pellet.
Too many treats: Giving a chin a Cheerio is fine. Giving a chin a handful of Cheerios is not fine. Grain-based treats can be difficult to digest and take longer to process through a chinchillas digestive tract. When it takes longer, it needs more water to move. Chins are dessert dwellers. They dont process foods well that require a lot of water to digest.
Not enough exercise: This is pretty self explanatory. If you are not providing your chins with space to run, bounce and ricochet, it could cause constipation. All that running and bounding gets the blood flowing and massages the internal organs so they can do their job. Wheels are good, but so is time out of the cage in the bathroom or other chin-safe room. Or provide a bigger cage.
Disruptive lifestyle: Yours, not the chins. If you keep irregular hours and your chins are disturbed during the day while resting, if you cannot provide your chin with a quiet place away from parties or loud guests, your chin may pay the price. Chins are creatures of habit. They are VERY smart and quickly learn your routine. Now this isnt to say that you have to punch a time clock, but take your lifestyle into consideration. If you are being a little casual about feeding and treat time, just getting back to a routine may fix the problem.
Hairball:
Grooming, barbering and fur chewing can cause a hairball to form, obstructing the intestine. If you suspect this is the case, see a vet immediately. It is a good practice to regularly give your chinchilla fresh pineapple or papaya juice or papaya enzyme, just to prevent a hairball from forming. Petromalt (for cats) can also be given. A pea size amount once or twice a week is sufficient. It should be given more often if a chin is a known fur chewer. While Petromalt lubricates the fur to allow it to pass easily through the intestine, the enzyme helps the gastric acid break the fur down and digest it. In this case, once a hairball forms, any treatment needs to be under veterinary supervision as the situation can deteriorate quite rapidly.
Fur Biting can have one of two causes; stress or genetics. A chin who does bite their fur should not be bred. You can usually tell it is fur biting because the area will have somewhat of a buzz-cut look to it. Some things to consider if you notice your chinchilla has been chewing its fur.
Does he or she have enough to chew on in their cage?
Is their cage large enough?
Is their environment kept quiet during the day when they are sleeping?
Is there anything in the room stressing them out (too much or not enough air circulation, temperature)?
Has anything else changed recently?
Some females have been known to chew when they become pregnant. Sometimes this clears up after the kits are weaned
What can you do?
Some chins respond well to extra attention. By spending more time with them you may find they chew less and less. Pay attention to you little furry friend. If the chewing gets worse with the extra attention that they probably would prefer you leave them alone.
The good new is, ringworm is not fatal. The bad news is, its really annoying and can be difficult to get rid of.
Contrary to what the name suggests, ringworm is not a worm or a parasite of any kind. It is a highly contagious fungal infection that effects the skin of chinchillas. The name actually comes from the ring it forms when it appears on humans.
Ringworm can affect any animal or human, which means you can catch this from your chin. For this reason, it is imperative that if you know you have ringworm in your herd, you follow a VERY strict routine of washing and rewashing hands and any equipment that may be moved between cages.
Ringworm can be airborne, especially given the amount of dust flying around most chin rooms. For this reason, it is extremely important that any chin who definitely has ringworm should be moved to another room from the rest of the herd. And do not ever share dust between known ringworm chins and other chins.
Because ringworm effects the skin, it may not show on a chin for a very long time. This is just one of the reasons that quarantining new chins to your herd is so very important.
Once it does start to show, it will show as dry, flaky skin and missing fur, usually starting around the mouth, ears, feet and genital areas.
The two treatments that I have seen suggested most often for ringworm are:
- Treat the area with Lamisil AT in cream form for 10 to 20 days.
- Putting 1 teaspoon of Tinactin foot powder per cup of dust in the chins dust bath. Do this for 6 weeks to be certain all spores are gone.
In either case, throw the dust out regularly and WASH YOUR HANDS.
Remember to clean the cage with a bleach/water solution, throw out any wood that was exposed to the affected chins, and vacuum the area thoroughly daily.
Scales
A scale is a real "nice to have" when you have chins. It helps you know if your chin is healthy. A chin can lose an amazing amount of weight without showing it, due to their dense fur.
If you are breeding however, a scale is a MUST have. Babies should be weighed at least once a day to ensure they are gaining weight and so you know if mom has milk.
Ideally, after the first day or so, baby chins should gain, on average, two grams a day.
There are many scales on the market, at all different price levels. Investing in a good, quality scale could save a lot of heartache and a chins life down the road.
Keeping a chinchilla cool, whether it's because the weather is unseasonably warm or the a/c just died or lightening knocked the electricity out, requires a little bit of ingenuity and a little bit of imagination.
First, and most important, is to prepare for it ahead of time. Summer is always going to come and the electricity will eventually go out for some reason or another. Take time to put the supplies aside ahead of time.
A great many of the items used to keep chins cool can be bought at a home improvement or garden store. Probably the cheapest is a bag of river stone. Put the stone in the freezer. When you need it, place it into a metal stock pot or a glass pitcher. The metal/glass walls will act as a chiller. Or just place a layer in a shallow pan for them to lay on. Make sure you get river stone as it is smooth and won't cut their coat.
Unglazed floor tiles can be stacked in the freezer and pulled out when needed. Terracotta flower pots can do the same thing. You can soak the terracotta in cold water, wipe it off and the evaporation will keep the chin cool. Terracotta pipes from the plumbing section can also be used. Marble cutting boards, thresholds, bricks and solid surface countertop pieces can all be used.
Wander over to the craft/plant section and pick up a couple of the small chimineas. These are the little fake stoves that are used as planters. They can be frozen and will provide coolness for hours.
Water can be frozen in soda bottles in an emergency, but there will always be an issue of the chin chewing the bottle and possibly getting wet. I was told to wrap them in aluminum foil, but mine chewed the foil to bits in seconds. Fill a heavy stockpot with ice cubes, put the lid on upside down and put a brick on the lid to hold it closed.
If you have electricity, but the heat is unbearable, make a basic air conditioner by putting a shallow pan full of ice cubes in front of a fan so the air blows across the ice and toward the top of the chin cage. Remember cold air falls so you want the cooler air up and dropping. You also don't want to point the fan directly at the chin, but up or bounce it off a wall.
Do not, under any circumstances, use the instant cold packs that come in first aid kits. The substance inside them is toxic. There is no truly 100% safe way to use them.
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