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[Petey621]

I have two chinchillas named wittle and chiko. chiko is chubby and big while wittle is well little (compared to chiko) I dont know wich one has the weight problem because one could be to big or one could be to small but my real problem is ive just noticed tonight that wittle wouldnt come out of the cage for free run. Chiko dove out as normal but wittle just remained inside running all around the cage and standing at the front door as if he wanted to come out. He came out eventually and took a 3min dust bath then bolted back in the cage. I noticed that his ears are red and veiny wich i normally associate with being too hot and that his breathing was like it was labored. Every breath kinda "moved" his body but when he calmed down he was breathing fine. Its almost 8pm here wich means they should both be active and rdy to go but right now hes sleeping on his side in the tube and chiko is watching tv. If i touch or motion toward wittle he reacts accordingly and runs away or pushes my hand away but im just wondering if theres something wrong with him because i know they hide their sickness even until death.

P.S. his ears are flat and still a little red maybe he is overheated??

to those that read this wall of text thank you beforehand and i look forward to hearing some advice as to what could be wrong.

[ABC Chinchillas]

You know your chinchillas better than anyone else and if they seem off then there may be a problem. My husband has learned when I say someone is acting weird usually I am right and something is wrong. It is much better to be safe than sorry I would make a vet appoinment

[dianah]

i agree, i'd get him to see a vet. they can listen to his chest and see if there's something there that could explain the laboured breathing. also, you're saying his ears looked as if he was hot but if there was no reason why he should be hot, perhaps he's running a fever? that could explain why he doesn't want to run around either.

mine are sometimes a bit funny and refuse to come out to play every so often - but they're usually keen on coming out the next day.

what colours are your chins? i wouldn't worry too much about one of them being bigger than the other if they've always been like that - the healthy weight range for chins is quite wide & apparently certain colours mature late.

has he lost any weight?

[Petey621]

my room is a little hot and humid its hard to regulate because my parents are finicky about when to use the AC and when to open a window naturally when they decide to open windows they dont open mine and when i get home from work my room is a bit hotter than the rest of the house. His ears were flat cuz he was sleepin and a little red cuz the room was probably a little hot.

last night he came out to play and was gnawing at the bars to come out around 2 a.m it breaks my heart to deny them free run so late at night but i have work at 7 and cant let them out that late so its either around 10-11 or not.

wittle is smaller hasent lost any weight and his color is greyish (not the normal grey but hes all over grey) chiko is chubby and hes a dark tan. its sad when i give them treats wittle takes longer to eat his so i have to protect him from chiko or he'll steal the rest of wittle's treat sometimes chiko can be a bully but as of right now i dont know who is dominant because wittle always mounts chiko but i never see chiko mount wittle. at night they race around the cage causing all sorts of noise but rarely ill here the clicking sound they make when they fight but they have gotten along in the cage for about 5 months now. i guess they just have small arguments here and there.

thank you for the help im sure hes fine i havent seen the breathing thing at all maybe it was a one time deal.

[1newChinmom1]

Just a thought....I bought a smallish, one room, window air conditioner for my daughter's bedroom when we got our little ones. It was the only way to be certain they were cool enough, because I, too, like to open windows. The unit I bought also has a dehumidifier built in (lucky). High temperatures are so very hard on our babies. You might want to get a thermometer just to make sure yours are in the safe temperature range.



The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know

[Petey621]

thank you i will heres an update i just let the chins free run for the night and wittle was very very skittish like wouldnt even come out of the cage. eventually i froze up gave him a treat and watched him without moving he was fine until chiko start bolting around then hed rush right back into the cage. while they were both out chiko kept trying to mount wittle and he made that click noise thats obviously means get off me. Could chiko be bullying wittle too much? im worried that he will stop eating and completely become lethargic. i plan to make a vet appointment for the both of them as a regular check up to make sure everything is ok. i just hope i dont have to seperate them they get along 90% of the time they are like brothers and they are only a month apart and they are still babies too.

[dianah]

i really would have him checked over even if you've not seen the laboured breathing again, it's just as you said - they do hide illness very well - and if his behaviour is still unusual (being skittish etc), there may be something wrong. also, maybe he was injured in a fight?

if you take him to the vet - and a consultation is not that expensive, i think mine are about £15 - and there's nothing wrong then at least you have the piece of mind. if there is something wrong, you can start getting him better as soon as possible.

you could freeze some tinned vegetables (something like beans), wrap them in fleece or a towel if they're not chewers - just make sure they can't get to the actually tin because they'll get frostbite - they can cool themselves on that. do they have a cooling stone? you could put a few tiles in the freezer and stick them in the cage - i got some absolutely fab granite slabs for free from a tiling company near my work, they'd just taken them off display and were going to bin them.

as for them fighting, i don't really have any experience with this - apart from when we were introducing two chins but we broke the meeting up as soon as there was any sign of hostility and then they decided they loved each other (after two months!!) - maybe it'd be worth starting a new thread on that?
are they definitely both boys?

[Jenova]

Are you sure they're both boys....? Could Chiko be pregnant?
Just covering all angles.

[Petey621]

they are both boys as far as i know i can see the "male parts" sticking out all the time like they are aroused haha. somethin about wittle being skittish is wierd but hes doing everything else a chinchilla does. he goes crazy when i shake the treat bag he still gnaws everything he pulls on the cage bars at like 2 in the morn to come out and play he eats and drinks to. maybe it was just my imagination but i guess ill sched an appointment to get them both checked as kind of like a physical for chinchillas haha i do have a granite slab the "chin chiller" but only chiko really likes to sleep on it wittle barely touches it : /

[dianah]

the bit that sticks out that you can see is not their willy. it's either a sheath (if male) or a uretal cone (if female) - they look pretty much the same.
what you're looking for in males is a gap between the bum and the 'sticky outy bit' & if you gently move the sticky outy bit away from their bum, there should be a bit of skin that lifts up between their bits.
if a female, nothing will lift, there is a smaller gap (which may be slightly larger if in heat) and there is a slit (vaginal opening) rather than solid piece of skin.

i've seen a website with fab close up pictures - i'll try & find that when i'm at home (don't really want to google 'sexing chinchillas' at work

[dianah]

this is the website with great pictures for sexing chinchillas i was talking about - they are very much in your face (sorry!) but they are very clear.

http://chinwags.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=618

[Petey621]

thanks for the info but im afraid chiko does not let me hold him so i cant imagine trying to flip him over to see for myself

[dianah]

could you maybe ask the vet when you take them for a check up? it would be a good idea to confirm they are indeed the sex you think they are, chinchillas are often sexed wrong and you really do not want a breeding pair.

my first chin was sold to me as a girl, he was a boy. a couple years later, i got him a friend, and was sold a chinchilla (sexed by two breeders!) who was supposed to be a boy.
i now have 4 baby chins - the day we found out fluffy was actually a girl, not a boy, we had three babies & she was already pregnant with one baby. the dad died of complications after neutering. while i love the babies very very much, i miss the dad terribly and it could have been avoided if we triple checked the gender.