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[sarahlydear]

Herby has been looking a bit tattered you could say, his coat isnt as shiny and smooth as it was. He eats Mazuri pellets, 2tablespoons a night, and timothy hay; along with dandilion leaves, rose petals(both dried) and sometimes rasins and apple horse treats as suck up treats (we're in a training process). His eyes are nice a bright and he's still just as curious and active as ever, his coat is just dimming a bit. What can I do to help that?

[ABC Chinchillas]

Ok first off are you only giving him 2 tablespoons? Chinchillas should be free fed they will not over eat.  He should not get more than 1 treat a day ever. 1 raisin once in a great while is ok or a craisin, also ok Rose hips or a plain cheerio. I don't give dandelion leaves or rosepetals. I don't feel they are safe personally. I also do not give horse treats as they have a lot of additives... Some of his dullness may be the season or the brand of dust you are using. I am not a fan of Mazuri personally but a lot of people like it. He may be priming which may be why he is dull he may need a nice grooming to get the dead fur out

[BambiLove]

You need to give him more food, 2 tablespoon a night is not enough. There should always be food in his cage so that he can eat all he wants. Don't worry he's not going to die from eating too much. You shouldn't give him dandilion leaves, it's not very popular among treats so i infer that it's not as safe. And all the treats that you are giving him, give him at most once a day. If you are using treats to train him, i recommend using rolled oats, the plain one. Chinchilla digest oat better than the other treats, and oat is small so you can give him a lot throughout the day instead of one big treat.

And about his fur, how often do you let him take bath? He should be taking dust bath 2-4 times a week. Dust bath is important to keep his fur healthy, shiny and smooth. That's the only reason i could think of for his fur problem, or it could be that he is priming like starleomach said, just use a brush to brush him off.

[sarahlydear]

He doesn't eat all of his 2tablespoons(even if i give him more) and I replace it everyday for freshness so that's why only that much. Also he gets a dust bath everyday before he come out to play unless he starts itching(he rarely gets that way) upon which its every other day until I feel he's back to normal(usually a week or so), though I'm seriously considering just doing it every other day any way(guess who's gonna hate mom)... The big treat I give him is cut up into smaller pieces so it lasts throughout the day. I heard there is a certain way you had to brush your chin and that you can't do it like a cat or dog? Am I correct and if so anyone wanna tell me how? 

[ABC Chinchillas]

A horse treat is too much for him even cut up he shouldn't get that much throughout the day 1 tiny treat per day, And if you keep giving the horse treats will give him liver damage

[BambiLove]

Ohh i thought you were giving him 2 tablespoon at night and he has no food during the day, but if he doesn't finish his 2 tablespoon in his cage for the whole day then i guess it's fine.
The way that you brush your chinchilla is you hold him by his tail. Hold the part that's closest to his body (almost between the body and tail), if you hold it too far away he can try to run and his tail can break off. Use a special brush for chinchilla and brush it from bottom to top (tail to ears), the opposite way of the hair growth. After you're done, use your hands to pet him from ears to tail to remove all the left over hairs. For the stomach you can't hold him by his tail. There isn't much to brush on his stomach anyways, i always skip that part.
Oh and when you're holding his tail, let his feet touch the ground, don't take him completely off the ground. When my boy try to run, I would just lift his tail up so his 2 feet in the back can't touch the ground so he can't run, and then I would put it down when he stop trying to run. Hope this help!

[BambiLove]

Oh, 1 more thing. The way I told you is how to brush an adult chinchilla, if your chinchilla is a baby then I don't know. I'm not sure if baby chinchilla need to be brushed.

[sarahlydear]

No NO No I am more than happy to give him his fill of food and I make sure he always has something in his hay rack and food bowl, I just thought they liked things to be fresh.
We think he turned a yr last July, but we bought him at a pet store and they guessed at his age(about 5-6months old). Would a lice comb work since it has such close together teeth? I have no idea where I would get a special chinchilla brush so that might have to wait if the lice comb won't work...
Then sorry Herby no more horse treats, I could of sworn I read somewhere on here they were ok...hmmm maybe I got confused with my research before I got on here. Unfortunantly they were one of his favorite treats  either way he'll learn to get over it.

[BambiLove]

I think a lice comb won't get into his fur because the teeth are too close. Just use whatever you have that can actually go under his fur. It will works but becareful to not hurt his skin. You can get the comb at pet store, but don't buy brush with plastic teeth, I bought 1 of those and it doesn't work at all.
And for horse treat, the only safe one are Mrs. Pasture's Cookie and Apple Pellet Treats (i'm not sure if the apple treat you have is the same kind). But you can't go wrong with Mrs.Pasture's cookie, there is only one kind and chins love them. I would give half of it for one day. Not all horse treats are safe for chinchilla.

[ABC Chinchillas]

Bambi love have you ever read the ingrediants to those treats?  I would NEVER give either of those to my chinchillas

[BambiLove]

As a matter of fact, yes i did. They are made of oats, wheat bran, rolled barley, cane molassas, and apples. so please...if anything is bad, it's the raisins, and people still use raisins as treats. It is the first treats I was introduced to when i adopted my chinchilla at a rescue, how can people there be so mean telling me to give my chinchilla a horrible treat? And jmdebb (jean) in our forum sells it on her store, and she has great knowledge about chins and is helping with rescues so i trust her enough to believe that she's not going to sell bad treats to harm all the chinchillas. And there you have the reason why I give him horse treats. fyi he's been healthy for 7 years with people giving him those treats.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

When most of us talk about treats we think something the size of a raisin. Treats are treats and should be kept to a min.
I have picked up various horse treats for my chins for a change, but I break them up into tiny pieces and each chin would get a piece the size of a couple of raisins.
As a horses system is as delicate as a chins usually your pretty safe with such treats, but giving your chin a full one per day would be at least half is food intake so he's not going to eat much pellets and hay.
My chins get a raisin or other dried fruit,+ a pinch of oatmeal or other cereal.