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[sheena.lee]

Hey everyone!
So, I got my chinchilla last night, his name is Chester!  He's really sweet, but still nervous around me.  He's just under 4 months old - was born on May 17, 2011!

Here's a pic


Anyway, I have a couple questions...

1 - Of course, he poops A LOT.  I've had him for only 24hrs now, and he's already pooped everywhere in his cage.  Should I clean these poops out daily?

2 - I see a lot of people saying "give treats for X behavior, and treats of Y behavior" etc ... but how many treats can I realistically give him in a day?  So far, I've given him a shredded wheat (he ate half), a banana chip (he nibbled then discarded) and one raisin. 

3 - I've seen chinchilla drops in packages at the pet shop. Are they any good?  What else can I give him?

4 - Right now I can't really afford to buy chinchilla feed online, and so I purchased Living World Chinchilla Food.  Is that good enough?

So many questions I have! I really want to do this right...


Sheena

[PSV]

You shouldn't abuse the treats.
One shredded wheat, one banana chip and a raisin are enough for a week, not for a day.
You should take into consideration that the chin is still young and his GI system isn't ready for so many treats.
First of all you should let him adapt with the new environment. Keep him caged for several days (3-4 maybe more) and after that start holding him and giving him treats.

Are you using a bedding for the cage? If so, the cage shouldn't be cleaned that often (3-7 days is okay unless is starting to smell)
Both water and hay should always be fresh and should never miss from the cage.

As for the food I don't really know what I could suggest since we live on a different continent and since here the food for exotic pets is mostly crap I'm buying food only from the breeder. ($1/kilo hurray!)
Even though it's pretty cute how they take a bath, don't abuse dust baths. 3 baths/week are more than enough. Once again, can't really suggest where should you get it from.

Never change his food all of a sudden. If he ate something different where did you bought it from you should contact the seller and see what he was giving him. Mix some with the food that you wish to start giving him and increase the quantity slowly up to the point where you change his food completely.
They are quite sensitive with food and a sudden change can only harm his GI system which you wish to avoid. Soft poo that stinks is what you wish to avoid. If at any moment you notice oily soft poo stop giving him treats for one week until it gets better again.

[chinclub]

PSV just gave great information.  I also am not familiar with Living World Chinchilla Food so I googled it.  Do you know what the chinchilla was being fed before?  Did your breeder give you some food he was used to?  Most chinchilla feeds are Alfalfa based but the feed you chose is Timothy based.  That means it is a big change from what your chinchilla is used to.  You should be slowly weaning him onto a new diet.  A sudden change could make him really sick.  Timothy also has different nutritional values that Alfalfa.  If you stick with that feed you should be giving Alfalfa hay.  I never could find a site that gave the nutritional statics but one did boast about lower protein levels.  I don't know how low that is but it doesn't sound good to me.  Lastly, the package in the photo had a big clear "window" in the front so you could see the pellets.  Many people don't realize that this is bad.  Light breaks down the food.  If your bag was sitting on the store shelf exposed to light for a long period of time that food has started breaking down and isn't as healthy as the label would make you think.

[dianah]

he is adorable!

1 - pooping is good! he should be constantly pooping so that's a good thing! i clean some of the poops away daily but not all.

2 - that is way too many treats for 24 hours. i would not give any treats to a 4 months old chinchilla. at all. once he's 6 months, you can start giving him treats but as psv already said, it's not a good idea to give too many treats. it an cause gut problems, teeth problems (treats are high in calories - this means he will eat less food that wears his teeth down - ie hay) - i have a rescue chinchilla who was fed banana chips and chin mix and has had severe health problems - she now has a chronic jaw bone infection which cannot be treated and this is due to the bad diet. you can always give healthy things like twigs and different chews, they last longer and they enjoy them just as much if not more.

3 - drops are not a good idea. full of sugar and not good for them. there is no legislation in place to make sure the food sold as suitable for certain species is actually suitable. unless it's outright toxic, you can label it for whoever and sell it. it's annoying especially as many people are unaware of this.
like i said before, i would not give any treats to a four months old baby but once he's a bit older, some of the healthy snacks are rolled oats, alfalfa hay, apple twigs, shredded wheat, rosehips.

4 - as psv said, do not change his diet dramatically or suddenly. if you are changing from one brand of pellets to another for example, do it over the course of a month, slowly reducing the old brand and adding more of the new brand. this is because the chin gut bacteria takes ages to adjust. sudden changes to diet can be fatal.

[sheena.lee]

Oh wow, thanks for all the info!

The person I got him from (found on kijiji.ca) was feeding them Great Value brand rabbit food, and gave me a small sample, so I'm mixing it with the stuff I got.  I mean, I suppose that his chinchillas were living just fine off the crappy WalMart stuff, but I'm not so certain it's a good choice.
In any case, right now Chester is happy and seemingly healthy, and his parents seemed very healthy also.  And, I'll cut down on the treats.

The issue I have with food is two-fold.
- First, I live in Canada, and shipping charges are astronomical.  Combine that with duties, import taxes and brokerage fees, and I'll likely be paying something like $30/kilo.  I simply can't afford that.
- Second, I live in Montreal QC, where there are two chinchilla breeders that I could find, both of which have dead websites.  I'm not sure how to contact them, or if they sell food at all.  I'd need to again have it shipped because they both are located at least 2hrs away by car (according to Google Maps), and I don't drive.

I don't wanna sound complain-y or anything, this is just the reality of being Canadian.  If anyone knows any reputable Canadian chinchilla supply stores, I'd gladly look into them!  At the moment I'm kind of stuck with Nature Pet stores (www.naturepet.com).  If nothing else, I'm going to see if I can get the pet shop to order some proper food for me...  Mazuri I read was good?

I'm using kiln-dried pine for bedding, and I made absolutely certain it has no chemicals or additives.

He's been warming up to me much more quickly than I imagined! Late last night he actually came right up to me when I opened the cage door, and then he climbed onto my lap.  From there he proceeded to try to escape    but I think we made some progress (either that, or his desire to escape was greater than his fear for me!)

[PSV]

The person I got him from (found on kijiji.ca) was feeding them Great Value brand rabbit food, and gave me a small sample, so I'm mixing it with the stuff I got.

'nuff said.

Definitely go for a mixture of hay and pellets thrown here and there. As few as possible to be sure (10g/day and increase the quantity gradually). Just don't give him rabbit food as the potato head that you bought him from.
If you look of a contents list from the GV rabbit food you'll see the differences between a regular rabbit diet and a chinchilla diet.
Never buy food that is oriented to two different species (ie guinea pigs and chins)! Chins are really selective in food and two or more species oriented food will only put them a list of forbidden food on a plate which believe me they will eat first. Fat and sweet food should be avoided at all costs from their diet.

[dianah]

a friend of mine lives in canada and she gets mazuri pellets. i think you can also get oxbow there? the main thing is to get pellets rather than a mix as they tend to pick out the sweet less healthy stuff and leave the bits they're actually meant to be eating!

i live on the isle of man so i can understand the frustration with lack of supplies and high shipping fees. however, i do buy branded pellets rather than breeder pellets and it's perfectly fine.

[Blondy40]

Very good advice you will receive here...I have one big thing...Buy a shop vac! LOL...that is my saviour with my 5 fuzz balls! 

SHOP VAC=GOD!  

[sheena.lee]

lol @ shop vac!  I've been using a dust buster to clean all the poop that ends up flinging across my room, but I think I might need something better... 

I have noticed that he tends to eat all the colored bits of food first, and then moves on to the other stuff...

I did some research, and Mazuri is available in Canada, but the dealers are in Ontario, Alberta and I think BC ... I found one Montreal Oxbow distributor though, and called my local exotic vet (it's huge and awesome) and they carry it, for cheaper than the Living World one I got!  Yay!  I'll be going there tomorrow   That's also the vet I'll be taking him to if he needs it, so it's all sorts of perfect.

Otherwise I think I'm going to get him one of those balls so he can run around the house.  Does anyone use those?  I'm a bit nervous to leave him free, even in the bathroom, and I figure this way he'll get plenty of exercise and I won't have to worry.

[dianah]

Otherwise I think I'm going to get him one of those balls so he can run around the house.  Does anyone use those?  I'm a bit nervous to leave him free, even in the bathroom, and I figure this way he'll get plenty of exercise and I won't have to worry.

this is not a good idea. chinchillas overheat easily and being in plastic ball with hardly any ventilation makes it worse. generally you would want to limit playtimes to about 20 minutes.

there's also some evidence that playtimes with a kit less than 6 months have been linked to seizures so you may want to wait for a couple of months to be on the safe side..

[AnnieHank]

I had one of those balls, as well as using it for the odd playtime, I used it as a transport vehicle on short journeys e.g. to the vet. It is very unreliable, the doors come open on their own and chinchilla can make a break for freedom. Almost lost mine out in the car park of my apartment block, very scary experience.
I find they do get a hell of a lot more tired running around in the balls than running free in a room and they don't seem to enjoy it as much. They love to jump and climb and investigate and they can't do it in that ball. Also, they get pooh stuck in their fur and once or twice, they peed in it; quite messy. So for all those reasons, I would absolutely not recommend the ball.

[Squirrel_Butt]

I feed my chins Mazuri.  If you have to feed a chin fod that is mixed with the treats, you might want to separate the treats and the pellets by hand. Too many treats is bad for them.