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[ryeden402]

First I would like to say hello and thank you to the creator of the page.  This is amazing source of info.

My name is Ryan. I'm a new chinchilla owner. I have done a lot of research and educated myself to a degree I feel comfortable.

Now to put it all into application might be a bit different.

I do have a few questions.

My chin is 3 months old and the pet store did not handle him properly. His name is buster. (blame my daughter on that one lol)

First thing is,  he does not appear to be eating or drinking.  His chew toys are not touched. 

He does move around his 3 tier cage. 

He does not like to be held unless forced and I refuse to do that anymore. 
Ears are not red and temp is around 72.

He did not accept raisins from my hand. 

At the moment I do not have am exercise wheel. I plan to buy one Friday. That might bring up his spirits a bit.

Any advice?

We have only had him since Saturday. 3 days ago.

Thank you again.

[GrayRodent]

Congrats on your new chinchilla. I've found that three months is a good age to start with. You will have to work extra hard with this one if it's been mishandled but you may be able to tame him anyway. I am sorry you are having these problems starting out.

I am very concerned about the fact that it has not eaten or drank anything for three days. This kind of thing is not unheard of for a chinchilla under stress. If it is not managed by the end of tomorrow it may die of dehydration. There is also a possibility of a condition called gastrointestinal stasis where the guts shut down because there is not enough material in them to process that can lead to other complications that may need medical intervention.

You may need to syringe feed it water. Do it tonight if you can. A 10cc syringe to do this can be attained from a vet, pet store, or drug store. An oral irrigation syringe will work. I would start with 2 cc and give another 2cc after an hour. To put things in perspective normally your chin will drink about 10cc to 15cc in a day.
I have done this and it's easier to do with two people. Try to get the tip in from the side and behind the front teeth. Do not aim straight down the throat and try to dispense it so the animal can lick it up. Sometimes wrapping in a towel is very helpful to restrain the legs.

Tomorrow you may want to go the vet and get some recovery diet such as Critical care. It will require this until it starts eating on its own. I recommend breaking the first three feedings up so you can feed small amounts every two hours. This should help treat GI stasis if there is any. I recommend that you clean the cage so you can keep track of the output. If you don't get any new poo by tomorrow morning I strongly recommend a vet visit.

Since this chinchilla is exceptionally stressed starting out I recommend putting him in a room where it is very quiet and has little traffic in it. Try to handle the chinchilla mostly after sundown and before sunup. Their natural pattern is to sleep during the day. Definitely do not try to hold or handle the chinchilla if you can help it. Hand feeding is going to be very stressful and require heavy handling but if it's not eating and drinking on its own it will die soon. Try to be efficient and plan ahead to minimize the amount of time you are doing it while still being safe. Once the animal is tamer and familiar with its new environment you should see a lot of improvement.

I hope everything works out well for you. The recommendations I am giving do not constitute professional veterinary advice. I am not an expert.

[ryeden402]

Thank you for the reply,

I think I might have jumped the gun. i didnt think to look at excrement. He has pooped since I last cleaned the cage (which was nearly 3 hours ago). I drew a line on the water to see if there is any missing tomorrow. We shall see.

I might have found his love. Its cool in the house and all but its no Andes Mountains LOL. I put a piece of fish that was frozen in a bad (no water leakage) in his cage. He snuggled up to it. Just a minute ago my wife was able to pet him. Then I put a blanket over his cage in order to give him a sense of security. He immediately responded to that and allowed me to pet him. He still wont take food from my hand but time will allow for that im sure.

He does seem hyper at times and I believe that should give me a sense that he is not malnourished. I would think that dehydration would cause a lack of will to live or depression. This is not the case with him. He gets quite antsy to be honest.

Lets hope my lack of education got the best of me here.

[GrayRodent]

72 degrees is no problem. I try to keep mine at 73 but he does fine even at 80. Above that he shows signs of stress but I keep things pretty well controlled with a portable air conditioner. Covering the cage was a good idea but not something you want to do long term.

If you are still seeing new droppings everything is going to be just fine. It is not uncommon for a new chinchilla to go off its food for a day but rarely longer than that.
Usually they'll just eat less than normal for 2 or 3 days. Also keep in mind that most chinchillas will drink most of their water at night and some will not drink at all during the day. The best thing to do it mark the water. One thing that I do is is have a ruler on my water bottle fastened with a metal strap where my chin can't reach it. I slide the ruler to the water level, log it, then reset it each morning, which is a little extreme, but I like knowing how my chinchilla is doing. It's not like he can tell me there is a problem.

Chinchillas and other prey animals usually do not show signs of depression or illness until they are about ready to croak. Chances are he hasn't gone off his water if he's still eating. There is a certain amount of hydration they get from the food as well. I suspect in a couple of days he'll become more active and go after the chew toys and eat a normal portion of both hay and pellets. Until then I recommend not giving treats which can cause further upset. You can try offering a regular alfalfa pellet. My chin will often take those from me though he doesn't always eat them.

You can expect your chinchilla to be very active and antsy most of the time and somewhat grumpy if you disturb him when he is trying to sleep in the day. They are not animals that like to stay still and restraining them is something that they try to avoid. But there is a difference between an animal that does not like to be restrained and an animal that is afraid of people. They can become very tame though with frequent handling.

Getting your pet to tolerate being held is an important step but probably not something you should pursue for at least another week. I think a good rule of thumb is to not take your chin out of the cage until he lets you pet him and take food from your hand. Once you're there I recommend briefly picking him up and putting him back in the cage a couple of times a day until he's comfortable with that. Then let him run in a closed bathroom and give a dust bath in the tub and work with him outside of the cage. Until then you should give him a dust bath about every other day to every two days in his cage. The dust bath is another good stress reliever but dusting more frequently will eventually cause problems with skin dryness.

Like I said I'm no expert myself. I do know that chinchillas are easy to take care of and typically have very few needs. I think you're doing just fine.

[ryeden402]

Outstanding thank you for the info. 

[ryeden402]

Great news. He is drinking and there is a lot of feces in the cage today. Ironically he won't eat the raisins. But tonight I placed my hand in the cage and he sat down in it. He won't let me pick him up yet bit we are closer. He nibbled a bit but it wasn't hard. I know he can bite hard lol.

[GrayRodent]

That's good. Chinchillas sometimes like to nibble on your hand especially if they can smell food on it. Mine also likes to chew on the end of my nails.

I have been bit hard a few times when I was training my chins to be held but that could have been prevented if I had put them down sooner. After they got used to it there were no problems with that.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Get him a safe teddy bear, he's just rushed out in his new surroundings. He's just a baby so won't eat very much. Treats only take up space in his tiny belly that would be better fed with hay and pellets.
 I don't feed anything other than a few flakes of oatmeal to any one under 6 months at least.That's more for bribes when weighing and things.
He'll come to you faster if you dip your hand in the dust bath.  Tap on the container and he'll come running when he hears that sound.Offer him various hays over treats. They are very fond of alfalfa as a secondary hay, but there are others as well.
And time, there's no rush he'll be around for years.