Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: Hoppinchins on November 13, 2010, 03:28:19 PM
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So i knotice every once in awhile my one male chin, pogo sucking on his 'thing'. I stopped him once and it was grose bc it was all out and long. I haven't really noticed my other male doing that. They are about 3 yrs old. Is that normal? Does that mean he is horny? Do any of your male chins do that?
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100% completely normal.. don't stop him, he is cleaning it off. you don't want hair rings..
as for not noticing all of them doing it, i have 2 males, and i catch chin chin doing it , but never bo.. i just figure he does it when i'm not around or stops really quick when he hears me coming. chin doesn't care.. typical male.. haha
as for hair rings, you should be checking for them. i forget how often they say to do it, but hair rings can be very dangerous if not caught.
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haha mine does that too. He is just cleaning it. And for hair rings, someone told me it should be checked once a month when i got my chinny. If you catch him doing it, you can just look close to see if there is hair ring so you don't have to pull his thing out, he won't like it :::grins:: I always check it that way, but I do check for hair ring myself once in a while, just to double check.
It's always funny to tease him when he does that haha me and my sister were like ewww bambi eww, and he would just stand there and keep doing it :2funny:
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One of the many joys of owning a male chinchilla...it is very normal and he is just cleaning himself. It is best to let him do so and not stop him. Animals really have no concept of socially appropriate behaviors so cleaning themselves is an instinct. All of the males do it just a few much more frequently than others
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well thats good to know its normal. And i'm guessing a hair ring is just hair around his part?
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yup, so if you ever saw one, it would have to be taken off. sometimes they can get really tight, i hear, which is dangerous. thankfully my guys have been okay.. and i hope they never get one..
even with animals we can't get away with their actions......hahahahahahahahahaha
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so if i find one does it have to be removed by a vet?
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nope, you can remove it.
http://www.sunsetchinchillas.com/HairRing.shtml