Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: GrayRodent on February 22, 2013, 04:38:16 PM
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My 4 month old standard grey chinchilla has been growing very rapidly since I've got him but his weight trend is quickly decelerating. As far as I know both parents were show quality chins. One standard and one TOV.
If anyone who has experience with this would look at my attached chart I would greatly appreciate an opinion. Does it look normal?
He is on the Hubbard Tradition chinchilla diet, Oxbow Timothy Hay (which he doesn't eat very much of compared to his pellets), and is getting calf manna as a supplement although not very much. His environment and schedule has been pretty constant.
Although I log his weight daily I have attached a graph with data 7 days apart since I got him.
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Over the first 3-4 months they bloom up in size extremely quickly. Then it begins to slow down. From 4-7 months is it a little slower. After 7 months they are pretty much at their final size and just fill out more so it will slow down again.
As long as he is eating and drinking normal and not losing weight he is fine. :)
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Thanks. That is what I wanted to hear. The day to day trend has been fluctuating +/- 2-6g (on my scale the accuracy is +/-2) and for a the last 14 days he would never go above 400g although he would reach it but not keep it. This morning, oddly enough, the scale puts him at 402g for the first time so I'm happy now. I'd really like to see him get to 500g.
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That is interesting that you are keeping a journal per say of his weight.
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Yeah I've done that since I got my first chinchilla. Although it's overkill since a weekly log is what breeders will use, it's a good way to keep track of health. Chinchillas usually don't start acting sick until they're almost dead, but they will often eat less when there is something wrong and this will show up in the trend. So I log his weight, water intake(measuring in cm), and food intake (giving it a grade of 0 to 5 and put it into my computer so I can see the trend lines. This helped immensely in getting a diagnosis for malocclusion in my first chin. Since my new chin is still growing the line is measuring his progress and it's fun to watch.
I recommend that everyone who owns exotic pets weighs their animals at least once a week. If you suspect they are sick but aren't sure you can sometimes confirm it by looking at the trend.
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He weighs more than Snickerdoodle :(