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1

North Central USA / 2 male chinchilllas in need of short-term foster home - URGENT!

« on: May 17, 2011, 06:30:36 PM »

Hello,

Thank you very much for reading this post.  I have two male chinchillas, Monk (aka Tiny) and Leon (aka Piggy).  They are brothers and they are four years old.  They are healthy and happy.

I have been living in Ecuador since the end of September through a Fulbright grant to complete a project here.  A dear friend of mine has been taking care of Monk and Leon for me in Chicago during the past months, but she is suddenly not going to be able to take care of them anymore.  She will be having to leave her apartment on May 23rd. 

We are in a spot here, and I'm hoping that someone might be able to take care of Monk and Leon from now until September 15th, when I will be back in Chicago. Unfortunately, no one I know is able to take care of them for me and I am worried. 

They have a cage, a flying saucer wheel, wooden house, a non-drip water bottle with metal shield, a carrier, and come with supplies (Oxbow Chinchilla Deluxe pellets, hay, some Carefresh bedding, total enhancer supplement, bath dust and bath house, chew blocks and lava bites, treats, petromalt, styptic powder).  I will be able to pay for the additional supplies they need between now and the middle of September.  They have a great vet - Dr. Connor at The Animal House of Chicago - in case anything comes up (which I would also of course pay for).

I am not able to offer monetary compensation aside from paying for their supplies because of my situation right now.  I don't have an income while I am here in Ecuador; just a monthly stipend to cover living expenses.  I'm hoping someone might be able to donate their time to take care of my little guys.  I would be thrilled to make a trade and help you out in some way when I am back in Chicago to return the favor. 

Thank you very much for reading!!!

Sincerely,
Maria

2

Q & A / Re: Chinnies freaked out by flying saucer wheel?

« on: July 29, 2007, 08:37:18 PM »

That's really reassuring.  Thanks!     I am going to put the wheel back in tonight and see how they do.  I could tell that Monk was looking around his cage for the wheel once I did take it out.  Leon definitely seemed relieved that it was gone, though.  He's so funny about things! 

3

Q & A / Chinnies freaked out by flying saucer wheel?

« on: July 28, 2007, 10:54:58 AM »

I just bought a flying saucer wheel for my two chins and I put it in their cage last night for the first time.  I watched them for a while to see how they would react to it, and it seemed like they were both really freaked out by it - like it was a huge scary invader in their house.  Monk did jump on it and would run on it awkwardly right from the beginning, but he would look freaked out the whole time and then would fly off of it and lay flat on his stomach under the wheel with his chin on the floor. 

Leon was very interested in the wheel, but it was like he was trying to figure out if it would attack him.  He wouldn't climb on it from the floor of his cage.  Instead he would hop up to a higher shelf and then jump down onto it as if trying to ambush it, and each time it would of course just sling-shot him to another part of the cage immediately.  He would frantically squirm under the wheel and behind it, even while Monk was running on it.  Leon would get stuck like this, once with one little arm stuck sticking up above the wheel, and I was afraid he was going to get hurt.  They also both would stand on the floor of the cage and put their teeth against the side of the wheel as it was still spinning. 

Then Leon, who is very friendly but hasn't yet come around to jumping into our hands and letting us hold him, would desperately want out of the cage and when we would open the door he would jump right into our arms and want to be carried around.  We would pet him and try to reassure him (all the while amazed that he wanted us to hold him and pet him for the first time ever) and then put him back in the cage with his brother and the wheel.  One of the times that we opened the cage door, he immediately hopped out to the floor and hopped into our bedroom - He has NEVER EVER  gone loose in our apartment before!  He has always been too scared to be that adventurous. 

When we put him back in the cage, he went to the ledge in the corner of the cage that was farthest opposite the wheel and laid down flat on his stomach with his chin resting on the ledge, just like Monk had done under the wheel.  Monk came and joined him on the ledge and they seemed to be fighting to be the one squished furthest into the corner, farthest from the wheel.  And they both wanted out of the cage really badly. 

We took the wheel out because I couldn't tell what exactly was going on with them and it seemed extremely stressful for them.  (And I was going to sleep and didn't want something to happen to them in the middle of the night.)  Is this normal?  Has anyone had this happen and knows what this means?  I can't tell if it is too stressful to have the wheel in there. 

The other thing is that I am afraid their cage might be on the small side for the wheel.  The way Leon was squishing himself beside the wheel and the back and side wall of the cage concerned me.  Also, whenever Monk or Leon would fly off of the wheel, they would be thrown against something else in the cage, like their box house.  I think they will love the wheel once they get used to it, but I definitely don't want anyone to get injured. 

4

Q & A / Re: sticky fur

« on: June 22, 2007, 07:46:23 AM »

I haven't been giving him yogurt - I hadn't heard of that before.  I will get him some today and start that.  What kind of yogurt do I give him?  (Do I just get plain yogurt from the grocery store?)  How much yogurt should I give him each day?

About the baby wipes - what kind do you use?  I'm so leary of any chemicals around the chins, so it would be good to know which ones are safe. 

Thanks!

5

Q & A / sticky fur

« on: June 21, 2007, 11:42:58 PM »

My vet prescribed some medicine for one of my chins and we have been giving it to him for the past 10 days.  The new problem is that it is sometimes difficult to get him to take it and invariably a little bit of the medicine ends up on his fur.  The medicine is sticky and he has been pulling at his fur to get the medicine off, and now he has a little bald patch on the side of his nose and some loose fur around his face. 

My question is, what is the best way to get the sticky stuff off of him?  Should I dampen a towel and wipe his face?  Will his fur grow back?  Is there anything else I should do to help his fur grow back the way it was before?

6

Q & A / Update on the unsocial chinnie

« on: May 24, 2007, 11:39:34 AM »

I am proud and happy to say that my previously unsocial chinne, Leon, is now social! woo-hoo!  It took a little while, though.  What we ended up doing was using their little travel pet carrier as transportation between the cage and the playpen.  For a while, Leon wouldn't go in the pet carrier and so would just sit in the cage while his brother, Monk, came out to play.  After a couple weeks of seeing Monk excitedly scamper into the carrier, Monk finally felt comfortable enough to go in with his brotherAnd he was so excited to finally run around in the play pen.  Now Leon comes out to the playpen with Monk every day.  He likes to be pet now and comes up to us all the time. Thanks for all the advice!

7

Q & A / Re: unsocial chinnie

« on: April 03, 2007, 02:45:50 PM »

It's great to hear that it is a personality thing and that chins can come around any time.  And the idea that I have years to bond with Leon, if need be, really puts things in perspective.  Whew!  It's a relief!

It is funny to see Leon in the cage when Monk is out playing.  Leon can see Monk jumping around, and he watches him intently.  So hopefully one day soon he will feel comfortable enough to come out and join in.   

8

Q & A / Re: unsocial chinnie

« on: April 01, 2007, 02:28:19 PM »

At least Leon likes his brother, so they play around together inside the cage.      I'll keep talking to him and feeding him supplements by hand everyday, and hopefully it will pay off down the line.  In the meantime, though, he really doesn't want to come out to run around - is that okay for him health-wise?  Is a wheel inside the cage enough exercise and stimulation for him?  I worry about him becoming totally neurotic without a lot of mental stimulation in there. 

9

Q & A / unsocial chinnie

« on: April 01, 2007, 01:35:20 AM »

One of our two chinchillas (they are brothers who are in the same cage) still hasn't warmed up to us.  (We have had them a couple of months.)  One of them, Monk, is really social and comes out on our hands when it is the usual time for him to play in the playpen, but Leon won't come out.  We have spent a lot of time sitting with a hand in the cage and talking to them.  We hand feed them some supplement pellets every day and spend a lot of time around them, so I'm not sure what else to do.  It has become a huge ordeal to get Leon to come out of the cage for some exercise, and another ordeal to eventually put him back in his cage.  We have tried offering his dust bath to him so that he can hop into that and then we can carry that to the playpen, but that rarely works.  I can see that he wants to come out, but is too scared to.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Are there other tactics we should try? 

(PS - I haven't posted pictures of them yet, but I hope to borrow a friend's digital camera this week!)

10

Q & A / Re: Chinchilla-proofing a bathroom

« on: February 21, 2007, 04:35:43 PM »

Thank you for the suggestions.  I would really like to set up an area where I can let Monk and Leon (my chins) run around for a couple/few hours each day.  I can see how much they love to scurry and leap, and right now I bring them out of their cage each evening and put them in an area fenced in by a small animal playpen fence, but I don't think it's big enough.  I might get a second playpen and link the two together.  They can leap/climb over the fence, though, and run around the apartment where there are things it would be dangerous for them to chew on, so I can't take my eyes off them for very long.

What kind of set-up does everyone have for their chins to run around in each day? 

11

Q & A / Chinchilla-proofing a bathroom

« on: February 18, 2007, 10:34:17 AM »

I've had my little chinchies for two weeks now and I have been reading that the bathroom can be a good place to let chinchillas run around, if you make sure it is chinchilla proofed.  I look at my bathroom, and I am not sure how far I need to go before it is safe enough for the chins.  For example, what about the thin piping from the back of the commode going into the wall?  I noticed a couple blunt screws sticking out of the commode in that area, too.  Would they chew these and be hurt by them?  hurt themselves running around them?  will they chew the cabinet around the sink?  (it is not solid wood, and i don't know what kinds of woods and other materials it is made of, what kind of lacquer is on it, so i am not sure what they would be ingesting if they chewed on it)  Maybe I am over-worrying as a new chinchilla mom, but those things seem like dangers for them to me.  Has anyone chinchilla-proofed a bathroom?  Am I being paranoid?
Thanks in advance!
--Maria

12

North Central USA / Re: looking for a great chin vet in Chicago

« on: February 06, 2007, 06:53:47 AM »

This is great.  Thanks so much!

13

North Central USA / looking for a great chin vet in Chicago

« on: February 05, 2007, 01:06:34 PM »

We have two new chins (4 and a half months old) and would like to take them for a check-up soon.  We have been doing research on small animal/exotic pet vets in Chicago to find a good one, but if anyone has experience with particular vets that they can recommend, that would be so helpful!  Thanks in advance...

As a side note, is there a recommended period of time that chins should have to acclimate to their new surroundings before they are moved for a trip to the vet?