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1

Health / Re: Please someone help me, please!

« on: December 04, 2007, 08:09:55 PM »

Also she's been eating fine and drinking. I haven't noticed any shortage of poop and I know she's peeing because she's the one that pee off the leaping ledge and I just cleaned it off the other day.

2

Health / Please someone help me, please!

« on: December 04, 2007, 07:59:55 PM »

I know this probably isn't going to help me in time, but I need to do something in the meantime. Something is wrong with Maggie, my husband wa spot cleaning the cage and noticed Maggie's fur was kind of dirty looking and when he picked her up and turned her over she had a pink bulge in her belly and she's been chewing on her hair. She doesn't seem distressed, but she keeps trying to roll in her bedding and keeps licking and biting it. We seperated her from our other in chinchilla.

My old chinchilla Veterinarian, who I loved is retired and they aren't referring new exotic clients to anyone else right now. We're waiting for the emergency vet to open up so we can call them and take her in, I'm so terrified though because NONE of the ones I've found have good reviews reviews online. Is bad care better then no care?

I don't know what to do for her till we can get a hold of the vet. I don't even know what might be wrong.

She seemed fine yesterday, she took hey from my hand and I rubbed her head!

3

Q & A / Re: What does it mean when she rubs her nose?

« on: September 20, 2007, 11:00:33 AM »

Then maybe that's it, the circling air tickles their noses?

If that's it I don't think that's anything to be too concerned over.

4

Q & A / Re: What does it mean when she rubs her nose?

« on: September 18, 2007, 10:58:47 AM »

Oh!! Do you have a fan or ceiling fan in the room!

I notice my chins wipe their noses more often when we have a fan on!

5

General Chat / Re: Chins That Are From pet Stores

« on: September 14, 2007, 03:17:53 PM »

I told myself I'd never buy any animal from a pet store yet both of my chinchillas are pet store chins. :-(

Maggie we bought because she tugged at my heart strings and I couldn't say no, it's poor excuse but we learned our lesson.

We bought Stoli out of pity. She was at a terrible mom and pop pet store for as long as we'd been going there to visit her, at least 8 months. She was given terrible food and living in poor conditions. I agonized about it for weeks and we bought her only after the store owner made it clear she wouldn't buy more chinchillas and she even gave her to us at a discount.

I think we really lucked out, we ended up with healthy chinchillas even if they are a little bratty and mischievous. I think that's because we spoil them and pine over them.

Anyways that's it for our pet store chins. Well kinda. If we did get more chins we'd probably try to help some rescue chins instead of getting new ones.

6

General Chat / Re: Guilty Chins?

« on: September 05, 2007, 03:37:12 PM »

Our chins seem to know when they're doing something they shouldn't be but they are remorseless little hooligans especially Maggie... but what can we expect when we spoil them.

For instance when we let them out for play time, they know to stay away from the doorway but they will test us. Maggie will run up to the door and when we say NO Maggie, she'll pause and look back and either she will run back to me or she'll do this little wiggle and make a mad dash for the door.

One time she was chewing on this corner of her metal cage. I kept giving her sticks to try to get her to stop but she kept going back. Finally I put my hand between her and the corner - she got so mad! She started digging and kicking the bedding and then trying to push my hands away from the corner with her paws. eventually I think she tired out but it was the weirdest thing and she hasn't been fixated on that spot since.

7

General Chat / Re: Chins That Are From pet Stores

« on: September 05, 2007, 03:29:03 PM »

My Maggie is from petsmart... I told myself I wasn't getting a pet store chin and then the sales guy put her in my hands. I couldn't say no.

Your chinchilla sounds just like how Maggie was when we brought her home... and still is sometimes. She never seemed to sleep but as she's gotten used to us - she'll just flop on her side and sleep with her little legs sticking out, occasionally with her eyes open.

I wouldn't say she loves to be pet but she doesn't seem to mind it, she'll let us pet her head and stroke her back. She's also gotten to the point where she will jump in our hands. We got into the habit of not letting her jump out of the cage on her own, she has to walk on our hands first and this is the only way she'll let herself be held. Usually with one hand supporting her back legs and one hand in front of her that she can lean on. Anytime you try to grip her or she feels your fingers close around her she will kick. We've also rewarded her with a treat when she gets back into the cage, a rose hip or a small piece of papaya.

I'd say make friends with him like TNChinChin mentioned and get him used to your hands.

8

General Chat / Re: Does anyone else have a chinchilla with a spot?

« on: August 21, 2007, 11:13:31 AM »

Oh goodness! I've heard it's common for chinchillas to pee like that but mine never have... well not yet. For such little people, what big personalities they have!

When I had to get Stoli into her moving cage when the bug man was coming I went to pick her up and she didn't run away but stood up and her hind legs and grunted at me. I had to give her a piece of papaya to distract her enough so I could pick her up.

9

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

« on: August 20, 2007, 12:39:07 PM »

We got a saucer wheel for our chinchillas a few months ago. At first they stayed away from it but gradually started using it occasionally.

Honestly I didn't think they were that crazy about it until I had to take them to my mother in laws house and they had to be in a smaller cage with no saucer wheel for two night. as soon as we put them back in their old cage they ran for the wheel and went nuts over it. Both of them trying to run on it at the same time. I had no idea they would miss it so much.

They took turns running on it into the wee hours of the morning. It was just crazy.

10

General Chat / Does anyone else have a chinchilla with a spot?

« on: August 20, 2007, 11:50:26 AM »

So I have two chinchilla's Maggie and Stoli. Maggie tolerates being pet pretty much anywhere - stoked down the back, on her head, under her chin but Stoli really doesn't care to be pet except in on particular spot.

If you scratch Stoli's chin she'll stretch her little arms out wide so you can rub her chest, her ears will go back and her eyes will start to close and a few times she's made little chirpy, clicky noises. It's the funniest thing.

She HATES being taken from her cage or being pet on the back but in that one spot she loves being pet. I'll try to get some pictures. Anyone seen anything similar?

11

Q & A / Re: Seizures

« on: March 15, 2007, 05:17:48 PM »

Sorry! I've tried to post a few times and was interrupted.

So basically the vet said the same thing that you all have said. He said it's possible she had a mild seizure but he said from what I described didn't sound like it. I could sort of see her tremble and when I touched her she was vibrating but her body wasn't rigid, even though one ear was flattened completely against her head and she held her arm close she still scurried away and threw some fur.

Joanne he also mentioned that he believes animals sense, hear and smell things we do not and something may have spooked her. We also talked about the temperature and her diet. He said it may be possible that she is diabetic because of her poor diet in the pet store, so we're keeping an eye on her food and water intake.

Given that we know nothing about her past it could be anything or it could be nothing. He told me to keep a close watch on her and note any thing of concern and follow up with him. He said chinchilla are just like people and they all react to things different. He suggested we just might need to get to know her better. Other then that she appears to be in good shape - good looking teeth, good weight, no ghardia.

He did tell me if she did have a seizure to use my best judgment in making her comfortable. He said he believed some animals would most definitely prefer human contact when going through something like a seizure. Of course Stoli is new to us still and is still sometimes easily frightened so he said it might be best if we just tried to let her "ride it out" so as not to exacerbate the situation.

Since then she has been just fine, we've tried to let her be on her own for the most part.

She seems to have gotten more skittish since we've had her and I'm not sure why. Before she would run up to the bars for a scratch on the head and hop in our hands. Now you can't try to hold her and you have to get down to business and scratch that one spot on her chin if you don't want her to run away. Though it you do get to that spot she'll spread her arms out and lean forward with her eye's half closed forever.

Part of me wonders if it's because she has Maggie now for companionship. They are still getting along wonderfully, they sleep all day together, groom each other and eat together.

12

Q & A / Seizures

« on: March 12, 2007, 10:49:49 AM »

Seizures


I was just wondering what anyone thought of this…

Last week we noticed Stoli was standing crouched and trembling. Her hands drawn in close her body and one of her ears pulled flat against her head in a strange way… I really can’t think of a better way to describe it, if it happens again I’ll try to take a picture of it.

When we tried to touch her she was able to run away sorta, but still with one arm still drawn close to her body and one ear flattened against her head. We waited till she calmed down and her ears perked up. I picked her up and examined her legs, they looked fine and she didn’t freak out when I touched them.

She’s going to the vet today, but does this sound like a seizure? She wasn’t shaking violently but trembling a little like the first day we brought her home (she sat in her house an trembled a little but after a few minutes she was fine.)

13

Q & A / Re: New chinchilla help

« on: February 26, 2007, 04:11:05 PM »

Oh! a note on the ball! I think you should wait for her to adjust to her surrounding a little more before you try the ball more.

Our first chinchilla Maggie is hates the ball. She wouldn't move and peed in it every time we had put her in it, even now we put it in her cage (our cages are giant with huge doubt doors) occasionally so she can "get to know it" she hops in and pees in it immediately and hops out.

Our other chinchilla Stoli  we've had around a month or so, we put the ball near her cage and eventually moved it in her cage. A few days ago when she was sitting in it already we  closed the door and set it on the floor, she immediately started running around. She did so for about 10 minutes and as soon as we put her back she went and peed in her corner. Now every time since, I've put the ball in her cage she jumps in and gets to go for her little spin.

I don't think however I'll continue to do this when the weather gets warmer, I think the ball will be a "winter sport" only as I'm sure it heats up in there.

14

Q & A / Re: what if there's a blackout this summer?

« on: February 26, 2007, 03:54:33 PM »

Depending on the scope of the outage this may not work, but here we've designated my mother in law who lives about 30 minutes away as the chin sitter in case of a black/brown out. Also our vet was able to recommend a pet sitter service with a generator in case my mother in law isn't available, they charged about 14 a night for a single small animal with their own food, 19 for two or more animals in the same cage.

Last year when our A/C wasn't working as well as it should have we used refrigerated tiles during the warm part of the day too. The people at Home Depot were actually very helpful in selecting tiles. They said stone types such as marble and granite would hold the cooler temperature longer but hard ceramic tiles were cheaper and we could buy more for less and swap them out more frequently.

We also put the dust bath in the freezer for a while. This doesn't freeze the dust but made it cooler. I don't know if it helped much, but I think if I had a fur coat like that I might think it was nice.

I remember someone suggested this before... we also got a ceramic wine cooler. We'd chill that and it's about the size of a chube so when we put it in Maggie's cage she'd crawl into it.

We also invested in the blackout liners for our curtains and over our blinds because the windows at our place are old and not very insulated. It helped a lot more then I thought it would to keep out house darker and cooler.

15

General Chat / Re: Chinchilla Update!

« on: February 26, 2007, 02:34:19 PM »

So everyone seems to be adjusting well. We still separate them when we aren't home and when we go to bed just to be safe but for most of the time we are home they are together.

They spend a lot of time snuggling and grooming each other. Occasionally we hear a little squawk from Stoli (that's what we've named the new one) but I think it's because Maggie isn't quite so skilled at her grooming technique and tends to get a little closer to Stoli's ear then Stoli would prefer.

So far though no fighting, biting, kicking or bickering at all. I'm actually very relieved, everyone said there would be the most chance of fighting between two females but they appear to enjoy each others company.