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[corvus]

Hi, we bought a new chinchilla to replace the one that died couple months ago because the remaining one, Kaja, was starting to desperately call for a chinchilla contact.

So we got this new kit now for a month and everything seems perfectly fine except today when i was feeding her a dried pea she had something like a short inability to keep balance, it lasted about 15-20 seconds she started to move slowly and turn strongly to the left clumsily i picked her up and she leaned left, i felt a little shivering and then it passed, she was perfectly fine. Im paranoid knowing how delicate these animals are. Was it just a muscle cramp or dizzyness?
Im teaching her to come where i tap 3 times and i use the halves of dried pea and whole dried pea as an incentive. I didn't see her fall or knock her head, infact she  avoids heights bigger than 30-40centimeters yet and shes less coordinated than the adult chin but she likes to bounce on the floor and almost does backflips especialy when she can backflip on the older chin cause she wants to play. After the event nothing seemed damaged, teeth seem even, all fingers at their normal angles, stomath normal to touch, she grinded her teeth a bit but its sporadic. She poops alot so she eats and her poop from a looser consistency changed to a normal harder consistency since week 1 in new environment where she got the new feed. Its week 3 shes with us she grown by about 1/3 in that time. So she seems to be healthy and developing fine

She approached my hand with the treat normaly, then again in a diferent spot, then again and she got the treat and she started turning left. Can dizzyness or a muscle cramp be normal in young growing chins?

[GrayRodent]

Sounds like your chinchilla may have had something like a seizure. When my pet, Kulu was young he did things that seemed very odd like that but I've never seen anything like it after the first month I had him. Some chinchillas are prone to seizures.
The most common cause is overheating, second most common is blood sugar problems from not having a proper diet, third is vitamin deficiencies. Calcium is important. If the front teeth are clean white and not a brownish yellow that indicates calcium deficiency in chins which is caused by poor breeding practices. This must be treated immediately if that is the case. There are more exotic types of deficiencies that can exist but you'll need some blood tests to pin those down. I wouldn't recommend that unless this is happening again and again and you can't find a cause.

Make sure your chinchilla is given plain alfalfa based pellets with no mixtures of fruit or seeds in them. In addition feed loose timothy or similar hay. These items should be kept in the cage at all times. Chinchillas shouldn't be playing heavily outside of the cage for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. It sounds like your chin is very active. Take care it is not over-exerting and overheating. If this is triggered by a lot of activity that is likely the cause. Overheating can be extremely dangerous to chinchillas and cause long term damage. Younger chinchillas are more prone to it than adults. If in doubt it doesn't hurt to put your chin back in the cage and let him cool off for a while.

I would also recommend not having an exercise wheel in your chin's cage until it is at least 450g.

If you check its ears you can look at the blood vessels. Pay attention to how it looks when your chinchilla is resting and compare it to what it looks like when he's being active and playing hard. This helps you gauge your chin's temperature.

Loose stool after the first week of relocation is normal. I recommend withholding any treats until two weeks and only when stool is normal. Great care must be given in feeding treats. My general advice is don't give them and especially if you suspect something is abnormal. Grinding teeth is fairly normal chinchilla behavior depending on the context. Considering your pet seems to be in good health I wouldn't be concerned about it unless it's obsessive and associated with depression and not eating.

Of course as always I'm going to say I'm no vet or highly trained professional and I speak from collective experience and research. If you feel your pet is in trouble consult an exotic veterinary specialist experienced with chinchillas specifically. (A vet that is not is typically dangerous). If I'm going to make a guess I think this points to a neurological symptom as opposed to muscular.

[corvus]

Didnt look at the ears at the time, its a  violet chinchilla with her gay ears it wouldnt stand out. My chins are playing outside for several hours, they are not active at all times. 80% of that time they sit behind a short cupboard (where i can easily acces cause the cupboard is on wheels but they think its an impenetrable fortress where no human can enter... because i dont have to do that often) they just sit there conspiring as to where to rip upp my old wallpaper next...

It might have been stress and activity, i train her in sessions for about 10 minutes each and she isnt trusting us fully yet so you can see its very anxious to her to come to the spot i point to as she usualy evacuates to her cupboard after shes given the reward. (Altho im making rapid progress, she seems easier to train than a dog and  before yesturdays incident she stood put and ate near me) Im going to observe her. She has been given versele laga nature and a bunch of dried twigs at all times, she also has acces to calcium.  She didnt have hay except for whats in versele laga (thaught twigs are enough, they usualy ripp it up and ignore the one thats on the floor so it never lasts longer than a day) I have multivitamin for pets i can add a drop or two to their water.

[GrayRodent]

That's unusual to have a pet chinchilla outside of the cage for several hours at a time. I think your pet will be better off being in its cage more especially during the day when she does most of her sleeping. It will be less stressful for her. Stress can cause these symptoms under certain circumstances as well.

The temperature around the chinchilla should not exceed 23C (73F). If it does then any activity will result in overheating. Also your chinchilla should have access to loose hay at all times. It should be considered the base of the chinchilla's diet. The pellets are supplementary to it although they are still important. This helps keeps their teeth trimmed and properly formed. Problems here are usually fatal for chinchillas. I recommend timothy hay.

Yes chinchillas are amazingly trainable. Some of them are so calm and intelligent that owners describe them as being just like a dog.

I do not recommend using vitamin supplements. Calcium powder is okay but don't use drops or minerals and as long as your chin's teeth look normal they are not necessary unless you're breeding. Vitamin and mineral supplements can be quite dangerous to chinchillas.

One last thing to note considering you let yours roam your house is that electrical cables are going to be your pet's worst enemy. I know of many chins now that have died from getting these cables. For some reason they are irresistible to them once they get found. Make sure the places you allow your pet to run are as chew proof as possible. Lead based paint is also a known issue.

Sounds like your pet is doing well and you've found a really nice chinchilla. I think you'll do well.

[BLS Chins]

No treats or playtime till the chin is over 6 months old. Young chins cant control their blood sugar, body temps, or blood pressure till they are mature. By feeding peas you may have been causing blood sugar spikes that can lead to seizures. They play time can cause over heating or low blood sugar which would have similar symptoms. Stress or fear (training time) can lead to high blood pressure which can lead to balance issues (due to inner ear swelling). Keep your chins schedule and food simple and you will get better results and limit health problems

[corvus]

It might have been stress, shes very untrusting still so if she is expected to come out for a treat you often see her go back and forth back and forth on short distance or half way and then back if i ever as much as brethe too loudly if i sit across the room. Im thinking about switching the rewards to oats. The cage is usualy jsut open and they come out and in as they please altho yesturday i opened it later than usual.

Im constantly watching the new one for interest in cables, fortunatley where she sits theres only an internet cable which isnt under current. The older chin, Kaja some years ago (i wasnt living here so its not my fault) has managed to grab a cable from a lamp that was on and pull it inside the cage. Then bitten through it causing entire houses electrical system to short. She wasnt fried so it propably wasnt that bad of a shock but something must have happened because since that she never touched a cable, and the new one seems to understand that those "cable" things which i always shoo her away from and the bigger chin never bites are not to be eaten.

Compared to a dog chins seem to learn faster because a dog will try to swindle you out of the treat without doing the work, he will get distracted easily, loose focus, try to play more than learn. I have been observing chins react to changes in the room, and they seem to map it very fast. Once acces to a spot gets blocked and they sucesfully spent some time in there before (30min-1h is enough) without being bothered they will try for months to get back in there. They learn paths, so if they want to run away they instantly go to the nearest escape route. The chin seems a bit of a simpler machine that has less unexpectability to it and learns simple commands with positive reinforcement bloody fast. The negative side seems to be that they are way less trusting because theyre bottom feeders, its harder to build a bond in them. Cause the owners? we bond very fast to anything with big eyes and ears

I was watching chin seizures on youtube it looked simmilar enough altho they didnt seem to turn to one side, lean on one side, with Dusty i expected it may have been something with the inner ear, looked so. The seizure hasnt repeat itself, she didnt get as much pea as the day it happened since... she has been less focused on and left  outside for shorter periods. And i packed alot of hay tightly so they didnt ripp it up in one night.

Is there a better way to keep them from tearing the hay up completley first day they get it? Maybe theres a trick, or a better container i am unaware of. I just have an open top wall mounted wire "pocket" for hay type thing...

[corvus]

Yea, saw her have thesame thing again just now . She wasnt outside the cage for long.  She was hopping arround and over me for 5 minutes and then i repeated the come to my hand command which she completed thrice, i gave her one pea. She went on nibbling on it for a while and then had a seizure, problems with mobility,  body low, legs wide, after she started to be mobile again after 1-15 seconds i noticed shivering. shivering alsted for another 10 seconds and then she was fine. Im gonna have to take her to the vet -.-

The cage was cleaned yesturday, she had fresh hay, food, watter and calcium. Im starting to fear shes so scared and reserved because shes suffering from something.
The other chin slips on her alot and they cuddle together almost all the time. I remember Kaja did that to Rebeca when Rebeca was mortally ill

[GrayRodent]

I recommend a vet visit and get a blood test to rule out something seriously wrong. Some chinchillas do have a genetic propensity to have seizures (like epilepsy or hypoglycemia). There might not always be a treatment.

If you got your chinchilla from a breeder I recommend collaborating with the breeder. If the breeder is reputable they will be interested in making sure that genetically related seizures are removed from the line. Unfortunately making a diagnosis for seizures isn't always easy.

[corvus]

Could a chin be starving itself because it doesnt like versele laga nature food? Would seizure ocurr after getting peas after starving herself for a while? I ask because i think the chin might have been not eating well. She browses through pellets throwing 70-80% of them away. I noticed the feed didnt dissapear as fast as it normaly did altho i just gave them alot of fresh hay after a weeks absence of it so i thaught that might been it. Anyhow i have added a bit of the feed that the new chin (Dusty) was on when she was at the breeders farm about half a handfull and i noticed it was all gone this morning. Versele laga pellets remained but the breeders feed was all gone. I have seen her eat many times and she does that several times even as i write this tho she has just the versele feed now.
Also waterbottle was staying full for a long time so i lowered it and she drank from it for about 1,5 minute non stop and shortly later again for a a minute and again i think she downed like 10-20ml.

She also has a small soar on one of her hind legs like the furr was ripped out, doesnt look very fresh nor bloody, its a bit of furrless skin with shie to it and a bit of  redness. Ill make photos tommorow... I dont think thats Kajas doing tho because the chin isnt afraid of her and usualy when in playfull mood Dusty chases after Kaja

Overall i noticed she had more energy today. much less scared of us, much more playfull and relaxed (bit me to blood when she was trying to catch my fingers, didnt expect so much strength usualy they nibble much less intensely but it was the first time, maybe she didnt know how much she can allow herself to bite down on them. Anyway im a bit reasurred that she has no problems with teeth causing seizures by roots growing into her brain or something she doesnt stray from hard foods either)  so shes definitley less shy and not afraid of my hand that much). She didnt ran away from us all the time. She managed to sit arround very near or crawl arround my hands without panicking at the slightest sound. Im wondering if its the breeders food or is she just finaly acomodating to us. There was also much more chatter than usual in the cage between the chins today. And she was running fast like a maniac for a short moment when outside so she seemed revitalised...

Im keeping her outsidethe cage time in short 15-30 minutes bursts now usualy under direct supervision so i can notice any seizures. None today.

A bit anxious about blood tests on her, after what happened to Rebeca and her leg and Rebeca was twice as big and a very non-twitchy, calm animal...
Were gonna observe her for a fev more days before we go to the vet.

[GrayRodent]

If your pet is not eating normally that is a possible cause for seizures. Are you feeding loose timothy hay in addition to pellets? Loose hay is actually the chinchilla's main diet and pellets are considered to be a supplement. Please stop feeding peas. They are not an appropriate treat for chinchillas and that cause blood sugar issues.

When transitioning from one type of pelleted diet to another it's important to mix them gradually over 10 days. Chinchillas' diets should never be changed abruptly. Chances are your pet will eventually accept the other diet. Just give it some time and make sure there is unlimited access to hay.

With this being said I recommend going back to the diet your pet is used to until you've establish a cause for the seizures and do not feed treats of any kind unless your pet is healthy.

As far as water bottles go always check that they are dispensing. Do this at least once a day. There are several ways bottles can fail with changes in temperature or barometric pressure where the balls get sucked in and you have to jostle or open the bottle to equalize the pressure. I also check the water levels on my pets' waterers each day.

If you see something that looks like a sore in the fur it could be a fungal infection. Those typically spread rapidly so pay close attention to the size of it. Sometimes photographs are useful in identifying it. Treatment for fur fungus (typically ringworm) is simple but you may have to go to extremes with cage cleaning until it's healed up and it can very be contagious to you and other pets.

The best measure of food intake is your pet's droppings. If they look normal and are plentiful then your pet is eating. Also check its weight about once a week. A pet that is sick and not eating will lose weight.

Hope this helps.