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[maxsmom]

I rescued a Chinchilla that we affectionately call Tug Boat or Tug, right now. We just got him this past Saturday and his hair is in terrible shape. It is very greasy and unlike my other chins his fur doesn't really move. For instance, if I blow on my other chins coat it will part and I can see the skin but with Tug's coat it doesn't even move. He is also so obese he has fat rolls and I'm not sure if it's because he was in a cage that he couldn't jump around in or if it's because he is so large but he can only jump as tall as he is when he stands on his back feet.

So here is my first question. Right now I'm regulating how much pellets he gets but allowing him to have unlimited Hay. Is that okay? If so, how much pellets should he get? He lived in a large cage but it had ramps all through it so he never jumped anywhere, his old home also said he was not social at all so they never let him out of his cage. Since he is overweight we have been letting him out to stretch his legs twice a day for at least 15 mins each time. He loves this time and we seem to be bonding pretty well, he will even come and sit in my  lap after a little while. Is there anything else I should do be doing for him?

My second question is how often can he get a dust bath and is there anything else I can do for his fur? His coat has a lot of tuffs of loose hair hanging out all over his body, can you brush chinchillas? If so what brush do you recommend?

Thanks everyone! Tug appreciates any and all advice!!
Ashley

[Jhenderson27]

Ashley,

you are doing great, just keep up what your doing, from what I have herd a slow decrease in pellets down to 2tbs 2x a day is fine.  A SLOW DECREASE, you cannot just shock his system by taking a majority away.  Some of our chins we regulate, some do it themselves.  unlimted hay is perfect.  They should eat mostly Tim hay.  My chins dust every 2 or 3 days.  Watch their skin, if its dry, dust less, if its fine your dusting is fine.  Use a good quality dust like blue cloud, my chins love it, but it does make a big cloud when they jump in and gets everywhere, but such is the life of owning chins.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

No need to cut back on his good feed, just cut out the treats.
Chins don't get over weight, some are just much bigger than others. He sounds like a fine big boy to me. Mine range from 600 grams-1000 grams. and pregnant females can reach 1200+.
Also some have much denser fur and when blown on you may not see the skin so easily. Most mine are like that,though I do have a couple skinny old guys that their fur is not so dense.
If his coat is dirty give him  dust bath every day for a week then cut back to the normal 3 times a week.
He must be so happy to be getting out of his cage for runs

[maxsmom]

Maybe Tug is just a big boy! He is almost double the size of Max though. I'm pretty sure he has never gotten any treats but now that he is here he won't for awhile. His coat is very greasy. I will try to get a picture of him to post. Right now he is still getting enough pellets that he can't eat them all in a day. I have slowly been decreasing it from there and we will see what we get. The first night we brought him home we let him out to run around outside of his cage so we could get a better look at him. He hesitantly came out and then he started hopping around. He crawled into my lap a few times which was so cute and then he would hop away to do other things. After about 20 mins I decided to put him back and you could tell he was so upset! He started racing around his cage like a wild man and knocking everything over. I think he threw a chinchilla tantrum! LOL. He really is cute and just a little shy.

Ashley

[ABC Chinchillas]

I agree with Deb. don't cut back on his feed. cut out the treats he may just be a big boy.

[jmdebb]

yup ditto kristy and star.. as long as you are feeding him a quality diet.. maybe the last owners gave him crap food with alot of treats so that could be why, or like they also said, he could just be a big boy.  in due time, with quality food and not alot of treats you should see his true weight.  but alot of peole will use that food with all the treats in it, and if they used that, then you know he just ate bad.  keep us posted.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

  That's so funny Ashley, yes I've seen many throw tantrums.

[maxsmom]

So I have been giving Tug the food he came with and after three days here I put in just a little bit of the food I feed my Chins (Oxbow pellets) so I could start to switch him over. I've been very slowly increasing how much of my pellets he is getting and the little bugger will pick through his food and only eat the Oxbow pellets! So I guess whatever he was eating before must not taste as yummy and his new food. So he is completely switched to eating only the Oxbow and he is also jumping between his shelves a lot more now then when he first got here. So I'm not going to decrease his food, I'm just going to let him eat what he pleases and just make sure he gets lots of play times to help run off some of his extra weight. I was talking about Tug's weight with my boyfriend and we think the problem is that in his old cage he had ramps to go up his shelves so he never really jumped, he also had no toys in his old cage and he never came out of his cage. So we think he got very little exercise and possibly ate out of boredom. Now maybe Tug is just a big chinchilla but if he could loose just a tiny bit of weight I would feel better. I have never seen him roll over in his dust bath. He will roll on one side, then stand up, roll onto the other side but he never does a complete roll over to get his back. He also doesn't fit in my chinchilla dust bath house so we are using an old dog food bowl for him. I took some pictures last night of him that I will try to post later today to see what you guys think about his weight. I really appreciate all of the advice!

Ashley

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Can you weigh him Ashley?
Can't wait to see this big fur ball 

[maxsmom]

Yay! I got some photos to upload. So here are some pictures of Tug! Just as a side note, yes, his shelves are plastic and I know that plastic shelves are dangerous. I will be switching him to all wood this weekend, I just needed some time off to do it. Anyways! Here are some pics of Tug.








You can see larger pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/chewysnova/TugBoat#5566974682524223282

So what do you guys think about his weight? I will try to see if I can find a way to weigh him. I don't have a scale here but maybe a vet would let me just bring him in quickly to be weighed?


Ashley

[Debbie.nl.ca]

He's not fat!!!!!
He looks like a fine boy to me. He needs a good comb,and/or extra dust baths, but he's not over weight.