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Post by ntg on Aug 13, 2018 19:48:36 GMT
This is nothing to do with Gizmo or Benji; my brother and sister-in-law got a pair of female chinchillas a week ago called Nibble (a wilson white) and Munch (a standard grey). My sister-in-law messaged me tonight about the white one getting a damp and discoloured bum from urine. She thinks it's because Nibble is peeing and then sitting in the spot she peed on. Anyone got any advice both on how to clean her up and how to stop it from happening? Only thing I could think of was constant access to sand as, at the moment, they are limiting it. Other info that I feel might be relevant - they're get on fleece liners but do have a litter tray filled with a safe paper pellet but it's the fleece she or both are peeing on and it's not contained to one area so litter tray won't work. Previously they were kept on mesh with the tray underneath in their old home. Another thing they're wondering is sand or dust as they've been reading about the volcanic dust sand but I just said it probably doesn't matter as long as you can shape it into a ball when wet. Is this actually true or other than that are some sands superior to others (they have the JR farm sand atm but I use the pets at home stuff). darthchinchi, randomname, natnat899 I know you all have far more chinchilla experience than me so hopefully you'll have some other advice other than what I've been able to give.
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Post by savvy on Aug 13, 2018 20:03:14 GMT
Have they tried putting some absorbant paper (newspaper, kitchen roll, etc) underneath the fleece? It may stop it pooling so much in one area and can be changed when it gets too wet.
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Post by ntg on Aug 13, 2018 20:10:26 GMT
Could puppy pads underneath work better if you reckon that it's the absorbancy of the fleece that's the issue, sav? I never even though of adding something underneath it as I was just thinking change to something else altogether but knew how much effort she put into sewing the liners for them!
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Post by ntg on Aug 13, 2018 20:37:10 GMT
Okay so she's said they already have towels underneath the fleece to absorb so that won't work :/
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Post by savvy on Aug 13, 2018 21:24:52 GMT
Towels will just stay wet, puppy pads will absorb the urine and hold it in.
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Post by ntg on Aug 13, 2018 21:28:17 GMT
But would the towels not work similarly to your idea of newspaper/kitchen roll? The obsession with the use of fleece in the chinchilla world is beyond me
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Post by savvy on Aug 13, 2018 21:36:04 GMT
Not really, newspaper tends to go to mush as it's designed to breakdown when recycled, kitchen towels are designed to absorb whereas fabric toweling is cotton rich so it just holds the water in place. It's the same when you use a fabric towel to dry anything, only one area of it will be soaking wet, but the rest will remain dry.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2018 21:40:05 GMT
I would ditch the fleece and have loose substrate, it can’t stick to her that way.
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Post by winic1 on Aug 13, 2018 23:15:40 GMT
If she's determined to use fleece, rather than telling her to just give it up, how about suggesting she try a single shelf or area with regular substrate and no fleece, so she can see the different result. If the chins were on mesh, then they are used to just peeing and it's gone. They need to relearn that they should not pee where they sit. Fleece will give the illusion of sitting on a dry place, when really it isn't. Just like the super-absorbent diapers keep little kids from feeling their pee and realizing what happens so that they toilet-train sooner.
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Post by darthchinchi on Aug 14, 2018 4:25:36 GMT
I'm not a fan of fleece. It's one big funbag og bacteria... (and kinda fund that people avoide plastic in cages, but gladly use a plastic based material for the flooring)
Sand should be soft to the touch. There is a few different brands, some finer than others. I personally do not like the very fine almost powdery type sand. At some point some places here sold fine grained regular sand. Problem with that is, it has sharp edges, no matter how fine grained it is, and it will cut into the fur making it look horrible
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Post by natnat899 on Aug 14, 2018 7:22:09 GMT
Peanut has discolouration around his bottom, I’ve tried fleece and wood shavings (fleece seemed to be a bit better). I am attempting to toilet train him so I can have fleece again and it will also discourage him from staying in the same spot (though I don’t think he does). He has long fur around his penis, and has had a fur ring in the past because of this; I think this is why it is discoloured and sometimes damp, when he pees anyway he squats close to the ground. They have access to their dust bath 24/7 and this hasn’t made any difference, I’ve often pondered wiping his bum with a damp cloth, but I think the stress caused wouldn’t be worth it.
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Post by ntg on Aug 14, 2018 19:09:40 GMT
Thanks everyone, I'm not a fan of the fleece either but they're going to try the puppy pads to see if that helps then, if not I imagine they will try a substrate of some kind. winic1, your thinking on the mesh grate is similar to what I thought, since my boys actively change their posture to raise their butts and tails in the air when they wee. But it doesn't look like Nibble is recognising the sitting where she peed means getting wet yet.
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Post by randomname on Aug 15, 2018 6:08:24 GMT
You can buy litter trays with a mesh bottom like this www.littlepetwarehouse.co.uk/hooded-corner-litter-tray-32-x-23-x-22cm-red/ if they're used to mesh bottom it might encourage them to use it? I would think they've already chosen their pee spot, would make more sense to move the litter tray there as they'll probably continue to use that spot now. I'm with Darth, fleece isn't great as a substrate, full of bacteria, sheds microplastic when washed & when in the cage - not worth the risk to lungs or ingestion in the chins or worth the damage to the ocean life. If they can't sort it, I suggest moving to a decent absorbent substrate like hemp or burly bed rather than wood shavings with aren't absorbent. With Dame Maggie Smith having urine scald & discoloured fur when I got her (not to mention dried crusted on urine from years of exposure) I'd go with the 24/7 sand bath access like she has. Over the first 6 months it really made a difference. A teaspoon of cornstarch added to the sand helps absorb fresh pee & return a pale coat to the right colour. I did cornstarch baths once a week from the start, only took a few before I saw a difference. I always put in a plain sand bath the next 6 days so it can work the cornstarch out of the coat properly. I use sepolite (technically clay not sand) with a scoop of volcanic dust on top for all our sand baths (hamster, chins & degus) It's mainly a cost thing - the 20kg bags of Sepolita is around £20 & I can use it frivolously as I like as we always have loads. The volcanic dust is amazing for coat poofyness, it really makes a huge difference especially in white coats. I think it has a sparkly quality (not glitter lol) that makes the coat look doubly thick, poofy & clean. However it's around £20 a litre (& usually has to be shipped from the USA) so no way could I fill 3 big baths & 1 little one every day. It couldn't be sieved & reused either, plus it's super dusty & would go everywhere. It's just not cost effective. So I use 1 scoop per animal on the top of the Sepolita & it mixes in. Makes the degus look super shiny too I found the JR farm & the P@H ones too large grained & bumpy, didn't clean the coat properly as the bits are too big to work their way to the skin. I do like Zooplus' quartz sand a lot, but it's debated whether quartz is a carcinogen so I tend to avoid it. I'm not aiming for show quality coats though, so might not be what some people recommend. Works for us though.
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Post by natnat899 on Aug 16, 2018 18:37:01 GMT
I’ve never seen burlybed before, I would be interested to try it! Peanut has a habit of eating anything I put down as substrate which is why I havnt tried hemp, I can’t see it being good to digest. Is burlybed dangourous if consumed?
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Post by darthchinchi on Aug 16, 2018 19:15:54 GMT
What your thought on hemp digestion wise? It's just a straw type base
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Post by randomname on Aug 16, 2018 23:31:34 GMT
None of our 14 eat substrate, so can't speak from personal experience NatNat. I think the Auboise hemp bedding does have advice to minimise the ingestion of it by horses on the bag, so you're probably right about hemp. Haven't seen anything on the burlybed bag, next time I'm cleaning out I'll have a look at it for you. Does Peanut properly eat it? I saw Dame Maggie give a little bit of a nibble (probably 'cos she's blind & it's her way of identifying stuff) but she threw it down straight away as she realised it wasn't edible. She never picked it up after that. If they did eat it beyond that I don't think I'd use it. Would Peanut eat wood shavings too?
Edit : a good one to try is Aubichick - it's hemp bedding (auboise) but for chickens. It's not bitty like regular hemp, it's smaller. Feels like clouds underfoot, really absorbent & great value BUT I don't like it in our Aventura/Liberta cages as it's so small it gets out easily. It's great in our hamster & g.pig cages as they're deep based/high sides. If you've got a suitable cage or have splash guards it's well worth a try. I doubt any animal would eat it as it's too small & unlike food, I don't think a chinchilla would pick it up as it's not an easy bit to handle, it's more like cotton wool (but it's not, it's not fibrous or in long strands) Best way I can describe it is like big sand bits but made out of feathers (but it's hemp)
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Post by natnat899 on Aug 17, 2018 6:29:27 GMT
When I first put the wood shavings into the cage he will bounce up to see what has gone on, I usually sprinkle some treats around the cage after I have cleaned (positive association and to try and distract peanut) but nope, he picks up numberous pieces of wood shavings and starts properly eating them. At one point I put some toilet paper in there, the degus love it and they will go running around to different parts of the cage to stash it. I was wondering if the chinchillas would be interested ... the only interest it received was peanut eating it. Then it was a tug of war to get it out of the cage (facepalm) I saw that the burlybed has a sour taste to discourage ingestion, so I’ll buy a small bag and watch if he eats any. I have no guards on the cage (I really should have) so everything gets kicked out, but the aubichick does sound interesting and I might buy it to see which one I find best. darthchinchi the hemp looks really stringy and if eaten probably would clog up his digestive system, I’m nervous incase peanut just thinks it’s just another type of hay... he isn’t the brightest
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Post by darthchinchi on Aug 17, 2018 17:00:03 GMT
Ah, okay. My hemp isn't stringy. I have seen some stringy brands, but not for years to be honest. I use hemparade and it's like tiny woodshavings.
I just find woodshavings to have a bad absortion ability, and when I started reacting to the shavings, I stopped using them alltogether.
Have you tried the pellet type substrat available? There's a mais and straw option. I find them to be very effektive. They disintegrate when they become wet, so they are easy to find and remove. And the absortion is fantastic.
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Post by natnat899 on Aug 17, 2018 17:40:08 GMT
Ah, I always thought it was more like fibres, I didn’t realise there are so many different types. Tbh I have never been keen on wood shavings, I was planning to go back to fleece once the chinchillas were potty trained, but if one of these works out I’ll be happy with substrate
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Post by darthchinchi on Aug 17, 2018 17:59:09 GMT
It's crazy how many options there are out there. I was trying to make an overview on it af some point, but couldn't get people to help out :/
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