Need some guidance on care

[darciesmum]

For a while we have been considering Chins as pets but weren’t quite at the point of being ready to get one. Anyway, we called in at a pet shop for some hay for the bunnies today. It wasn’t a shop I ever knew existed and wasn’t in our area as we had visages another town for a day trip. So there in a hamster cage was one very chinchilla who just looked so sad. He had no bedding on the plastic floor of his cage and no ledges, no hay, just some water and museli. I asked about him and was told he was 7 months old and male. The lady said that chins can live 5 years if your lucky ( I know this is wrong from my research I had been doing), she said he only eats bits out of his museli and likes raisins as a treat. She told me they are nocturnal. I asked if he had been handled much to which I was told no but that he has a sweet nature and will hand feed. The woman got him out of his cage and held him and I just decided there and then that I’d take him. I was sad to think he had spent his life in that cage with no interaction at all for so many months. So we have this guy home. He is beautiful. We don’t even have a proper cage but I’m getting that ordered on Monday. I’ve set a crate up with fleece floor covering, hay, science select food, water, some wood chews and cardboard box to chew up. I’ve also let him have a good few hours run around an upstairs room as I guess he hasn’t stretched his legs or felt freedom for a long time if at all. He is now asleep under my wardrobe. Every so often he keeps calling out. I know he is going to take some work to gain his trust but I couldn’t leave him sat another day in that grim hamster cage knowing that we had been considering chins as pets and that I had done some research into them. He is a standard grey colour, very beautiful animal and I want to ensure he can have a good life with lots of space, love, stimulation and healthy life style. Please fire any advice off to me. Thanks

[savvy]

I'm not a chin mum but I didn't want you to feel ignored.   We have lots of wonderfully experienced chin owners on here who I'm sure will be along shortly.

I'm so glad you rescued the poor little lad from such horrendous conditions. He must have been so depressed in that tiny cage with nothing to do and no company.

Please read through all the information we have on here as a starting point and ask as many questions as you feel necessary, we will offer our best advice.

What cage are you getting? Are you going to get him a companion in the future?

It can take them a while to settle into a new environment so calling out is quite natural.

I'd take further stimulation slowly so you don't overwhelm him. Let him explore, but make sure that the area is safe and anything that can be chewed such as wires, are safely out of his reach.

[ntg]

Chin mum here (although still relatively new since I adopted my boys in April). I'm assuming by your email that you're in the UK? If so, cages I'd recommend you buy are the aventura from little pet warehouse or the rat and ferret cage from pet planet. Have a look and see if either are doing sales or discounts at the moment with it being near Black Friday as any money off helps

First off, they shouldn't be fed a muesli as it encourages selective eating which has been linked to dental issues in herbivores including chinchillas. Most people in the UK recommend the science selective chinchilla pellets however, I personally have issues with the grain content in them, but the grain free options have their own issues with either being cheap ingredients, low calcium content or just not being very palatable when compared to the grain versions.

Hay is a must - my recommendation is ordering from timothyhay.co.uk, both of this years cuttings are great quality and the bale lasts for ages!

We do things a little differently from quite a few UK/US groups on here where we've drawn from what we do with degus where we feed a bit more of a natural diet and offer a variety of leaves, herbs and flowers on a daily basis. This would probably get us lynched in some circles but I've never had a negative reaction with any of the items I feed and it's honestly one of the highlights of their day when I top their bowl up. The more polarising matter is whether to feed fresh leaves and herbs.

darthchinchi has the most experience in fresh feeding with chins, while I'm slowly building up my edible houseplant collection. The problem is that a lot of people will discount fresh feeding because of bloat and also claim that the chinchillas digestive system can't handle the water content as they eat dessicated plants in the wild thanks to their altitude. In reality, they live in exactly the same region as degus, so will likely eat a lot of the same foods. Degus have no issues with fresh food as long as it's introduced gradually into their diet and we believe the same thing holds true for chinchillas. There are groups out there like www.chinchilla-scientia.com that have more information on the benefits of fresh feeding although I don't know where I stand at the moment on feeding fresh vegetables. There's no doubt its better than dried but the water content is often particularly high and whether veg in general is an essential part of the diet is up for debate.

Whether or not chins need friends is a little contentious depending on where you go for advice, some say they can be fine on their own so don't worry about it, others, myself included, would recommend trying to find him some company. Although my pair aren't always together, they spend 90% of their day interacting and sleeping with one another and they obviously get comfort from the company. I can't advise on how best to introduce as I've read some of the methods and have my doubts about some of them being a good idea compared to others as they seem to bond through stress rather than actually liking one another.

For toys, you'll preferably have a hide for each chinchilla, some shelves that they can jump from and doze on - weirdly they like to try and sleep on the smallest ledge possible, cork tunnels can be fun, and branches from a safe wood such as apple or grapevine wouldn't go amiss. A dustbath is essential and a metal wheel that is at least 16" can be a good purchase. Wheels can be bought in the UK from tic tac wheels, or imported from germany if you want a bigger wheel from www.laufradschmiede.de (you'd want the metal version with no gap between the pipes). Flying saucer wheels (you want 40cm diameter at least) can be imported from the US www.flyingsaucerwheels.com

Most of all, enjoy your new little edition, although he's probably likely to live longer than 5 years

[deguconvert]

Hello, Darciesmum, and welcome to the forum.

I am not a chin mum so cannot give you first hand advice, but something I can say is be slow in introducing new foods. If you have access to the museli that he was eating at his prior location, I would recommend that you prominently mix that with the science select. Having eaten such a limited diet means that he doesn't have the gut bacteria/flora that is needed to digest any new things that you introduce to him. Anything new should be given in very small amounts, and then you need to observe his reactions for the next few days to be sure that all is OK. If it is OK, then give him some more, and watch again. Slowing giving him a little bit more and a little more often. You may even have to limit his hay consumption for the first several weeks to allow his body to produce the flora needed to properly digest.

This is really important, because to go too fast can result in terrible pain and death as a result of bloating, twisting of the intestine, or other complications of the gut. I am certain you are giving him a great home, and will do wonderful things for him. I just want to bring this to your attention so that your enthusiasm to give him these massive improvements doesn't go forward too fast in the dietary department.

[ntg]

Yes as DC says, introduce new feeds slowly. I'd argue that getting him on hay is the most important at this stage so try adding a pinch of hay at first and work it up to a handful over the course of a week or two. Once that is done then I'd leave it a few days before you work on changing the muesli to the pellets. Again, you're looking at changing it over at least a week, start with maybe giving him one pellet on the first day, two or three the next and see if there are any changes in his poops; in particular you don't want soft poops or ones which aren't a nice cylindrical shape. If there aren't any changes then you can continue to increase the amount of pellets and begin to reduce the amount of muesli he has. If there are changes, cut back to one a day and see if it goes back to normal and then keep him on that for a few days before trying to up them again. In the meantime I wouldn't try treats or forage as that might be too much for him at this stage. Hopefully by christmas you'll have him changed over to the pellets and hay and then you can look into other items to feed.

[natnat899]

Welcome to the world of chinchillas!

There isn’t anything else I can think of to add it’s worth having a read through the forum, Moletteuk has added useful links to the tops of the chinchilla threads which cover a wide range of topics.

As said previously I would introduce new foods gradually - though when I did that with my chinchillas they discarded the old pellets immediately

I feed my chinchillas and degus a fairly varied diet - pellets, 2 types of hay (Ings hay from hay and straw/Timothy hay from newhay), occasional alpha hay, lots of leaves, foliage and a small pinch of seeds from Hansemanns. I havnt tried fresh foods as of yet - I am certainly all for it, if it is safe and done carefully.

My chinchillas have a yearly disagreement, but I have to say, when I get them back together they are so happy to be with one another. I was wondering if Pickle would be happier on his own - but even though they have a yearly spat I don’t think I could ever replace that bond they have.
I would always prefer keeping chinchillas in pairs - if you are looking at introducing another chinchilla, the degu forum is an excellent place to start - just don’t spray your chinchilla with water and the cage recommendations are the same as the degus - my chinchillas have a bigger cage than my degus, I just think as they are bigger they need a bit more running space.

Feel free to ask any questions, no question is a silly question!