Not sure if right spot for this

[rainbowrotties]

I'm not sure if this is the right spot for this . I rescued a white mosaic male and a beige female in July '09. When I got them their fur was matted and very rough to the touch (almost like petting a dog) and I was told they had just had a bath . They were very thin too . They had been fed alot, the people said they couldn't understand why they were so thin when they fed them so much. Well I found out they were feeding them guinea pig food with all the treats in it and they didn't seem to be eating anything but the treats and the people would just dump the pellets out, they weren't getting hay either . As for their fur they were bathing them in fireplace ashes because "THE ASHES AND DUST ARE THE SAME THING"    

I'm just curious to know if any of this could have caused them any harm (they were like this for over a year closer to 2 years i think). My cousin has the beige female now and I kept the mosaic male, they seem to be doing ok, nothing wrong that I can tell, but I'm not sure. But these two were together for all that time and didn't breed. Could all of this have anything to do with it, and could it have affected the males mating ability?

[chinclub]

If you have had them since July you would have noticed health problems by now from the food.  While the ashes aren't really a good cleaning device it really shouldn't be harmful.  Keep in mind chinchillas bath in Volcanic ash in the wild. 

[rainbowrotties]

I guess I'm not concerned with the fact that it was fireplace ash and that they burn EVERYTHING in it: wood, paper, plastics, cardboard from his work garage (that may have had oil on it). Thank you for answering. And I guess everything is ok then. I was just curious.