When my 12 year old daughter's best friend finally got the chinchilla pair he had wanted for so long, I was happy. Then him Mom turned out to be allergic. My daughter had also wanted a chinchilla for several years, and we had the room, and finances, so I said yes, we would rescue the little pair. I had NO idea what I was doing. I frantically sought information everywhere. Provided a larger habitat, reduced raisin intake, got lots of good clean chinchilla hay and the proper pellet food. All seemed to be going well.
Then before two weeks had passed, we woke up to a brand new baby! I immediately changed the focus of my research, put Dad in the original cage, made Mom some apple juice water and prayed I could speed up my learning curve.
Dad passed away. He laid down and quit eating or drinking and just left us.
Now Mom is fine, and two and a half weeks later, Baby is HUGE. Nursing seems to be going well, we hold the baby daily, with Mom's blessing, and his encouragement (he comes to the gate and makes little noise to be played with).
All seemed to be going well, until yesterday. He seemed to lose his balance and was pitching forward onto his head! It frightened my daughter (who was sitting close by) and she came to get me. I picked him up and he seemed groggy, like he was waking up from a deep sleep. He did it again once today, while I was watching. We had just cleaned the cage, and he was walking across the floor of it and pitched forward, as if his balance was gone. I waited a moment, to see if it would pass, then picked him up and could feel his little feet bracing as if he were dizzy. It slowly passed, and he brightened right back up and returned to playing. But this all has us very concerned.
I haven't been able to find a Chin Doctor in the area (we are in Norfolk, Virginia) and I am afraid to drive him very far with the 90 degree heat we have lately.
There is no plastic in his cage, he has a cool room, and a cooling stone, he is eating well, gaining size daily, and has not changed in any noticeable way otherwise. We hold and play with our chin family in the morning and evening, spending perhaps two hours on them a day. They come to our hands and climb into our laps on their own. We do not use carpet fresh, air fresheners, or any cleaning stuff in their room, other then a broom, vacuum and paper towels. They have pine chinchilla bedding, and get fresh timothy hay everyday. Their drinking bottles are glass and metal. We clean and refresh them daily.
any ideas on why our little fellow is having problems? Is this a normal phase when growing so fast? Is there anything I can do to help him? Thank you for reading my very long post. I may not have ever seen a chinchilla a month ago, but I dearly love two of them now, and so does my daughter.
