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31

General Chat / A Chong update.

« on: January 29, 2008, 04:52:56 PM »

Well I thought I'd give an update on my little Chong. He seems completely better, although he's eating a different brand of food now. The vet wants to make doubly sure that is has nothing to do with an underlying tooth problem, so in a month if he has put his weight back on she will sedate and x-ray him.

It's weird because after recovering he seems a lot more laid back. He is still very talkative, but he seems to be playing with his toys more and going down to the bottom level of his cage more often. He will now sit on my lap for about 5 - 10 mins at a time and let me hold him. I think this is because I was hand feeding him on my lap, so he is more used to it. But he sleeps with his eyes shut now and things like that.

I held him in my arms and took him to Cheech's open cage door. She started to clean him and then he started to clean her. It was all very cute. They both squeaked a little bit where the other one bit a little bit too hard but after a few seconds they were happily snuggling and grooming each other, although Chong was in my arms. He then jumped into Cheech's cage where he proceeded to become very aggressive towards her, standing on his back legs and barking and I could just see her trying to groom him, sort of putting her head to one side. After a few seconds she stood up and sprayed him and he ran back to me. I don't know why he's so aggressive.

The vet said as she will already have to sedate him to do the x-ray she wanted to castrate him because it should help. She said, and I agree, that he seems to want the company where as Cheech doesn't so if they still don't want to be together I should try and find a small female for him. I'm still wary because I know the dangers but at the same time I trust her implicitly. I know she has castrated chipmunks in the past. It's a hard decision and it's going to take a lot of thinking about.

Anyway, now I've written an essay so I'll stop.

32

Q & A / (stopped eating) Chin upset because I moved his cage...

« on: January 12, 2008, 02:40:35 PM »

We moved the room around so that the chinchillas were not next to the TV because they were kicking sand and poos all over it, as they do. And also so the cages are nearer the door and easier to take to the bathroom to be cleaned. Since moving them Chong has become very reclusive, hardly leaving his box. He's still eating, drinking, pooing, but usually he spends all night from when we turn the light off to go to sleep banging on the handle of his cage. All the toys I give him and this is his favourite. But since we moved him he hasn't been. Is he just a little disorientated? I've been giving him extra attention and rewarding him for leaving his box. Slowly he's been coming out for more time each day but I think I've traumatised or upset him. I can't move him back so do you have any suggestions what I can do?

Edit: Just a side note because I thought of it. I like to keep the window open to cool the room down if I can, rather than use the air con. Is this better/worse for the chinchillas? Is it okay if there is a slight breeze?

33

Q & A / Advice on a mineral stone

« on: January 07, 2008, 08:46:50 AM »

They have stopped production on the usual gnaw block I buy for my chins, which is made of pumice. I've looked everywhere. My local shop suggested an alternative and I just wanted to run it past everyone here. It's a mineral stone containing 'crushed limestone, oyster shells, dicalcium phosphate, iodised salt, quartz grit and iron oxide'. Just wanted to make sure it would be okay for my babies to have these.

34

Q & A / Falling from ledges while asleep...

« on: December 18, 2007, 02:45:51 PM »

Cheech is a really strange chinchilla. The breeders we got Chong from offered to come round and sex her for us and even they commented how weird she was. She was upside down on top of her box, holding onto the wire on top with her hands and feet fast alseep at the time so I can understabnd why they thought that. Anyway, she has a habit of sleeping on her wooden ledges with her head right over the edge. As she gets into a deeper sleep she begins to fall off, eventually she does. She wakes up, obviously, looks startled for a minute and then goes right back onto the same ledge and goes back to sleep. The cycle continues...

I've had to move her whole cage around so she can't fall too far and hurt herself, but no matter how I put it she finds somewhere to fall off from. She loves her ledges and loves jumping from them so I don't want to get rid of them completely, but number one, is this normal? I'm getting quite worried about her and number two, can I do anything about it? She loves to be up high, the higher she is the happier she is, I keep having to put more ledges in to stop her falling so far but then she finds somewhere else to sleep and consequently fall from. Silly chinnie. 

35

General Chat / A moral dilema - I really need some advice.

« on: December 03, 2007, 02:14:16 PM »

Guess what this is about? Yes, Cheech and Chong still really hate each other, not matter what I try. I'm sorry this is a long post but I want to try and explain everything. I know Chong isn't happy and I may need to take some drastic action.

Firstly these are the methods of getting them together we have tried and the results that followed.

Swapping cages for a few hours a day - Chong loves Cheech's big cage and plays about in it. Cheech gets aggravated in Chong's smaller cage and chews on the bars. Chong's cage was only meant to be temporary until they were together in the bigger one.
Letting them out in the room to play together - Cheech ignores Chong and goes about her daily routine of trying to get everywhere she's not meant to be. Chong stalks her and tries to get on her back and mate with her. She barks harshly at him and usually grabs a mouthful of fur. he retreats only to try... again and again and again... she eventually gets mad with him and chases him around the room and I have to put them both back in their cages.
Putting them together in a tiny neutral cage - it's actually a mouse cage with all the shelves removed. They fly around after each other growling like rabid fur balls. Chong stands on his hind legs in the corner growling and Cheech gets bored and tries to find a way out of the small cage instead. When she goes near him he growls at her, she turns her back to him. Sometimes he tries to mate with her and she will attack him until he gets scared again. After a while she will initiate the fight and pins him to the floor. She sits on top of him and appears to be grooming him. She seems a little rough to me and sometimes he squeaks and wriggles out of her hold. Sometimes they pee on each other too. After maybe half an hour they sit on either side of the cage and ignore each other and go to sleep.
Putting them together in Chong's cage - Cheech hoards all of his stuff and sits in his box, they fight and pee on each other. Cheech also bites Chong's toes through the mesh floor so I never put them in there again.
Putting them together in Cheech's cage (with both boxes in there) - They fight. Cheech commandeers Chong's box. Chong sits on or in Cheech's box and barks and growls whenever she comes near. She is much more aggressive to him but because of they layout they can't really get each other and they end up asleep, apart.

The mouse cage is usually the best option. We put them in there once every couple of days. All the methods have been tried at different times of the day, with a day or more in between.
The main problems I've found: Chong will not stop trying to mate with Cheech. She doesn't want anything to do with that and will be quite vicious in stopping him, but he never learns. I thought Chinchillas were meant to be intelligent but he never learns. Chong is also so scared of her and barks and growls whenever she comes near. And the other problem is that Cheech, although she doesn't seem to mind him at first, after a while of Chong's attacks and barking, can be really vicious towards him and won't let up until she's sitting on him.

But when Chong is in his cage all he does is pine for her. He moves his nesting box to get closer to her cage and sits there and makes pining noises. I've looked up the sounds on the internet and he's lonely. He doesn't play as much as her and to be honest I know he's just not happy and it breaks my heart. He's from a breeder and he's used to being around chinchillas all the time and it's upsetting him being on his own, but I'm just out of ideas to get them together.

This is my moral dilemma. I don't want to keep Chong in this situation. It isn't fair. He isn't happy and so we're not happy (while Cheech is as happy as ever). These are the options I can see for us at the moment:

Keep trying. Put them together ever day or so and maybe eventually they will learn to like each other. Most people tell me chinchillas will learn to like each other rather than live alone and it can take years. But in that time I'll know Chong isn't happy.
Get Chong castrated. It should stop him trying to mate with Cheech and therefore will stop her being aggressive to him but obviously this option has a lot of downfalls. The obvious one being how dangerous it is to operate on a chinchilla, but also it may not even solve the problem. And of course we will never have Cheech and Chong babies (but I doubt that will happen anyway). I don't want to do this to him, but if it has a good chance of solving the problem I would do it. But then I might find out Cheech was the problem and I put him through the risk for nothing.
The last option I can think of and the most horrible one for me is to let him live with another Chinchilla where he will finally be happy. I love him so much, he's my little baby, but I would be willing to give him up if I knew it meant he could be happy. I would put an ad around and he would have a trial week with the prospective mate and if it didn't work I would take him back.

I'm so confused at the moment. Cheech seems to be happy enough alone at the moment but I just know Chong isn't. Does anyone have any advice for me? Thank you for reading my essay.

36

General Chat / What your chinchilla smells like.

« on: December 02, 2007, 12:54:20 PM »

Have you ever noticed that different chinchillas smell different? Cheech and Chong smell very different to each other. I wonder if it has something do do with breed and fur type...?

37

General Chat / I got a ball!

« on: November 06, 2007, 08:10:41 AM »

And both Cheech and Chong love it. I thought Chong would because I tried him with a wheel (it was a plastic rat wheel and I gave him very careful supervision to make sure he didn't chew it. It was a test, if he used it I would pay for a proper chin wheel, but he just ran on top of it and I was worried he would hurt himself, then he started to chew it so I took it out.) Cheech I thought would hate it because she hates anything new. She ignores anything new I put in her cage for months until one day you wake up and it's been chewed to bits.

It was so funny watching them in the ball for the first time, they were all wobbly. I opened it at one end and put that end near the open cage. It took a long time for them to venture in the first time, but the more they're out in it the quicker they jump in when I offer them the chance. They've even worked out how to get over the frame at the bottom on our doors by running really fast. It was a gamble but it payed off and now I have two very happy chins who can get even more exercise, but I limit it to 20 mins at a time in the ball to make sure they don't overheat.

They still don't like each other though. 

38

Q & A / A hay, pellets and treats question.

« on: August 26, 2007, 02:05:22 PM »

When I got Cheech from the pet shop she was given meadow hay. I swapped to Timothy hay but I noticed her poos got really small. When we got Chong he was just given alfalfa cubes. As soon as I gave him the timothy his poos got smaller so obviously I stopped giving it to them. At the moment they have the alfalfa cubes but I wanted to know if I could give them a bit of meadow hay as well because they both love it so much. It's fresh delivered to my local pet shop.

Also I've swapped their food over to what I believe is some better food but I wanted to know if I can give the other food as treats.

39

General Chat / I've found out why they won't be friends...

« on: August 20, 2007, 03:00:30 PM »

Well you know I've been having a little trouble getting Cheech (1 1/2 year old female) and Chong (5 month old male) together. I finally found out the reason why.

At first I was putting them together in neutral small cages, neutral big cages, each other's cages, all with no luck. It was also such a pain letting them out one at a time because no matter what we did, they would always go over to the other's cage and start fighting and poor old Chong got his other finger bitten but no where near as badly as the first time. I was so worried this was the reason he didn't like Cheech, because he associated her with pain, but I couldn't be further from the truth.

Eventually I plucked up the courage to let them out to play together (I was scared if anything happened I wouldn't be able to catch them.) And it started off fine. They mostly ignored each other, having brief encounters with a bit of fur flying, then I noticed something. Chong just spent the entire time sneaking up on Cheech and trying to jump on her back and mate with her. Every time he did it she would turn and try to bite him, he would run off to a safe distance and then try again. I've let them out a few times now and all he does is that. She isn't having any of it and just stays away from him.

I introduced the sand bath to try and get them to interact a bit more and Chong just tried to jump on her when she was in there, hanging on for dear life until she turned round and ate a clump of his fur. Is there anything you can suggest? At first Cheech was so interested in him but now she just stays away, I don't think she's ready for babies, lol.

On another funny note, she seems to be a little jealous of Chong too. I've been teaching him to be cuddly because Cheech being a pet shop chin has never  really liked being picked up and she was a bit too old to teach when we got her, but since she's seen Chong in my lap she suddenly wants a cuddle too! It's amazing. And one day she snuggled up in our pillows and went to sleep for three hours while we scritched her ears. We un chin-proofed the room and started watching a DVD and she was still there, eventually getting bored and going back to her cage. It's taken a year to get her fully settled in but it's so worth it and part of that process has been Chong, so I'd love them to be together properly.

40

General Chat / Revelations

« on: July 11, 2007, 10:47:34 AM »

We had a visit from the breeders on Monday that we bought Chong, our four month old violet from. They came to have a look at Cheech and he is in fact a she. 
It's going to be tough to swap over to saying her. 

We're still having a little trouble getting them to like each other. We've been putting them into a small cage together but Cheech seems to get really agitated with the lack of space which she takes out on Chong after about half an hour. We put both their houses in there and once put in the sand bath too, but Chong snarled at Cheech if she tried to use the sand bath. Cheech just sat in Chong's house and hoarded all the toys, pulling them up to the entrance and lying on them, and then they started to get snappy with each other. We'll keep on trying, there have been no more injuries other than a little bit of fur flying... so fingers crossed.

Perhaps in half a year or so we might have one or two new additions, but that of course leads to a whole new set of questions.

The other thing I realised was about Chong and his 'equipment', which I saw him cleaning a day or so ago, and this is a really weird question, but how big is it supposed to be? His was about 2 inches long and I was so shocked. I hope that's okay to ask here.

41

Q & A / Is willow safe for chins?

« on: July 07, 2007, 01:17:33 PM »

My local pet shop sells woven willow balls, if the wood is safe for chins I thought they'd be ideal to put treats inside of. I know some books say it is I just wanted to make sure. 

42

Health / Should have been a happy post. Wounds.

« on: June 28, 2007, 05:22:22 PM »

My PC broke and while I have been away my boyfriend bought me my birthday present... a new baby chinny. A little violet from a really lovely breeders and he's named Chong, he's absolutely adorable. But Cheech managed to get to his cage when he was out for a run and before I could stop him he'd bitten Chong's middle finger on his left hand. :-[ I'm so upset because I'm responsible for this little baby only just over four months old and he's so sweet I can't believe I allowed this to happen. I can ring the breeders tomorrow for advice but I've managed to get a PC to ask you here (It's past midnight.)

There was a lot of blood but I got some boiled and cooled water with a little salt and managed to dab a little on his hand (thank goodness he's so tame). He's still using it although he picks it up a little and he's cleaned it a little himself. It's stopped bleeding now although there still is blood on his finger (and some got onto his lovely white belly ). Is there anything else I can do. I don't want it to get infected. It's not a deep wound just a little scrape. I don't think Cheech meant to do it I think he was just so excited. I'm really, really upset I just can't believe I was so stupid and now what should have been me letting you all know how happy I am with my new little baby has turned to me asking for help. I've only had him for a week tomorrow night but I love him as much as Cheech already. He's the most adorable little boy and I hate myself for letting him get hurt. Any advice would be so much appreciated. Obviously I have take all measures to make sure they don't have contact again for a long time, if at all. 

43

Q & A / Nipples - Probably the weirdest question I've had to ask.

« on: May 23, 2007, 10:09:16 AM »

Well we're still not entirely sure of Cheech's gender. We always assumed he was a male but if so his genitals are close together so it's a little hard to tell. He loves his belly being tickled and sometimes I feel a little lump which I thought was just a matt of fur, so today while he was snoozing after his exercise I stroked his belly and parted the fur where I felt the lump. And this is where I show my ignorance. I found what I think was a nipple. Just under half a centimetre long and quite thin. I was worried it might be a growth but after doing a little research on the internet it seems to be in the right place for a nipple, but he got annoyed with me messing with him and I haven't checked for any more yet.

So this is where I get quite embarrassed to ask the question. Can I assume what I found is his nipple? Do males have them as well as females or are male's much smaller? One I don't want to start worrying this is abnormal and two I was wondering if it's any way to identify his sex.

Thank you. 

44

Health / Squeaking then hard to wake up...

« on: May 21, 2007, 11:44:45 AM »

This has happened twice now, each incident about a month apart. He makes a really weird squeaking noise, not the usual bark and the doesn't wake up. The first time he was in his box, lying down. I lifted the box out and he didn't wake up and then my boyfriend touched him and stroked him and he woke up. This time (about 5 mins ago) he was lying down on his side again but this time he was on his shelf. After he squeaked I called his name and after no response I tickled his back feet. He still didn't wake up so I opened the cage (the sound of this usually wakes him up because he thinks he can come out to play) and started to stroke his whole body. Nothing. Then I was really scared so I shook the cage a little and he finally woke up. He was breathing fine, not shaking or anything. Am I just worrying too much?

45

Q & A / Clumsy?

« on: March 29, 2007, 11:42:14 AM »

This has been happening for a while, but I just put it down to Cheech being young but he can be very clumsy at times. Usually he has very good depth perception and will judge a jump before he takes it, standing on his hind legs and moving up and down, I presume judging the height. However, sometimes he just runs crazily at thing and misses them, either jumping right over them or into them. He even does this in his cage when he gets excited and will run, splat, into a shelf instead of jumping onto it, falling back down. Do I need to be worried about this? He's only just over year old, so is it just inexperience?