Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Q & A => Topic started by: psycho_ash on February 21, 2010, 04:52:51 PM
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Hi again! I'm sorry I'm asking so many questions, I've been doing a lot of reading on past posts here, but I can't alway find the information I need.
Tia is a three year old female - I adopted her from a couple who didn't have time for her anymore. Her house is on my dresser, which is about four and a half feet tall. Her cage is at least three feet tall, so I have to use a stool to get up to her. I think she likes being up high though, it lets her see everything. She's taken to sitting on a ledge I put in the top front right corner.
Anyway, here are my concerns. She hasn't really been eating. She came with a gravity bin filled with maybe two pounds of food, so I couldn't tell if she was eating. Last night I removed it and replaced it with a crock with a tablespoon of pellets in it. When I left at noon this morning, it didn't look like she had eaten any.
I like to play a game with her where I give her a rolled oat flake (they're treats for her, as well as craisin bits) and then let her sniff my hand. She let me pet her nose and scritch behind her ear when she could have easily hopped away, and she was grinding her teeth while I did so. I was talking to her while doing that, and then I let her alone. I played that game a few more times that night, and the last time she kind of pulled her head away and hopped off.
I've had her since Thursday and she still won't dust. When I put her bathhouse in, she gets excited and she sniffs it and explores it, but then just ignores it.
I've also observed her licking the air after I give her an oat flake, and sometimes it looks like she's pulling fur out of her belly.
Is this normal? What should I do?
**UPDATE**
She is doing fine, I was just being paranoid! She dusted last night and she's really warming up now.
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sounds like shes just getting used to her new surroundings, i wouldn't worry! of course you're just being a good daddy ;) as for "licking the air" when you give her a treat, you may accidently touch her whiskers when giving her a treat or something gets caught in her whiskers and shes probably just trying to clean it. they don't like having their whiskers messed with! it really is cute haha sometimes ill mess with one of my boys and blow on his whiskers and he starts freaking out moving his nose around and pulling on his whiskers trying to clean them up right away hehe rofl
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Ya they can't stay away from the bath very long LOL
yes sounds like you are both getting used to each other, some fun eh!!!!
So how is her pellet intake?
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It's getting better, she eats more pellets every day... she really seems to be into the hay though. She *loves* hay... I feed her an alfafa/timothy mix and she just eats it all up.
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That's good, hay is very important to them and they can live on it for some time.