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16

General Chat / I hate it when a chinchilla eats the universe

« on: October 04, 2014, 07:54:09 PM »

Oddly enough if you go to bing.com and type "i hate it when" the first autocomplete suggestion is "i hate it when a chinchilla eats the universe."
It is a very strange meme. On the other hand it seems like my chinchilla would chew up the entire universe if he could!

17

General Chat / Chinchilla Club Logo Redesign

« on: September 02, 2014, 09:18:19 AM »

I am redesigning the chinchilla club logo as the first step in renovating the graphics on the website. I am open to suggestions and design in just about any style.
If you don't like any of the designs please comment on how to make it better.
As an artist I thrive on criticism so please do not be shy.
Your input and vote in the poll above is appreciated. Final designs will vary in appearance.

18

General Chat / Warning - Chinchilla Electrocution Hazard

« on: August 16, 2014, 02:00:03 PM »

This morning I was cleaning my cage and discovered a power cable that had been chewed by Kulu the chinchilla. I thank God nothing bad happened but it could easily have had turned into a living nightmare. The cable was still plugged in and was a severe hazard to the both of us.

In my particular situation I have a wall socket up high by the cage. When I cleaned around the cage (deep cleaning and scrubbing the mat beneath the cage) and moved it back the cable went right up to the bars and I did not realize it. It was like that probably a little over two weeks. The cable is easy enough to replace but this could have caused electrocution and severe burns to anyone who may have touched it, and of course deep fried chinchilla. Notice how even the copper conductor is frayed from being chewed on. This is not something you want going through your pet's intestines. I have run an extension cord to prevent anything like that from happening again.

This is a reminder to all pet owners to check around your pet's cage and play areas for potential dangers. Chinchillas should not be let out to roam freely in any space that has not been chinchilla-proofed!

19

News / Announcing New Ownership of The Chinchilla Club

« on: August 13, 2014, 03:07:58 PM »

My Name is Chris Hamilton and I am now the new owner and administrator of the Chinchilla Club website, previously owned by Jamie Huggins of Lowcountry Chinchillas. She has done us all a great service in promoting and growing our community that strives for excellence in educating pet owners and breeders, connecting us with great chinchilla-safe products, and bringing chinchilla lovers together since 1999. As your new administrator I will strive to continue that legacy in the continual improvements and expansions of our services. I am looking forward to serving you in the years to come. Please check back for future developments as I strive to implement creative new ideas.

NOTICE:
The administrator's email address is changed. It is now admin@chinchillaclub.com. Please send technical support requests, comments, and issues there.

Thank you for being part of this great chinchilla loving bunch!

Chris Hamilton

20

General Chat / Eye game

« on: February 07, 2014, 09:11:21 PM »

Being around my mom's parrot and other birds I know that it's easy to get them to do what I call the eye game. That is if you close one eye and leave one open the bird will do the same and also switch sides.
I've been trying this with my chinchilla, Kulu, and although he's not as consistent I am noticing a distinct pattern now and I am convinced that he is playing the eye game. Perhaps after a few more weeks it will become more consistent and conclusive.
It is also interesting because looking him straight in the eyes seems to make him agitated compared to glancing past him. I would be very interested to know if anyone else has observed this kind of behavior.

21

General Chat / UGA Animal Hospital - Recommended

« on: November 22, 2013, 04:24:13 PM »

Recently our Congo African Grey parrot had a respiratory problem and needed emergency treatment. We took him to a local veterinarian that we trust and they stabilized him but were unable to provide overnight monitoring which was advisable for his condition. They recommended the University of Georgia teaching hospital in Athens, GA. The care he received there was excellent. They ended up doing an endoscopy and lab work and were able to diagnose his condition. They had him under general anesthesia for two separate procedures and he came through just fine. They are a teaching hospital so there are some quirks there but they have highly knowledgeable staff and they have lots of experiences with exotics, farm animals, and cats and dogs. And there are highly trained vets on staff there as well teaching and following the cases. Their prices were reasonable as well for an exotic specialist. If you have a chinchilla that needs to see a vet anywhere near Atlanta, GA, I recommend this clinic. I had a very good experience with them and they had a very empathetic and warm staff and took many extra precautions to minimize the risks of the procedures they performed.

22

General Chat / Petting a sleeping chinchilla

« on: November 01, 2013, 07:32:31 AM »

I've noticed that if I pet my chinchilla when he is laying down and trying to sleep he usually allows me to pet him and he doesn't flinch and jump to his feet. I was wondering if others could do that too.

23

Health / My chinchilla has soft stool

« on: October 11, 2013, 06:06:50 AM »

Kulu may be threatening to get sick. His weight seems to be fine but his feces have become soft and stick to his shelves and wheel which is very unusual. It's starting to stain the shelves and get in his fur now and has gotten progressively worse over two days. He also seems to be eating little or no hay lately over the last 10 days.

I have changed his pelleted diet a couple of months ago and I'm not sure if it's a factor. Since that change he has eaten less hay and has had softer stools in general but not like this. Otherwise everything else has been the same including activity level and schedule, at least to my knowledge.
I have removed his pelleted diet as a precaution.

If there is no improvement tomorrow I plan on taking him to the vet. If anyone has any better ideas on how to handle this please let me know.

24

General Chat / Chinchilla wheel counter

« on: August 15, 2013, 07:51:53 AM »

I recently created a counter for my chinchilla wheel using some inexpensive parts and it works beautifully.
The counter is made using a pedometer from a dollar store that I got for a dollar. If you don't know what that is, a pedometer is a device that counts your steps when you walk. There is a small pendulum inside that closes a contact with the movement of each step and that increments the count which is displayed on a small screen. More expensive pedometers typically have other features but this one is a simple counter.

I removed the pendulum and wired in a magnetically sensitive "reed switch" in its place. A magnet activates the switch each time the wheel rotates so it now counts rotations.

If you know the size of the wheel you can determine it's circumference which is the equivalent distance traveled if the chinchilla is running on a flat surface. If you multiply that by the count you get the total distance ran. In this particular setup the magnet trips the switch twice for each rotation so you must divide the result in half.

Last night I got a count of 11435, which is actually 5718 rotations. My wheel is 14" which makes approximately 43.9824" linear inches per rotation. Altogether he ran about 3.97 miles last night! I am very curious to see how that compares each day.

Eventually I'll have my PC log the data and be able to do a more in-depth analysis but for now I'm very pleased with my simple counter.

25

General Chat / Got sick

« on: May 07, 2013, 07:56:17 PM »

There's a mighty terrible stomach virus going around. It's the worst I've ever experienced and it has been going around my family and they pretty much say the same thing. Anyway, here's what to expect when it's your turn to drive the porcelain bus! My real bathroom actually has that nauseatingly pink porcelain on the toilet.

Note: I made some improvements to the artwork after I started feeling better and updated it.
http://www.chinchillaclub.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4155.0;attach=2821;image

26

General Chat / Chinchilla acting too aggressive towards people

« on: May 02, 2013, 09:17:20 AM »

My pet chinchilla, Kulu, is normally a very tame chinchilla. He lets me do pretty much anything to him, likes to be scratched under the chin and arms, can be cradled on his back, rides around on my shoulders, and is not afraid of anyone.

He lives in a big house with two families, two middle-school age kids, and a two-year old. We have an African Grey parrot and my brother has a green cheek conure. His cage is fairly secluded in my bedroom where I work during the day. When my grandparents come to visit he will cuddle with them and soak up the attention. When anyone from my brother's family gets near him he kacks and growls and sometimes he tries to bite and they aren't doing anything to him. When I take him back he acts like nothing happened and just relaxes. When the toddler comes up to him he is usually pretty calm, which I find strange, since she is not always very gentle with him when I let her pet him. The behavior seems to be getting progressively worse and I'm not sure how to explain it. What makes it more strange is that it's not consistent either. Sometimes he's just fine with them. His fur is just now starting to prime out at about 6 months. Could this be a hormonal or territorial behavior or triggered by some smell? Has anyone else encountered this?

27

Cages / Kulu's travel cage

« on: March 20, 2013, 01:50:15 PM »

A couple of days ago we had some really bad storms and had to go to the basement with our pets. We had hail blowing against the windows and at one point I was wondering if one was going to blow in as I was rushing to evacuate my chinchilla. This was shortly after my weather radio alarm was going off with a tornado warning. Thankfully it was just a microburst that didn't cause damage to our property but there were quite a few downed branches nearby. I suppose it's starting early this year.

As a direct result I focused on readying my travel cage for these kinds of emergencies and even an overnight stay downstairs for prolonged tornado threats.

So here it is.

28

Cages / Kulu Chinchilla's Cage

« on: March 14, 2013, 03:52:27 PM »

I've been wanting to make this post for a while but I have been making a lot of modifications to my cage. I think it's pretty much done now. I used to use a generic and somewhat small Super Pet cage but I exchanged it for a super big pet cage!
This comes after I did a nice slide show for my relatives to show them what I've been working on.

29

Health / Chinchilla's weight trend plateaued

« on: February 22, 2013, 04:38:16 PM »

My 4 month old standard grey chinchilla has been growing very rapidly since I've got him but his weight trend is quickly decelerating. As far as I know both parents were show quality chins. One standard and one TOV.
If anyone who has experience with this would look at my attached chart I would greatly appreciate an opinion. Does it look normal?
He is on the Hubbard Tradition chinchilla diet, Oxbow Timothy Hay (which he doesn't eat very much of compared to his pellets), and is getting calf manna as a supplement although not very much. His environment and schedule has been pretty constant.
Although I log his weight daily I have attached a graph with data 7 days apart since I got him.

30

General Chat / Chinchilla got injured

« on: January 25, 2013, 10:48:15 AM »

Yesterday morning after I dusted my chinchilla, K'ulu, I noticed an abrasion on one of my chinchilla's back toes. Apparently he got it caught in something and there was a significant gash on the other side that was seeping but scabbed over so it probably happened the night before when he was bouncing around in his cage.

I strongly suspect it got caught between the wire floor and the metal tubing of the cage along the floor. Exposure to these edges was minimized by partially flooring the cage with wood and leaving the wire area under a shelf so he couldn't land straight down on it from up high. The partial wire floor was nice because he typically urinated there and not on the wood. It also made it easy to sweep the stuff from the shelves down into the cage tray.

The floor is construction cloth stretched under an open frame constructed of metal tubing and wired tightly to the tubing using bailing wire. The original floor was for parrots and had bars with 1" spacing which is super dangerous for a chinchilla so I removed that. I made sure that all cut wires on the mesh floor were carefully filed smooth so I don't think it was sharp edges that did it.

I think my chinchilla will heal up on his own although I am watching him closely for signs of infection and inflammation. He is acting normally and still gaining weight as he is a growing 4 month old. I can put him in a smaller cage but I don't want to stress him and interfere with his growing trend. I removed the upper shelves of the cage to minimize physical stress to the foot for now.

I have covered the floor over completely now with wood until I figure out what I'm going to do to fix the cage. To reduce urine on the wood I have added a pan of pine chips that I will replace with clay litter next time I'm in town. Needless to say I am not a happy camper and could be facing a vet visit if the wound infects. I am contemplating a new design to fasten the wire floor to a wooden frame using staples and add that to one side of the floor. This design should make it easier to secure the mesh solidly and eliminate the chances of a foot slipping between the frame and the floor.

So now I can say that simply wiring construction cloth to the bottom of a cage with a steel tubing frame with bailing wire from underneath the tubing is not good practice. It is too difficult to eliminate flexible gaps between the tubing and the wire mesh.