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2641

General Breeder Chat / Re: did lost chinchills have her babies!

« on: March 01, 2012, 08:58:37 PM »

Excellent. You should be able to tell later in her term with no question and the nipples should be easily locatable. She probably was a little rounder before she went without food and water for a few days.

2642

General Breeder Chat / Re: did lost chinchills have her babies!

« on: March 01, 2012, 08:29:20 PM »

I recommend you take her to the vet to have her examined and x-rayed. They can determine if there are any babies and if she may have ingested anything that is potentially unsafe.

2643

General Breeder Chat / Re: did lost chinchills have her babies!

« on: March 01, 2012, 08:24:35 PM »

No don't let her out. There are plenty of things that can kill her outside of the cage very easily. It is true that signs of nursing for chins include missing hair. The nipples will usually protrude beyond the fur line come birth time.

2644

General Breeder Chat / Re: did lost chinchills have her babies!

« on: March 01, 2012, 08:09:16 PM »

Do you know when she conceived? Gestation is about 111 days for a chin.
Also listen for noises in the vent if you're not sure. Listen everywhere in the house again. Chinchilla babies are generally noisy.

2645

General Chat / Re: please help,chinchilla lost! in heating vent!

« on: March 01, 2012, 07:42:53 PM »

Congratulations!
I wish I could answer your question. She could have lost a bit of weight from the incident so it could be really hard to tell.

2646

General Chat / Re: Chinchilla Research

« on: March 01, 2012, 07:36:46 PM »

Maybe you can look for nutritional discrepancies in the stool samples that could be connected to metabolism and hormone levels and try to find a genetic connection. Perhaps you can investigate which physiological mechanism is effected whether it be digestive, endocrine, or something intrinsic to the cell.

2647

General Chat / Re: please help,chinchilla lost! in heating vent!

« on: March 01, 2012, 06:54:35 PM »

As far as finding an animal like this there are sadly no guarantees you'll eliminate every possible place. I remember an interesting story about a ferret that ended up inside of a box that was returned at Walmart!

Start with any place that rents tools or plumbing equipment nearby, do some searches on google for camera plumbing snake rental, tool rentals, if you still come up short call some local plumbers and ask them if they have one or knows of anyone that might that you could rent or use. Explain the situation. Maybe you can get a good deal.
You might be able to use a regular plumbing snake and attach a small camera and light to it. (Yes, you risk damaging the camera or other things) You could set the camera to record a video and then see it turns out. Be careful not to damage anything inside the ducts or the fan. That's probably what I would do if it were me but I'm also pretty handy with kludging things.

Disclaimer: I don't know what might all could go wrong and if you mess it up don't blame me!

2648

General Chat / Re: please help,chinchilla lost! in heating vent!

« on: March 01, 2012, 05:34:41 PM »

My mom had an interesting idea. She recommended putting flour around the food and water dishes. It might leave paw prints behind. I wouldn't pile it up or anything. Not sure if it would try to eat it.

2649

General Chat / Re: please help,chinchilla lost! in heating vent!

« on: March 01, 2012, 05:25:32 PM »

I still recommend using a camera snake to look through the vent ducts all the way to the central heating unit. Make sure all the vent covers get replaced right after that. This should effectively eliminate that as a possible hiding place and make it so you can use your heater again.
A chinchilla can pretty much squeeze into any place that its skull can get through. It's rib cage is very flexible so don't discount looking in areas that may seem to too small at first as they can flatten themselves out. (They are like my pet rat that got loose inside my sofa) It can probably get under a door pretty easily if there's big enough gap.

So also look behind dressers and especially under the bases of furniture where you have decorative molding at the bottom. That can leave a nice void for it to hide. A mirror can help with that too using the same technique. Keep in mind that they can also climb and jump and be up high. Make sure all your toilet lids stay closed and that you have no standing water. Putting a water dish out might be a good thing, just make sure there's not enough in there to soak it if it gets into the bowl. I'm not sure if it can detect the water from a water bottle being out loose.

You might try doing a systematic search room by room where you can close the door to the room. Put a towel under the door to make sure it can't get back into the room before going to the next. See if you can get help with this as I'm sure it will not be easy. Also look for chew marks on the baseboards and. Chinchillas are notorious for chewing baseboards and electrical cords and just about everything. Try to be as organized as possible so nothing gets missed. And certainly try to figure out what allowed it to escape so if you do find it it won't happen again.

I really feel bad for you but it's just one of those things that comes with having pets!

2650

Q & A / Re: Chinchilla toys?

« on: March 01, 2012, 01:10:33 PM »

If you want to give your a chin a pumice stone you might check the bird section at the pet store if they don't have a rodent section. It might be held in a plastic clip that can be discarded. I've never bought one from a drug store before. If it were my chin I'd give it a probably give it calcium block like yours.

2651

General Chat / Re: Chinchilla Research

« on: March 01, 2012, 12:12:03 PM »

Genetics has a very wide scope. Are there any particular biochemical systems that you're interested in investigating? It seems like there's been a lot of study on pseudomonas infection and antibiotic resistance using the chinchilla's middle ear as a human analog. There could be data available from that research that could be an opportunity if you can gain access to it. If you mine the data you may not even have to touch a live animal depending on the project. It appears the chinchilla genome is being sequenced by the National Human Genome Research Institute. You might want to check that out too. Is your university capable of doing gene knockout experiments? That could get some attention.

For pet chinchilla tests I'm not sure what would attract a research grant. Biomedical related research is probably going the most attractive for that, the only other money making industry for chinchillas is one we don't like to mention here, but there are shared interests with the pet industry when it comes to health and care. You might look into that as well and collaborate with a major ranch to see what their needs are.

2652

General Chat / Re: please help,chinchilla lost! in heating vent!

« on: February 29, 2012, 08:53:48 PM »

It might me a long shot but you could also try looking in the HVAC unit. I'm not sure how it's set up over there. The ducts all go to a blower unit with a big fan. There is usually a replicable filter behind an access panel. Slide back the filter and look up in there. Also listen carefully for movement. Do not try to tear into this because it has high voltage wiring inside.

2653

General Chat / Re: please help,chinchilla lost! in heating vent!

« on: February 29, 2012, 08:42:47 PM »

Were you able to get the camera in all areas of the ducts? Are there any places you could have missed inside the ducts? They should join at the central HVAC. Have you replaced all the vent covers after you examined the vents to make sure she doesn't get back in?

2654

Health / Re: Nibbling vs. Chewing on Bedding

« on: February 29, 2012, 07:01:31 PM »

Now you know as much as I do!

2655

Q & A / Re: Chinchilla toys?

« on: February 29, 2012, 06:50:00 PM »

It is generally recommended not to give chinchillas extra calcium unless they have a calcium deficiency. As long as their front teeth are dark orange in color they should be okay for calcium. If you are feeding a pelleted diet they should be getting enough calcium as it's usually added. If they get too much it can cause kidney and bladder stones.

However it appears that calcium supplementing for chins can prevent malocclusion caused by calcium deficiency (which results in lowered bone density and structural problems), that calcium in the pellets might not be enough for some chins, and that bladder stones is very rare, whereas malo, caused by calcium deficiency is not. Which seems that supplementing will lower the risk of something that is relatively common but may increase the risk of something that is very uncommon. Other breeders have indicated they supplement and have not had any problems.

What are your thoughts?