Cuttlebone and salt licks

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EveningChin

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I've always wondered if it would be ok to give my girls a Cuttlebone as they are good for birds to chew, but was never sure about chinchillas. I just found a site saying they were a great source of calcium for chinchillas...


I bred rabbits growing up and they needed salt licks and really loved them, but it never really crossed my mind with my chinchilla girls. And again i found a site saying that chinchillas can have them.


Thoughts? comments? Advice?


I personally have no plans to ever buy a salt lick for my girls. The cuttlebone... maybe depending on what is said. If the responce is even iffy then no chance will I risk giving one. Thanks ahead of time.

p.s. Its really sad how much i missed this site and you all when I couldn't get on my computer for the past week.... Weird. :hug2:
 
If your chinnies teeth are nice and orange, they don't need the extra calcium from the cuttle bone. Too much calcium can cause bladder stones.

As for the salt, I believe all the salt they need is in their food. I don't know anyone who gives their chinnies salt licks.
 
I agree with Carol, no on the cuttlebone. You risk having your chin get too much calcium which can lead to stones.

They don't need a salt lick either. Honestly when I first got my first chin I tried giving one to Chibi and she didn't even care for it.
 
I've heard it can give them bladder stones, some sites say this is a rumor, but I'd trust the people on this site.
 
No for the salt licks - but I do have a mineral wheel (the brown ones) in each of my cages I use a shower curtain ring to hang - Sometimes they don't bother with it and sometimes they do. I change once a year
 
I did have a cuttle bone and a salt lick for my chin at first. My chin did like to chew on the cuttle bone but I found out it wasn't necessary for her to have if her teeth are healthy. She never did look at the salt lick.
 
I don't think either are really necessary for chins. Too much calcium, like said before, can lead to bladder stones. I wouldn't use either for my chins.
 
So pretty much what I thought. Thanks everyone! Bladder stones don't sound fun at all.
 
When I first got Turbo, he came with a mineral wheel and salt wheel. Previous owner said she read somewhere that they needed it.

I did my own research and took them out... they didn't look like Turbo cared for them either which way, and everyone else's chins seem to do fine without them!
 
You only need cuttlebone if your chin is lacking in calcium.

A big NO to salt and mineral wheels. The salt is not necessary and mineral wheels can cause bladder stones. Just as with excess calcium, the minerals are excess and the body can not expel the extra and it can accumulate and cause stones.
 
Has anyone ever heard of the cuttlebone being too sharp for the chins to chew? I heard years ago that they can be unsafe because they could end up cutting up the inside of a chinchilla's mouth when they are chewing it. I've never had a problem with that, but then again I don't think I have placed a cuttlebone in a chinchilla cage in at least 10 years.

The salt and mineral wheels normally don't even get chewed at all. They end up in the bottom of the cage covered in urine. I don't know where people get the idea that they need them, maybe from old chinchilla books being sold at petstores? I have no idea. :)
 
Before I found this site, I had cuttlebone hanging on my chin's cage walls. They absolutely loved it, and we had no cut mouths or any issues with it. Once I found out about chins and too much calcium, I took it out though.
 
I would like to know the source that says that mineral wheels are dangerous to chins I had heard a long time ago that they should have them My chins have had them for 15 years I always give a mineral wheel with my 'goody bag' that I give to each new parent of my chins. If I know for a FACT that this is bad I will stop but I would like to know FOR SURE !!!
 
Many years ago when I first got chins I had read from what was a 'chinchilla expert' who had many years experience (I won't say who) that you should put a mineral wheel in your chins cage, so I did.

One of my boys would nibble/lick on the wheel and I never thought twice about it. After a few months I noticed he would pee often and then when playing one night he seemed to be in pain when peeing. I took him to the vet the next day and he had a good size bladder stone. Thankfully they were able to remove it and he made a full recovery.

I had another chin living in the same cage and he never touched the wheel and never had a problem. My chins are on Oxbow so diet was not an issue. The first thing my vet aked me was if I had any kind of a mineral wheel in the cage. We believed it to be the mineral wheel that caused the stone, so I immediately took it out of the cage.

It has been 6 years and he has never had any problems since then. For me, that was enough proof that the mineral wheels are not needed and are actually a high risk for stones.

I don't believe a chin that is on a high quality pellet needs the extra minerals and that their bodies just can not process them or excrete them.
 
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