Chin suddenly smells??

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bethieandbasil

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Joined
Oct 30, 2014
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1
My chinchilla Basil is about 5 and a half and I've never known him smell before.
About a week ago I was cleaning round his cage and noticed a funny smell a bit like dog poo, thought it was just something someone had trampled into the carpet and didn't think anything of it. Since we've shampooed the carpet and the smell is still there. It's really strong and really unpleasant and seems to be coming from the middle/bottom of the cage predominantly and not from Basil himself. I've been cleaning the cage with pet disinfectant every day but the smells keeps coming back.
The only changes in Basil's life recently I can think of:
-Daisy the hamster joined the family- they live in different rooms but occasionally end up near each other, making Basil pretty moody sometimes and 'excited' others ;)
-He's always had Charlie Chinchilla food but doesn't eat many of the pellets, so I bought a different brand of pellets about 6 weeks ago and he's been having half and half until a couple of days ago when the Charlie Chinchilla ran out. He used to really like the new brand of pellets but since it's been just them, he's eaten hardly any of them
-Our usual brand of cage disinfectant was discontinued so we've been using another one for about 4 weeks
-He's been peeing out of his potty a lot more- he usually does one or two out of the potty a week but now it's more like that each day. I've been scrubbing wherever I see the puddles with the disinfectant

I've checked him over and he looks completely normal.
Sorry for the rant- anyone got any ideas? Thank you!!
 
Try using white vinegar instead of the pet disinfectant. Some people do a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water. I just use straight vinegar on the pans and rinse it thoroughly afterwards. I was skeptical the first time I heard about it, but the stuff really is amazing and inexpensive.

Charlie Chinchilla food is a really low quality feed. Since it has so many extras in it that are horrible for them, it's common for chins to pick through and only eat the treats rather than the pellets. You'll want to stick with high quality pellets and timothy hay. No fruits or veggies, dried or otherwise. Some recommended feeds are Oxbow, Tradition and Mazuri. You can find a handful of other recommendations by using the search feature at the top.

Hope that helps!
 
my only thought atm, and this is just a guess, would be the food. Sometimes our systems can get a bit off while switching foods/diets.

Edit: I use distilled vinegar/water 50/50 to clean my metal trays for the cage. It does a pretty good job and is a lot safer for the chins then any chemicals. Just rinse thoroughly.
 
Is it the chinchilla that smells or his cage? What do his poops look like. Are they normal. Is he peeing or getting water in his feed. That can lead to a horrible smell.
 
Another thing that smells really bad is hay that has been peed on. As said please find another food other than Charlie. It is on of the worst.
 
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