chinchilla hair loss

We received 2 chinchillas from my daughters class about 2 months or so ago. The teacher had been given them in the fall for her class and she was having a baby and decided she would rather give them a new home than keep them in the classroom any longer.
We have had a chinchilla years ago and we were given them to take care of. They have been perfectly fine until this week.
One chinchilla has been losing his hair. (I don't know the sexes of them, but I am told they are both the same sex). It looks to me like barbering from what I have found online. It started around the tail/rear area and now it is almost up to his next. It is in a line, so it appear to be eaten off in rows? No hair in the cage at all so I am assuming one of them is eating it. I have not caught this happening so I can't be sure. I am not sure how this chinchilla could eat his own hair so perfectly so I am assuming the other one is doing it, but I could be wrong.
What should I do? How do I stop this? And could it be something else, like a fungus?

Assuming they're chewing their fur, it could be either one. But you said it appeared to be chewed off in rows? Pictures may be helpful Fur chewing could be caused by stress, so if they lived in unsuitable conditions in the classroom, and bad or stressful experiencesd could contribute to the fur chewing, Hopefully someone more experienced will respond as well, though !

Thanks. I will try to take pictures later and post them.

Stress of a new home could also trigger stuff. I would think if it's perfect rows it'd be a fungus or infection. I thinks that's more likely to spread evenly than an animal chewing. Pictures would probably help the experienced guys. I can only try to help with guesses. Is all the cage/food/bedding/ect the same? There could be an allergic reaction or the fur gets pulled off going through too small of a space or something. I dont know that those'd be even either.

My Rosey used to chew straight lines down her flanks towards her tail. Dunno how she got them so perfect. She started when my other chin got sick, but she stopped later on of her own accord.

Occasionally she will do it again... always in the straight rows, and sometimes the tip of her tail.... usually this happens when I have been sick, and havent been able to do play out times. So I would say in her case it is stress or frustration that causes her to fur chew.

Your chin might stop fur chewing (if that's what it is) when he/she has settled into their new home and routine. You could also try new toys and twigs for chewing variety, and to combat stress and boredom.

However, some chins will just keep fur chewing no matter what. It becomes a bad habit to them; analogous to humans biting their fingernails.

They have been here since mid Feb. so I would think they are settled in. The only change last weekend is we were out of town for the weekend, but just 2 days. We gave them plenty of food and water when we left Friday afternoon and were home early Sunday and there was food left. We don't play with them much at all. My daughter does go and feed them everyday normally and clean the cage a bit, but other than that she doesn't play with them too often.

Here are some bad pictures taken from my phone.

My daughter says this is how they like to sleep but I noticed the dark Chin's mouth is right at the line of missing fur.



And then the light Chin moved and I tried to get a picture of the body.

hmm I posted a post with pictures and it disappeared. Do we need so many posts before we can add pictures?

Yeah, that is absolutely fur chewing. Still hard to say who is doing it though. My chins sleep like that all the time and they don't chew. You could try separating them, but if they are happy together I wouldn't. Fur chewing is ugly but not harmful. If they pretty much only have each other, as it sounds like you guys don't interact much with them, I would definitely not think of separating them. As long as they are both eating, drinking, peeing, and pooping, the fur chewing shouldn't matter.

I just had my chin to the vet about barbering! I really wanted to rule out any health issues first before I addressed environment. Fur chewing isn't harmful per se but it is an indication something is wrong. Fur chewing can happen because of many things: boredom, stress, improper nutrition, skin irritation(i.e. fungus or dry skin), or pain. Most likely if it was skin irritation the fur would not be 'clipped' looking, or chewed in half but instead there would be patches of bare skin.

In Bentley's case (my chin) it mostly happens when I'm too sick to spend time with him for a few days and when my noisy grandchildren come to visit, so boredom and stress.

There is always the danger that what started as stress or boredom becomes a psychological issue that is hard to break. My vet's suggestion was to give him exercise everyday. A tired body means a quiet mind. And I also switched his food to Oxbow pellets instead of the pellets that contain dried fruit and other treats, which is a very bad food choice for chins.

I'm really hoping that I can resolve Bentley's issues because he looks horrible with patches of fur clipped. I've had him for a year, he's about 10 years old and has had two previous owners. I'm learning as fast as I can and I'm so glad I found this forum!

I have a 3 year chinchilla that recently starting pulling out her fur from her stomach and has worked her way up to under her chin. I have been to a vet and found nothing wrong. The only thing that I can think of is that I have changed the brand of dust bath. Could this be the issue? She is also scratching at her face as well. Please help!

Can you post any pictures?

How often are you giving dust baths?