I need to fatten up some Chinchillas.

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Snowflake311

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 8, 2017
Messages
76
Location
Tahoe, CA
Some of my rescues are on the thin side. One is missing a back foot but he is eating timothy hay so I am happy he will be ok. I think he has a hard time eating because they did not know he had no foot. SO I am nursing him back and if he does well I am going to have to keep him.

What are some good ways to fatten up thin chins? I know they need to be seen by a vet I am working on finding a vet that will see them. The closest one 30 mins away is not taking any more exotics:rolleyes2:.
 
Well I just moved Tripods bowl low so he could eat better. His other food was just a bit too high it was too hard for a handicapped chin. I feed him Alfalfa and Timothy hay too. He is doing much better now I am so happy.
 
there really is no fast way to do this. They need natural weight gain from a quality diet. So really just giving him quality food and hay is the best bet.

I took in a chin that (unknown to me at the time) had some heavy spinal damage as well. It also make it nearly impossible for him to use his back right leg. Combined with being kept in a small cage and not being able to move around much, he was in pretty bad shape when i got him. He was also the smallest chin i had seen, in the 400g range.

It took a few tries and a lot of time but he has improved a lot. I switched him over form the crappy pellets he had over to some quality ones. He lost a little bit of weight as his system adjusted, then he started putting on some more weight. Now he is in the 500g range.

Being able to move around in a cage with some room was difficult for him at first. He was not used to it, and the leg was not used to moving much. So he had a fair amount of slip ups. He got better in time tho. And i built a cage more suited to his direct needs (not being able to put any pressure on the back right leg meant that he could barley hop at all.)

A double wide FN cage so the he had some horizontal room to move about. A couple very close spaced ledges to get up to his hut.

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Thanks for that. Tripod found a new home a nice lady took him and another male in. She was so excited to help little tripod. He was doing really well with me before I sent him off.

I have a few others foster/ recuse that are going to need a lot of help. Love the cage set up I have just the single Critter nation but am getting a double to add to my one for the fosters I kept.
 
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