Grooming Delema

[cahtie]

Its been nearly a month (yay, quarantine's almost over!) since I acquired two new chinnies. Unfortunatley, one of them has always had a lot of loose fur, or matted fur, around her back end and I think under her tail. It looks matted, and I've tried to gently pull on bits of it but it doesn't come out easily and it stresses her.

The main reason this is a problem is, it looks worse as days go by, so I don't think its anything she can take care of. Plus, I'm a relatively new owner, and she doesn't know me well enough to trust me at all. I got her and her sister from an ex-breeder, and they were part of a colony, and don't seem the best socialized. The third thing is, there's a chance one or both may be pregnant. They lived with a male until soon before I took them.

This is what worries me most. I really don't think those mats can be comfortable for her (especially those under her tail), but I don't want to stress her out if she's pregnant. To the point that, I've been limiting contact with them and just going to sit by their cage and talk to them/watch TV next to them, so that they get used to me but aren't anxious.

Should I just wait till the three month mark before I try to tackle the mats, or is this something that should be taken care of sooner for her health (not sure what kind of skin problems could arise, but as a dog groomer I know that at least dogs can get bad skin issues from mats).

Also, how badly will it hurt the bonding process? She's not going to let me pull those out easily, even being as gentle as possible, and I've heard chins have long memories and take a long time to forgive.

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

If she may be pregnant I wouldn't try to comb the matts. Give her plenty of dust baths until you know she isn't pregnant. Wait 111 days from the day you got her.

 

[smithjerico]

You have adopted them, but they have not adopted you. So it will take some time for them to adopt the environment. Try to interact with them more and also play with them.Soon you will become friends.

 

[Riven]

I'm a "treat them like you are going to treat them later from day one" person. I've seen many people wait for their chins to "like them" to do anything with them, then they get sick or hurt and it over stresses them when they need to medicate them every 4 hours or hand feed every 2 hours. I think in the end it's what you're comfortable with doing. If it was me, I would've combed her out when I first got her because it'll make her feel so much better.

 

[cahtie]

I'm a "treat them like you are going to treat them later from day one" person. I've seen many people wait for their chins to "like them" to do anything with them, then they get sick or hurt and it over stresses them when they need to medicate them every 4 hours or hand feed every 2 hours. I think in the end it's what you're comfortable with doing. If it was me, I would've combed her out when I first got her because it'll make her feel so much better.

Oh I agree in general, though I do like to give my pets a brief time to settle in before I lavish attention on them. I would have probably already brushed out the matts if I weren't worried that she may be pregnant, and she's already had to deal with the stress of a completely new home, environment, and caretaker. I think I'll just wait to brush her until after I've confirmed that she's not pregnant (at the three month mark) or until a little after she's had the baby(s).

In the meantime, I do spend time with them, and talk to them, and let them have limited play time (in an empty room so no accidents happen. again, only cause I'm worried about possible babies). I don't want them to be bored to death or feel neglected.

 

[halfstache]

I'm pretty sure this isn't the case, but figured I throw it out there anyway. Are you sure that what she has is mats, and that she isn't actually fur chewing? The only reason I ask is that the areas listed are consistent with fur chewing, and chewed fur sort of has a matted appearance to it.

 

[cahtie]

I'm pretty sure this isn't the case, but figured I throw it out there anyway. Are you sure that what she has is mats, and that she isn't actually fur chewing? The only reason I ask is that the areas listed are consistent with fur chewing, and chewed fur sort of has a matted appearance to it.

I can't be absolutely sure cause I've never encountered this before. Three of my chins have perfect coats, with no clumps sticking out. The one I believe is matted seems to have longer fur then the others, if that makes any sense? It's not as 'manicured' and uniform looking as the other three. She's also bigger then the other three.

That said, her coat seems pretty thick and fine except for the tufts hanging out above and below her rear/tail. I tried tugging gently on the tufts, but they're firmly in place. I don't see anything that looks like chewing/plucking. Except one thing that I'm not sure of yet. Her tail fur seems a little thinned out, compares to the others. I see no sores on it, and it's not much, I see no tufts of fur anywhere in the cage.

 

[cahtie]

I'll try to get a pic of it tomorrow.

 

[6Dusters]

I have the same train of thought as Riven.

I would of taken my safety scissors and cut the fur away from the area. Easy enough to do. Have someone hold her upside down by the base of the tail and start cutting away. It's not like she is going to be shown. Just grip her at the base of the tail towards her bottom. Hold firm but not a death grip. She's going to kick and wiggle. But they get over it. Thats how we have to groom some of the chins that won't sit still.

Unless I knew she was heavy pregnant I wouldn't do it and just wait.

 

[Riven]

I had a chin I didn't know was pregnant (she got bred through the wire on the run) , I show prepped her, groomed her repeatedly, showed her, all of that. Brought her back home and 3 weeks later she littered. Unless she's really nutty I don't see that combing her would stress her enough to abort. If they aborted that easily chins would never be born, cleaning the cage would upset them, sweeping the barn would upset them, a new person would upset them. Under that train of thought she would've aborted when you brought her to a new home. That's just my theory. I've heard of people not taking chins to shows because they don't want to stress them or they might start chewing and such... if they stress that easily to bring out those traits they probably don't need to be in the breeding pool anyway. I understand you didn't breed this girl, she came possibly bred, just tossing my view out there.