Leaving chins alone for days

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If my family and I are just going on a short trip (heading across the state to our cabin for example), I give every cage hay cubes, loose hay, fill all the buckets full with water, and right before leaving top off all the feeders. My chins have always done fine with this. And also, the vast majority of my feeders hold a week's worth of food except for my Ryerson cages.

If it is during the hot summer, I keep in contact with my neighbor to see if there's been any power outages (VERY common in our neighborhood for some odd reason) as that's a red flag, as that means the a/c isn't running - but, have not had this happen yet for more than just a couple hours (garage doesn't cool down that fast). Like Tara (Spoof) said, it's not like I'm home 24/7 and able to constantly check if females are in labor. Most of the time I miss the babies being born anyways. I check early morning before school, and at night when I get home.

Over spring break (last week) I went to Mexico, and hired a sitter to care for all the animals (cats, dogs, chins, gliders, chickens). She's been taught the basics for the chins- feed daily the small feeders, check the other feeders every other day and top them off if needed. The water bins were all filled and didn't need to be tended to. No one knows my chins and the care of them as well I do here, not even any family members. So even when I am gone and DO hire a sitter, it isn't like she's going to know which kits are new or not. Proud to say I had a surprise of 5 new kits when I arrived back to the U.S.

I do not think it is right to say leaving the chins alone for a couple is a BYB type of action. I've owned chins and bred them for over 9 years now, and have never had any larger issues than when I'm present here with the chins.
 
I have left my chins alone overnight after obsessively filling all hay/food/water and leaving extras just in case. I usually leave extra chew sticks and throw some new toys in the cages to so they don't get bored. When my husband and I are gone for more than one night, we have someone stop over to make sure all is well with the chins and dogs. If it's longer than a few nights, I have a live-in sitter. In May we're going on a family cruise with hubby's side and my father is actually using a week's vacation to come pet sit for us. I'm blessed to have people to help out, and all I have to do is stock the fridge for him :)
 
I am lucky in that we live next to my in laws. When I am away for weekend trips or longer he will go up and check on the chins at least once a day. Usually during the hottest part of the day to make sure the ac is working. I always make sure if it's a weekend trip feeders and waters are filled to the top, so usually they don't HAVE to feed or water, but they will make sure everyone is fed and watered.

I've left them for 24 hours when in a pinch before.
 
Since owning chins I've only gone out of town once (left early wednesday morning and returned Saturday night). I live/lived at home so my parents and my sister took care of the chins while I was away. It was my Senior Trip in High School and I wasn't going to go but my parents told me to go and they'd take care of the chins. If they needed me I had my cell on me.
I actually called a friend 2 hours away from my house and had her mail food to my house while on this trip (that was a nice phone bill) because the company I usually order from was being slow (longer story) and the chins were running low. Ordering from her it was usually there by the next day if she mailed it out that morning. Then my mom mailed her a check for me.

Other than that I don't leave them for no longer than a day trip. If everyone is going on the trip then they get extra large piles of hay, extra hay cubes, 2 water bottles per cage, and food emptied and refreshed right before walking out the door. If anyone is staying home then that person checks on them during the day for me.


We don't usually do anything more than a day trip and usually there is someone not going, so it works out.
 
I wouldn't be comfortable with leaving them for that long. Luckily my sister lives in the apartment just above mine. So when I know I'll be gone for a while(which is rare), I ask her to at least check on them everyday, fill their food bowls and make sure to give them fresh water.
 
My friend leaves her chin alone for days.. I've gone over to check on her before even though she swore she'd be fine, only to find empty food, no hay, no water, etc. (Trying to bring this chin into my home, btw)

But honestly, my Athena is wayyy too smart for me to ever consider leaving alone for a weekend. I mean, yeah, she's at home alone while I work, but I always check on her when I get in. And if we plan a weekend trip, we either take her and the dogs, or have someone watch them. (Would you leave a dog locked in a house kennel and leave for a weekend ? No.) Athena can open her cage doors, throws tantrums when she's having her "time of the month" in which she will throw her food out of the cage, knock her water bottle down, etc. I couldn't imagine coming home to an empty cage. She has also had a lot of digestion issues, so she needs to have her "meds" for regulation. My absolute biggest concern is over heating or choking. And no, this is not paranoia. I have awoken to a quiet gurgly bark before and jumped up and ran to check on her, only to find out she had gotten the spring cord off of her glass water bottle and the hook was in her throat. No damage, thankfully. BUT the importance of the fact that anything could happen, stands. She has also done this with the snap hook type things on kabobs. Some chins just cannot be allowed to have these kind of things, but things like this are important risks to factor in. Cages are never completely safe, so it's important they are checked up on.
 
We have to travel generally Friday night to Sunday morning for most shows we attend. I give loose and cubed hay, ensure water is fresh and full, and fill all feeders. Someone pops in on Saturday to check on the chins but they do not need to feed or water as long as everything is okay.

When I am going away for any longer, I find someone to come check in daily. I ensure cages are clean and everything is full to make their lives as easy as possible. Thankfully I have a very knowledgeable local friend who can handle them for me if I'm gone for a week.
 
When I'm gone I have someone stop in once a day. One of my chins drinks from a water cup that needs to be changed regularly. I change it twice a day, but I don't think it's fair to burden a sitter with that. So I just ask them to come at approximately the same time every day (mornings or nights) so it's getting done atleast once every 24 hours. My sitters know how much I worry, so they usually facetime me or send me pictures of the chins when they stop in.
 
I'll leave my chins for a couple days and not feel guilty about it. They have a backup water bottle, lots of food and hay, and some dust to hold them over. I also have a temp control apartment so it's a constant 70-75 degrees. It's a personal preference, not a set in stone rule. If I'm going to be gone for more than 2-3 days I have someone check on them to be sure. They have a safe cage, are fed a quality consistent diet with minimal treats so I feel they'll be fine. In my opinion, a dog left alone and a chinchilla is completely different. I don't feel like it's terrible to leave them alone overnight.
 
Constant 70-75 only works if the a/c does not fail, last weekend AGAIN the a/c went out in the house leaving only the chins wall unit a/c working, the capasitor first went out a couple of weeks ago then the evaporator froze from a low charge, I was gone all day and when I got home it was 81 in the house, 78 in their room, 104 outside. It was not a medical emergency yet but going on for much longer-the house eventually went to 86, they went into the car and back home to the bay area and the a/c guy got screamed at.
 
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Fortunately, I live in a basement apt where the indoor temps never get very high even without any ac. And our unit is very reliable. It's a personal choice an owner needs to take by weighing the risks. In my situation, I don't feel I need to obsessively check on my boys if I'm need to be away. If that's the choice you make, you cover your bases as best you can.
 
Overnight, mine will be fine. Any longer, and I have my son take care of them. He does an excellent job and has actually Skyped me twice to show me the new babies that were born while I was gone. He actually stayed home while we went on a trip to 2 family reunions in just over a week. He also took care of the asthmatic cat during that time. I don't know that I would trust anyone else with my chins or that cat. He helps me with them every day and best of all, on cage cleaning days.
 
I feel comfortable leaving mine overnight. Beyond that... I have cats that require "checking in" on anyway, so whichever family member I dupe into caring for the cats gets chinnie duty as well! :)
 
I worry constantly about Blueberry, so for that reason we don't stay gone overnight. My husband and myself went to Atlantic City over night one night back in October, and when we got home we got the cold shoulder from little miss thing, she turned her back to us and swatted us away for a whole day when we got home, so even if I didnt worry so much, her guilt trip is enough to bring me home every night lol. If we go to his parents for the night, we just pack her up and take her with us. LOL.
 
I think we all worry about leaving our chins overnight.

And, my worries came to light with a few incidents such as blood being speckled all over from a busted nose, and another time a shattered glass water bottle.

Things can happen, but you can't always be there for everything.
They are OK overnight but if its more then one night they need to be checked on, say my girls were REALLY injured, or forced to run around a cage with broken glass. They could've bled out. The thought kills me.

Other than that, my girls only resent me if I don't leave the TV on.

ServantofBlueberry said:
If we go to his parents for the night, we just pack her up and take her with us. LOL.
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If I could take them with me I would! How does Blueberry handle the trips?
 
I've only had my chin Henry for a year and have only been away for longer than it takes to go to work once. I took an overnight trip with friends so I was gone a little over 24 hours. I loaded him up on food, hay and filled the water bottle but still called my mom to make sure she checked up on him. LOL

This july I'm actually going to be gone for a long weekend, Thursday - Sunday and am already freaking out. I live with my parents so I know they will check on him every evening but still.....
 
I've had chins get their hind leg caught way up high on the side of the cage as well as in the floor of the cage (1" x 1/2" wire spacing), I also had a chin pull a stray piece of bailing twine into his cage and get it tightly wrapped around his back leg, all of those could have turned out very bad if someone hadn't been there to help them. Ideally, animals should be checked on at least once a day.
 
I left mine overnight once, when I got married. I spent the whole time worrying, so now if we go somewhere where will will be staying over night, we pack up the girls and they go too.
 
I've left my chinchillas for up to 3 days at a time, I just give them a big food bowl that attaches to the side of the cage, and extra water bottles. Any more days than that and I have someone come and check on them, but I've never had any problems otherwise.
 
Go look in the emergency section-think the chin who got trapped under the bowl would be alive in 3 days, I think not. 3 days is way too long.
 
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