Teeny chin?

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Claire D said:
I've just read this from the top again & I'm struck by something - Mummypig, you say Jasmine is 16 weeks & you got her from someone who had her, switched her off Charlie Chin food which she was on from the breeder - is that correct? ...........If so do you know hold old Jasmine was when the breeder sold her to the other lady?

Riven's suggestion is a good one but you might find it easier here to use powdered goats' milk (Holland & Barratt sell it - here) because it is slightly easier to get hold of. Some people in the UK use SMA baby milk powder instead.

If you can't get hold of the items for Riven's mix then you can try this one:
1 part rolled oats (old fashioned porrage oats)
1 part SMA baby milk powder
1 part wheatgerm
1 part crushed pellets.
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Oooo I have all those things here! I'll start right now.

Claire, I have not got a clue. Originally the lady I got her from emailed me and said "I have a YOUNG female, about the same age as Poppy..." and the day we collected her I was busy with the children so sent DH with the instruction as to find out her actual age and when he returned he said the lady told him she was 14 weeks (so that was 2 weeks ago!) ...

Now, this is the lady who we got Poppy from (she is a "hobby breeder") and she works in our local P@H and served me just before christmas, I asked her if she'd acquired the female beige she was looking for (she'd mentioned when we collected Poppy that she wanted a beige) and she said "no, but I got a black velvet about a week ago" so by my reckoning, Jasmine must have been no more than 11 weeks when the P@H woman got her.
 
:( Most breeders here don't sell on their chins until they are at least 12 weeks old (older than many people on this forum do, interestingly) so that they are fully weaned, a decent size, & able to look after themselves in terms of eating, drinking etc. It is quite possible Jasmine was weaned too early & sold before she had settled.

Have a go with the dry mix & see if she likes it but just watch she does not develop any soft droppings - I would also get some probiotics if you can - we have different ones here so some examples are:
Verark Avipro (from vets or online)
P@H own brand probiotics
Fibreplex (from a vet)

Alternately the human variety which you can get from health food shops are also ok - you want as many billions in the capsules as you can find & then just sprinkle the powder into her oats/wheatgerm/milk powder mix.

Good luck & please keep us posted.
 
Thank you so much. I'll get some probiotics this afternoon. Have just tried her with the mix, and she seemed interested! She had a couple of nibbles and has now gone back to her pellet bowl - so here's hoping! I hope you dont mind if I keep picking your brains, she's very important to me and I want to do what's right for her! x

So sad that her stupid "breeder" may have let her go too early. Still, she's wound up in good hands and I'll do my best to fatten the little princess up. (am having to do the same with my son at the moment for medical reasons) so I'll just keep feeding everyone all day long until they get big and strong!
 
Mummypig said:
Have just tried her with the mix, and she seemed interested! She had a couple of nibbles and has now gone back to her pellet bowl - so here's hoping!
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Lets hope she puts on some weight for you, bless her - if she likes the Supreme Science pellets then that's a good start.

I hope you dont mind if I keep picking your brains, she's very important to me and I want to do what's right for her! x
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Not at all - this is what the forum is here for - there are no stupid questions. ;)

BTW, what are her droppings like & have you seen her drinking from her water bottle at all?
 
Claire D said:
BTW, what are her droppings like & have you seen her drinking from her water bottle at all?
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Ah poo question! I'm obsessed with their poo - its the nurse in me! They have been much smaller and harder than normal, but last evening and today she has produced lovely normal stools. She does drink from her bottle, I fill it up to 50ml marker each day and usually about 30 ml has gone - not a grand amount but she's peeing. She spends longer at her bottle than Poppy spends at hers. Happily, she has just gobbled up quite a bit of the dry mix, I suspect she was forraging for the oats (but I crushed them to make that a challenge - mwah ha ha) I did wonder if she might try and bath in it for a moment but all well ;)
 
Just a thought (Its my way of refusing to believe a breeder could let a chin be separated from its mama too early).... could Jasmine be a dwarf? Everything about her is very dainty and I noticed before that her tail doesnt seem to be as long as Poppy's is (in proportion)... just a thought.

Update.. this afternoon she has done nothing but stuff her face. She's tucked into the dry mix and has attempted some regular pellets and eaten a LOT of hay. She's also been pooping for England. So proud.
 
I am glad to see she is stuffing her little face - she's landed on her feet with you. ;)

I do not think she is a dwarf TBH but you never know - she may just be a dinky chinny.
 
she probably isn't a dwarf but as Claire said just a very small chin. If after feeding her all the right foods she doesn't grow much she could just be a small chin. I have one that is 2 1/2 years old and is only 400 grams. He is a cutey but of course is only a pet for my great granddaughter. I even had my vet do blood work because he just stopped growing. His blood work was great and the vet couldn't figure why he was so small. I didn't feel I could sell him because he was so small and I (and my vet) wondered if they was something wrong that just couldn't be found. So I kept him and so far he appears very healthy and active - just very small and cute
 
Ah ok, worth a try! We can do small - she's never going to be bred or shown so it doesnt really matter to me how big she gets, she's just a beloved pet - as long as she's healthy and happy thats all that matters. Will keep you posted as to what her weight is doing :)
 
Not to high jack the thread, but I have a question about the dry mix for Claire: Can you also give this as a weight gain mixture to older chins who have gone off feed and lost weight due to teeth issues, illness, etc. I do not have any chins sick at the moment and all of them are fatties, but it got me wondering for the future, is all.
 
Bostongirl'sChin75 said:
Not to high jack the thread, but I have a question about the dry mix for Claire: Can you also give this as a weight gain mixture to older chins who have gone off feed and lost weight due to teeth issues, illness, etc. I do not have any chins sick at the moment and all of them are fatties, but it got me wondering for the future, is all.
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Some people do, yes. Personally I do not like the milk powder so tend to use a mix of herbs to tempt appetite & a special, nutritionally balanced herd mix made by my friend Debbie from Azure Chinchillas. If a chin has dental problems then I tend to use OCC & the mixes.

Hope that helps?
 
Hi Claire I've been on night duty at the hospital all weekend so I've not had much chance to spend with Jaz (normally I can watch her all day) or update you until now :) I weighed her this morning and there was no change in weight, but today she has eaten all of her pellets (I put 80g in plus bowl and it was gone in 20 hours) I have also soaked pellets today and sprinkled it with the kit-fattening mix you told me about. She's eaten loads today and 'feels' chunkier despite the scales saying otherwise.

I've been looking at local vets today cos I thought I'd see how she goes in the next 48 hours and take her for a review if there's a loss or still no gain. There's a local vets who specialise in "small animals and exotics" and its headed up by the vet who used to be in charge of Paignton zoo the website says all the vets are very experienced in exotics- whereas most of the other local vets are much more geared up for feline/canine consultations.

So no change, but due to work commitments its not been as easy for me to observe her eating habits as it is during the week.

Thank you for asking about her.
 
That's encouraging that she is eating better :thumbsup:

Fingers crossed for some weight gain now then.
 
I weighed Jasmine today and she's had a lovely weight gain (since yesterday!) of between 8-10g :clap1: She'd also cleared her mushy pellet bowl and made a nice dent in the hard pellets! so I think the mushy sprinkled pellets are working a treat (which makes me think of dental problems and other things but we'll cross that bridge if we need to)

I'm in a bit of a flap though because I am going away with the hubby next week for the first time since having children, we're off to Paris for 4 days. I'm leaving everyone with my mum and also my mother in law but neither have experience with Chins - my mum used to keep degus though. I'll leave them this website and my password and also my cousin's number - she's a vetinary nurse and has 18 years experience of keeping and breeding chinchillas but she's very recently had a baby so I feel a bit bad plaguing her all the time..... tell me its going to be ok! I'm fine about leaving them with the 2 legged kids! And Poppy is very simple to look after, but my little dinky Jas needs a bit of TLC :unsure:
 
Whoohoo! Weight gain. Way to go, Jasmine. :thumbsup:

You can try simplifying things a bit more - try putting a little bowl of just the dry mix in the cage for her next to her dry pellet bowl. She shouldn't really need softened pellets TBH.
 
Claire D said:
Whoohoo! Weight gain. Way to go, Jasmine. :thumbsup:

You can try simplifying things a bit more - try putting a little bowl of just the dry mix in the cage for her next to her dry pellet bowl. She shouldn't really need softened pellets TBH.
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I know! I had the dry mix by itself and she ignored if after a few days. I think she was intrigued by the change of mushy pellets LOL If she were a human she'd be all "peel me a grape" such a diva. I'll give the dry mix a go by itself again and we shall see how we do! x
 
Well, Poor little Jasmine has been through the mill today. Her weight dropped so I took her to the vet. The vet had a good look in her mouth and said that as far as she could see, the teeth were fine but obviously without an xray she wouldnt know for sure... she said as Jasmine is so very tiny, and not showing any other signs of teeth problems and IS eating she would be happy to leave xraying her until after the weekend.

She gave me pain relief (Jas hurt her paw a week or so ago but has been using it normally since) the vet feels that if she is in pain she wouldn't be eating as well as normal, and she also gave me some CC to try and help weight gain. I gave her the pain relief when we got home and I've just given her some of the CC - my goodness that's a messy experience isnt it?! I burrito'd her in a tea towel and managed to get a bit into her - apparently for her weight I need to give her 3g a day... I've managed about a quarter of that so far. She is still interested in the food in her cage and even after her C she has gone into her cage and chomped on her hay.

I have to keep an eye on her weight over the weekend and go back to the vets on monday.

The Vet kept saying that she was very very tiny, that her tail was about half the size she'd expect it to be on a 4month old chin and she like me, wondered if she is in fact a LOT younger that I have been led to believe she is.
 
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<sigh> The more I read about Malo the more I think that's what Jasmine has :cry3: There's always a right mess by her pellets, she's losing weight, she paws at her mouth sometimes (not all the time by any means). The vet didnt xray her, but what she saw was fine - there was no sores that she could see but I totally understand that without xrays you just cant tell.

We've been feeding her CC but today I came downstairs to an EMPTY BOWL OF PELLETS!! (with a pile of mess next to them) I obviously dont want to give her too much CC so that she doesnt want to eat normal food but at the same time I want to bulk her up. I was really pleased this morning with the lack of pellets but I feel very dispondant right now. I'm convinced we're going to have to have her put down, and I'm dreading it.

I'm going to take her back to the vet on monday, and we'll see if we can get some xrays done, at least then we'll know what we're dealing with.
 
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