Am I just a worry-wart??

[missjess10475]

Ok, so I read posts from this site all the time, and I learn tons! Which is how I've come to learn chins have very sensitive systems and things can go wrong all the time! This worries the beegeezies outta me! I have 8 chins. One is 1 year old, 2 are 4/5 mos old. The other 5 are babies, just about 3 months old. I am worried about 3 of these furbabies.
Wilson is my pink/white. He's also my biggest. He's active, eats great, and my favorite. He's about 5/6 months old. We was drinking from his water bottle this morning. He had his front paw up holding on to the cage bars, and I noticed he has a bald spot on his arm. Does this mean he's biting? It doesn't look red and inflamed. Just pink and bald.
Also, I have 2 girls together. A 1 year old and a 13 week old. They love eachother and are little cuddlebugs. Problem is, neither one of them eat very much. They have been losing a little weight each week. They're very active at night and jump all over the place. They eat quite a bit of hay, just not a lot of pellets. ALso the younger one, I keep hearing a noise from her that sounds like when we grind out teeth. What does this mean? She has plenty of chew toys and she's always chewing on loofah chews!
Sorry to keep ranting. Just not sure when to actually worry, and when it may be normal. I love these furballs and don't want to miss something that needs immediate attention.
Thanks everyone!!!

 

[CJR]

Don't worry too much, chinchillas are crazy.

The bald spot could be from fur, but I don't really know.

I would keep an eye on the two girls losing weight. How much weight are they losing? Try and entice them to eat with some lifeline or "chinnie" salad - that usually helps my girls to eat.

I think the teeth grinding is normal. My girl Bess had a tendency to do it when she's happy. I know that rats do it when they're happy and it's called "bruxing" - not sure if it's the same with chinchillas though.

 

[Chintastic!]

I wouldnt worry about the bald spot, its probably a fur slip. If it gets bigger or looks flacky/red then you should worry.

With the girls, I just had to point out that loofah is not good at filing down teeth. You need lots of wood/pumice/hay to keep the teeth filed down well. What type of food are you feeding them? Brand of hay? I have two males who refuse to eat kaytee hay, could be whats going on with them. I buy from my local feed store and get a huge bag for $10, I'm not sure how much is actually in the bag but it is enough to fill a 20 gal. tub with a bunch left over. I second the Lifeline suggestion.

Where are Tunes, tinklechin, RDZC and all the other smart people when you need them? lol

 

[missjess10475]

I feed them Tradition pellets and Oxbow hay. The younger of the 2 was also fed Tradition by the breeder I got her from. The older one, she was fed Purina and wasn't eating that at all either when I brought her home a month ago. They do eat quite a bit of hay. I have lots of wood in the cage for them! They have lava ledges, chew toys, apple wood sticks, along with the loofah. I have seen the baby girl eating pellets more than usual, but she's still losing weight. A couple days before I went to get her, the breeder said she weighed 292 grams. That was 10/24/10. On 11/5/10 she went down to 282g. On 11/14/10, she went down to 233g and 2 days later on 11/16/10 she was 222g. The older one was 457g on 11/5/10 and down to 425g on 11/14/10. All 6 of my other chins have been gaining weight very steadily. It's just these 2. The baby was progressing very nicely at the breeder. Is she maybe still upset about being taken from her parents? I have another baby 2 weeks younger who is gaining weight wonderfully!