Causes of dry skin?

[Kanayan]

Hi fellow chinnie lovers! My girl Kana recently got diagnosed by the vet with dry skin on her toes and I got bag balm for it today. I had two questions, however. One, how long does it usually take to heal (I feel so bad for her! :cry2. Two, what are the possible causes of this? She has no-pill fleece, wood, chinchiller and aspen bedding areas in her cage, so I thought that her feet should be pretty comfortable. After all, the red, dry skin is on top of her toes, not on the bottom. Could it be from her previous owners and their use of sand as bedding or could it be a diet issue? I have her on plain Chinchilla pellets, fresh timothy hay (with a supplemental amount of alfalfa hay as she nurses her kit) and fresh water. Does anyone have any idea why issues like this might arise and what else I can do to combat it?

Thank you so much!
~Jenny~

 

[Newt]

How often does she have dust baths? Too often can cause dry skin.

 

[carmen holt]

That happened to mine too i gave him too many dust baths the hair came off some of his front legs too i didnt put nothing on it i cut the baths back to twice a week for 5 to 8 min each and his hair grew back i didnt put anything on it i kept a close eye

 

[Kanayan]

Sorry for taking so long to reply and thanks for the suggestions. The bag balm is working well on Kana. It is definitely possible that too many dust baths could be the culprit. She's the kind of chin that loves a bath so much, she'll sneak into the dust any chance she can get. She just had her first bath in two weeks after giving birth and I will cut her baths to twice a week as suggested. I also suspect that the super dry air of Roswell could be a problem, seeing as we got her in the moister area of Ruidoso. Thanks everyone and I will update if I find anything new out.