Chin's poop is soft

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

kaylamg2014

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2015
Messages
5
Location
Missouri
Hello,
I've had my chin for almost 3 months now. He's my first chin I've owned, so I'm still learning but we've been getting along great.

About 2 weeks ago, I came home one day and noticed that there was poop squished all over his cage. It was stuck to him as well, and caused quite the mess. I wasn't sure what caused it, but I quit giving him treats and kept an eye on him. He seemed to be doing okay, but today I went into his cage and noticed a large pile of soft poop that would get squished once again.

I've been feeding him a bag of Kaytee food (which I've read is not that great for them, and plan on switching once this bag is finished) and he has a supply of timothy hay. As far as treats go he'll get a cherrio or sunflower seed, or something of the sort. I haven't switched his food or changed anything, so I'm slightly puzzled as to why he's having issues now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
 
Pull all of his feed (get rid of the Kaytee, whether the bag is finished or not) and just give him hay for 2-3 days. You can also give him some probiotics in the form of powder sprinkled on the hay or they have it a paste form at Petco and PetSmart (or most vets). You can also use activated charcoal or toast that has been burned black. I mean burn it so that your house smells like it's on fire and there is no evidence of bread left - just black stuff. He can have pieces of that 3-4 times a day.

After he has been off food for a few days, slowly reintroduce a better quality feed to him, keeping the hay up. If his poops are still squishy after that, he needs to see a vet.

Ah, one other thing, what do you use for water? Contaminated water can also cause issues. All of my water is filtered through reverse osmosis.
 
Thank you for your reply!

I have taken away his pellets for the meantime. What is a quality brand you would recommend?

He's currently receiving regular filtered water. I use a brita filter with him, but it may be worth mentioning he received tap water once or twice on accident.

I will try the toast and see if that helps.
Also, he doesn't have wet stool all of the time. It appears normal the majority of the time, and he'll have a period where it's wet, then it will go back to normal.
He doesn't appear sick, could it be stress related? The first time the issue occurred I was out of town for two days, and had someone check in to give him food.
It seemed to appear normal again soon after I came back. Recently I've had my windows open since it gets warm in my room at night, and since I live in a neighborhood I'm afraid the sounds and noises could be spooking him.
 
Thank you guys for your help.
I've followed your advise, and this morning he appears to be doing better. I will continue to give him only hay today, and monitor him.

I couldn't find Oxbow, so I have ordered a bag online. It won't arrive until saturday. Should I feed him the Kaytee in the meantime, or keep him on a hay only diet until then? That seems like a while to not have any pellets.
 
Back
Top