Fur chewing because of new arrival?

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Essentia

Essentia

Jax Chinchilla Rescue
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
4,312
Location
Jacksonville, FL
Chula has started fur chewing. :hair: I noticed it started about a week ago. He gets supervised playtime everyday and he has a ton of toys in his cage. He also has an entire FN to himself. He's been an only chin since he was brought home from the petstore by the person I rescued him from. I brought home Buttons and after quarantine I moved him into the bedroom near Chula's cage. Chula has never had a problem with this. There has never been barking at him (and Chula's a barker). I have heard them talking to each other (the little squeeks back and forth) but that's all. I swear the fur chewing started the day Buttons moved into the room.

Now, I have noticed that Chula is very, very jealous. When I go to Buttons cage and Chula sees he runs over to the corner (the closest he can get to me) and starts squeeking at me so I know he's there. I have to give Chula everything first or he goes crazy. Could the jealousy be causing the fur issues? I only tried one introduction during playtime and Chula instantly started the fur pulling from Buttons so that ended with a quickness. Housed next to each other though they seem fine as long as I'm not giving Buttons any attention.

As soon as Buttons' wheel comes in I am splitting the FN up and Chula is going on the top and Buttons on the bottom. Do you think that Chula not being able to see Button's anymore may solve the issue? Or is it once a fur chewer always a fur chewer? I'll love Chula all the same, but he's ruining his pretty coat. Poor buddy.

Any advice?
 
It's not necessarily once a chewer, always a chewer. Chibi will occasionally chew her fur. Seems like it's when there's been big changes. Like when I first got her, and then again when I moved. But when things settle down, she doesn't chew. Ironically, she doesn't chew when we go on vacation somewhere, only when it's a complete change in scenery for a long time. But she hasn't chewed her fur in over a year and her fur looks fine.

He may settle down eventually and stop, or he may just continue to do it, you just never know. But I would think that eventually he will get used to the smell of the new chin. If you split the cage, he'll be out of sight, but I'm sure they can still smell and hear each other. But perhaps being out of sight will help with some of his jealousy issues.
 
I had purchased a chin that was a chewer. After I got him, he stopped, so once he settles down and gets used to the 'newbie', there is a good chance he will stop. I think most 'true' fur chewers just keep on chewing no matter what the circumstance.
 
I dunno, Chrysta. It's a very frustrating problem.:hair:

Bonnie still chews her fur; she's let most of it grow back on her legs, she just keeps it trimmed so it's they're not bare. And her hind quarters, all she has is the underfur. And that looks pretty ragged. Everywhere else, her coat is beautiful. She even let her the fur on her front legs grow completely back. Unless I just haven't given her enough time for it to grow back; I've had her since the beginning of December.

My Sug was a tail-chewer, too. She would not stop. There's just no magic wand or magic cure for chewing fur. Sometimes they stop when a stress is removed, sometimes they don't. Only time will tell.
 
Stress can cause fur-chewing so my guess is that Chula is a little stressed by the new chin in the room as you thought. He could stop once he can no longer see Buttons well but my guess is since he will still know Buttons is there that he may continue. In the meantime maybe a cardboard divider to see if it helps? I have heard that cardboard over the top of a cage (or fleece) can also minimize stress and make chins feel safer, whether this would alleviate your issue I do not know but it may be worth a try (I used this trick with a skittish chinnie guest I had here and it did work). How about a cuddle buddy, it may make Chula feel safe to have a non-threatening "friend" with him. I have not had any personal experience with chewing but these are some ideas that seem worth a try to me if I did :).
 
:cry4:All I can relate is what's worked for me, I don't know why, and I don't get a commision!
When I began to give LifeLine to the whole herd, [which included a fur-chewing, and spraying pair of rescues] it seemed like they ALL calmed down! Squabbles seemed much less frequent, rescues stopped their bad habits after a while, and it seemed I had a less problems with delivering mothers.
Not saying this is a "cure all" for everything, and really not knowing how or why it works, all I can say is it works for me!
LifeLine is available from Dawnna @ www.chocolatechinchillas,com
Maybe a healthy chin is a happy chin?
 
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Bubbles would always, ALWAYS bark at me, click her teeth, and throw a fit in general when I would play with the boys and not her. I called an experienced breeder, she said whenever she displayed this behavior, not to pay her any attention and if I did (Kind of like the dog whisperer) it would be treating bad behavior with attention, that she'd have to learn to wait her turn. But then again, they were seperated so I dunno about your particular situation.
Ever since Bubbles came here she stopped fur chewing, so maybe you could try moving Buttons (if it's an option) back out of the bedroom to see if it stops. Other than that I remember someone saying something about gold bond powder in dust bath to make fur chewers stop, or maybe it was for a fungus...Either way I wouldn't reccomend doing it until someone who actually remembers says yay or nay. Good luck though =[
 
Thanks for the replies. He was never a fur chewer before the new one got here. It just makes me sad. He used to have beautiful fur. I'll keep my fingers crossed that he will stop once he gets used to the new guy. If I would have known he would have been this stressed about it I wouldn't have brought Buttons home. :( I love both of them though, so he can't go now. Chula is just going to have to deal at this point. I'll do everything to make this as easy on him as I can.
 
Like someone else said, ignore him when he acts up and only give attention when you see appropriate behavior.

Gold Bond in their dust is for fungus, not fur chewing. Don't use it. Hopefully, with time Chula will get used to the new chin's presence and stop chewing.
 
So I shouldn't give him more attention all the time? Wouldn't that make his jealousy flare up even more which in turn could make his fur chewing worse? Buttons doesn't mind getting treats and attention second. In terms of attention he still isn't a huge fan of being pet or scritched, so he could care less. :p
 
If you give attention to the bad behavior, you will be rewarding it and causing it to become set in. Behavior that gets them nothing will eventually stop.
 
Yes, but it would also make the problem worse over time. If you ignore him now, he will probally get worse for a little while until he gets frustrated and tries a different behavior. It doesn't matter what that behavior is as long as it's not fur chewing or something negative. Once he does do something different, the key is to immediatly go over to his cage and give him attention. It will eventually click in his mind that "hey, I get treats and love when I behave calmly and don't chew." If you keep coming over to him when he behaves in a negative way, you are teaching him that in order to get attention, he should continue to behave negativly. It's all simple operant conditioning.
 
Well yeah, I realized that, which is why I asked the question. I know in other animals and such it working like that, I just didn't want him to make his fur chewing even worse in the process. I'll be the stern mommy for a bit (though it's going to kill me) and not give in to that cute little face. I also didn't want him to think mommy doesn't love him as much.

I realize that sounds ridiculous, but he really is acting like the older brother who's jealous of the new baby, which is why I referred to it like that.
 
I found where I found that. I copied it directly from it and I'll paste it here:

Once fur chewing starts, it rarely stops. It becomes a bad habit they can't seem to break themselves of. It's really a shame that she started chewing when she was an older gal. You would have thought she would be well past the starting point.

I've had some people tell me they have had success with adding a teaspoon of Gold Bond powder to the chins dust bath, maybe a 50'ish% success rate. It certainly won't hurt her to try. Try giving lots of toys, and maybe you're right, and the play time will help again. Also see if anything has changed in the environment. Louder noises, more traffic, etc., and try to eliminate them.
Click to expand...

It's from tunes herself, if you type in 'gold bond' on the search thingy, it'll pop up on a different thread. I hope that helped some.
 
Sorry to bring this back up but I thought of something.

Could new dust have contributed to the fur chewing? I have no idea why it would, but thinking back, not only did I bring Button's in the room when this started, but I also switched from Blue Sparkle to Blue Cloud.

It's just gotten worse so I am trying to think of anything I may be able to change that could even possibly be the cause. I feel so bad since this wasn't the issue until I brought home another pet chinchilla (the rescues are in a different room) and put him in the same room (or possibly the dust). I know there may be no stopping it, but it still makes me feel horrible.
 
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