Fur Chewing?

[ChinchillaSweetie]

I am not sure if this is in the correct “category” or not. (First post by the way, so a little nervous). Anyways, I have a Chinchilla that will be turning two in May. I purchased her from a breeder, which had many chinchillas. Her chinchillas had perfect fur, and she informed me that her mother won a ribbon for her quality of fur. ( something along those lines ) We live in Florida; the temperature of the apartment is always between 73 to 75 degrees. In August we went to visit family in Cleveland and we brought Lola ( chinchilla ) with us. She did fine on the car drive, no problems at all. She slept the whole way and every now and then would come to the front of the carrier to see what was going on. In Cleveland, she had her own separate cage, same food, hay, treats and bedding that she has in Florida. She acted normal in Cleveland, no problems at all. A family member has two male chinchillas, which live in a cage and we placed Lola near them but we did not allow any interaction between them since she would be leaving in a week. Anyways, we get back to Florida and a couple days later I noticed that her fur is uneven on her one side. I cannot find any pieces of fur in her cage at all. Nothing has changed, everything is the same ( I am currently transferring her from Mazuri to Oxbow pellets though but the fur issue happened like six months before I even started this ). I increased her playtime out side of the cage and notice an improvement in her fur. It was starting to become even, and filling out nicely. She stopped for a couple weeks, then would chew on it for a day or two, stop then start again. Well, for the past two weeks there was improvement, and now I just went to look at her and her one side is totally uneven again. I am starting to worry about this because I believe she is swallowing the fur. However, no skin is showing, just uneven fur. There is no fur missing near nose, eyes or ears, just on her one side. Also, she will let you pick her up and you can touch the side with the missing fur. She does not make any noises if you touch the one side, she is perfectly normal except for this fur chewing issue. I am going to attempt to upload some pictures of this.


I have been using the same products since I took her home almost two years ago. ( currently switching the pellets to Oxbow but the fur issue was going on months before this ) I use Kaytee Soft-Sorbent Bedding that is free of aromatic oils, kaytee dust bath but I switched over to Blue Cloud a couple weeks ago, bottled water, raisins and rosehips as treats. She has a wheel and tons of chew items in her cage. Any Idea of what I can do? Sorry, the photos are not the best; I had to use my cell phone due to the regular camera not being here at the moment.

 

[Ash]

Honestly, it looks more like fur slipping then chewing to me, but the pics are very hard to tell.

 

[GahhItsLee]

Its probably not fur slipping because he said he hasnt found any fur in the cage or anything

 

[Ash]

It can be slipped when the animal is picked up, and it can get caught on clothes, shoes, etc and tracked away. You really need to get better pics for a better opinion.

And a chin can be grooming itself and it look like "chewing" hence seeing it once or twice. But the pic looks like my white male who has uneven patches due to slipping.

 

[ChinchillaSweetie]

Thanks for the comments. I don't believe it's fur slipping because the fur will look one way before I go to sleep. The next morning when I check on her, I notice more parts of fur missing and other parts that are uneven. Could something be bothering her at night to cause a fur slip with out any human interaction? We live in an apartment, she's out in the main living room. The cage has not been moved since the day we took her home. The only difference is the lady below us, just purchased two small dogs, but I never hear them barking at night.

 

[Ash]

Thanks for the comments. I don't believe it's fur slipping because the fur will look one way before I go to sleep. The next morning when I check on her, I notice more parts of fur missing and other parts that are uneven. Could something be bothering her at night to cause a fur slip with out any human interaction? We live in an apartment, she's out in the main living room. The cage has not been moved since the day we took her home. The only difference is the lady below us, just purchased two small dogs, but I never hear them barking at night.

The chin could hear things you don't that causes it to slip, yes. If it's chewing, there's nothing you can really do to stop it, it'll come and go as it does, but I definitely thing you should try to get some better pics to help affirm an answer.