Grinding teeth?

[Heku]

Hi all,
Recently I have been hearing a crunching sound coming from Lola when she has nothing in her mouth, is this grinding? or just random crunching? She doesn't do it ofter and I'm not too worried, but I have been reading a lot of grinding posts and want to know if I should get her examined. Thanks guys!

:thumbsup:

 

[ChinchillaSteve]

Stevie crunches without having anything in her mouth aswell.
Nothing to worry about as long as they eat well.

 

[Heku]

Thank you! I'm glad i didn't over react. But she was eating like normal and drinking so I had a good feeling she was fine. Wonder why they do that?

 

[EveningChin]

I've noticed that myself. My thought it was like a cow chewing cud, as their diet is mostly roughage.

 

[EnslavedByNinjas]

I've heard a lot about personality being the major factor with tooth grinding. My theory on it is, as long as it's a typical thing for a chinchilla not to worry - only worry if they start doing it under different circumstances or more often.

Nibbler grinds his teeth at me out of annoyance sometimes, when I don't do my slave duties and let him out on command.

I've heard talk of chins grinding because of pain, annoyance, because they just ate something tasty, or just randomly for no particular reason. Just need to learn the personality of the chin and notice of he/she starts grinding while eating and never has before, etc. Just watch for anything out of the ordinary.

I'm not the most experienced chinnie owner but that's my theory on the matter.