Help! What is this?? Did he get bit??

[mlwarren]

What happened to Mr.Bob? I just cleaned and filled the food and supplement food bowls up. My chins (3 of them all 2 1/2 months old all males.) normally run to the bowl with the supplement and eat it all up asap. Tonight they were doing the something but suddenly started running and jumping all over there Double FN chasing each other, I thought they were just excited, and playing. Then I noticed that Bob has this weird spot of fur sticking straight up! So I'm thinking they were fighting? Does this mean he got bit? Or is this just a sign that he released his fur as I've heard of them doing? Why do they love their supplement so much? They are always so sweet sleeping all huddled up together. I'm not sure what happened. Bob seemed fine after, but now he is sleeping on his side on a ledge ( I have seen him do this before) and 1 other chin Gus, Gus is sitting beside him. The other Bear is at the bottom of the FN behind a house.

The picture is not great took with my phone didn't want to open the cage if they were fighting. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LouandRoo]

It just looks like he has released some fur to me.
As for the fighting, if you thought they were just playing, they probably were. I'm sure you would know if they were actually fighting, but I'd just keep an eye on them.

 

[Lirana]

The pictures are a bit blurry, but it looks like released fur. You should be able to reach in and pull it out. There may be a visible missing patch of fur after you do. Not completely bald, but definitely missing. I'm only aware of chins doing that when they don't want to get caught, so it is possible that another of the chins was too rough with him.

 

[mlwarren]

Ok thanks so much. They are all doing fine now. I will keep watching. How can you tell the difference between playing and fighting?

 

[LouandRoo]

How can you tell the difference between playing and fighting?

I have never witnessed an actual chin fight but I know they are very aggressive (or so I've been told), so I can't really tell you exactly how fighting chins act.
When my chins play though, they will chase each other all over the cage and make little "peeping" noises, or no noises at all. Sometimes they get to crazy and release fur, which is why I believe your chins were just playing.
I don't really have a great answer for your question, sorry. :/

 

[becky12883]

It looks like a fur slip. They probably were fighting over the food/supplement. You should probably get more than one food bowl to try to prevent this. You also don't want to mix any sort of supplement with the pellets, so 2 supplement bowls and 2 food bowls. You might want to get an extra water bottle too. Make sure you watch them closely and at the first sign of aggression separate the aggressor. Chins are not guaranteed to get along forever, I just had to separate a father and son that were together for over 3 years without issues and suddenly turned on each other.

 

[mlwarren]

I went and bought more bowls for the supplement today. They already have 2 water bottles and I do keep regular food / supplements separate. I will try this out and hope for the best. They probably were just playing, but kinda startled me when I saw the fur sticking up.

 

[Cuddlebug]

When chins fight there is a lot of fur pulling, biting, and furious chasing. One will appear frightened and may cower in a corner or the house afterwards. since there is only the one fur slip, they were probably playing and got a little rough. With fighting , there will be clumps of fur in the cage and on the chins. It would be a good idea to keep an eye on them just in case. Often it starts with small things like a squabble over food or water and then it escalates from there.

 

[Zoaea]

In my experience there might be alot of klacking posturing and a wierd little noise as they argue. I would worry if thier are huge chunks of fur, or the same chin always loosing pieces as they might be being bullied. My normally sweet and placid female will go kungfu on anyone near "her" food bowel.