My chinchilla does nothing but hide

[Drew strickland]

Sorry if this has already been answered. im new to this forum and forums all together.

i have had a chinchilla for about a month, she is perfectly fine.

went to petsmart yesterday and they had a white one there acting very strange and noticed it was fur biting. i felt so bad and didnt really want another but I got its own cage (recommended size) lot of toys and all that.

but my problem is she doesnt do anything! she never uses the wheel i got her, eats the most minuscule amounts. drinks near nothing, and either hides in her house all the time. or just sits there staring doing nothing, used to bark every time you went into the room and luckily she stopped that.

what should i be doing!? thanks!

 

[mezarumi]

I (personally) recommend a vet visit, ASAP, based on my own personal experience with a petsmart bleeding-heart rescue.

My husband and I did the same thing you did with a chinchilla we lovingly named Oboro after rescuing her from the glass tank of a petsmart...she was also acting strange at the store, was obviously uncomfortable, etc etc, we felt bad and rescued. Little did we know, she had suffered a heat stroke at the store. We adopted her on a Saturday, she was dead Monday morning from complications. We could not get her to the vet in time. She progressed through the weekend eating/drinking less and less, and becoming less and less active until she passed around 4 am Monday morning.

In our attempts to save her, all we could do was give her a quiet, comfortable place to die, with someone who loved her at her side. The chinchilla who was with her at the store that we didn't take home died the day after her, still in the tiny glass tank at the store.

Please, please, please take her to the vet and make sure nothing is wrong. After what we saw happen because of the lack of knowledge/resources petsmart gives their employees for taking care of chinchillas, it is so important to make sure that nothing is wrong with her, before you find out that it's too late to do anything. And if it turns out nothing is wrong...I would personally not regret spending the money to find out she is fine.

 

[Amethyst]

The hiding is very normal, especially for a pet store chin, people are horrible, they tap on the tank, and the chin only gets held normally for cage changes or by possible new owners (who may not know how to hold a chin). It will take time for it to get use to humans as being a good thing. It takes most chins at least a week to settle in to a new home, longer if they had a bad life before.
I hope you have the new chin in another room then your previous one, you should quarantine new chins for 30 days to make sure they aren't carrying anything that could make your other chin sick, also to settle in and for you to get to know it. Especially since the chin is showing signs of possibly being ill (not eating or drinking), how is the poop and pee?

I agree if the chin isn't really eating or drinking a vet visit is a good idea to make sure nothing is wrong. I know Petsmarts commonly use plastic houses, plastic wheels, plastic bowls and carefresh bedding, any of which can cause a blockage if eaten. A vet can also help with possibly ruling out any physical cause of fur biting (pain, dry skin, irritation, etc), but it's most likely do to boredom and stress based on the fact that she came from a pet store.

Just a couple other questions, you say recommended size cage, but what kind of cage? Also recommended by who, the petsmart? or by people that actually know chins? Going from a tiny tank in the store to a normal appropriate size cage like a Ferret or Critter Nation can be overwhelming to some chins. Also what kind of wheel did you get her? Most wheels at pet stores are not chin safe, I have never seen a safe wheel (at least 15", solid metal, not mesh, and no bars) at any of the big box pet stores.

Hopefully it's just stress, and she just needs time to settle in. I can take some chins months to years to fully come around, so you may just need to be patient.

 

[Drew strickland]

The hiding is very normal, especially for a pet store chin, people are horrible, they tap on the tank, and the chin only gets held normally for cage changes or by possible new owners (who may not know how to hold a chin). It will take time for it to get use to humans as being a good thing. It takes most chins at least a week to settle in to a new home, longer if they had a bad life before.
I hope you have the new chin in another room then your previous one, you should quarantine new chins for 30 days to make sure they aren't carrying anything that could make your other chin sick, also to settle in and for you to get to know it. Especially since the chin is showing signs of possibly being ill (not eating or drinking), how is the poop and pee?

I agree if the chin isn't really eating or drinking a vet visit is a good idea to make sure nothing is wrong. I know Petsmarts commonly use plastic houses, plastic wheels, plastic bowls and carefresh bedding, any of which can cause a blockage if eaten. A vet can also help with possibly ruling out any physical cause of fur biting (pain, dry skin, irritation, etc), but it's most likely do to boredom and stress based on the fact that she came from a pet store.

Just a couple other questions, you say recommended size cage, but what kind of cage? Also recommended by who, the petsmart? or by people that actually know chins? Going from a tiny tank in the store to a normal appropriate size cage like a Ferret or Critter Nation can be overwhelming to some chins. Also what kind of wheel did you get her? Most wheels at pet stores are not chin safe, I have never seen a safe wheel (at least 15", solid metal, not mesh, and no bars) at any of the big box pet stores.

Hopefully it's just stress, and she just needs time to settle in. I can take some chins months to years to fully come around, so you may just need to be patient.

i got a wheel from the store, how bad is it? its 12" solid plastic. and nothing protruding from the center. she doesnt chew on it either. i got a cage, from the petstore. its about the same size as a FN cage though.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

Is she eating more and is she drinking - Right now that is the most important question? As for the wheel it is bad. If it is the 'flying saucer' she doesn't use it because it wobbles and chins don't like that. Anything plastic is bad because evidently the chances are high she will start to chew it

 

[Amethyst]

i got a wheel from the store, how bad is it? its 12" solid plastic. and nothing protruding from the center. she doesnt chew on it either. i got a cage, from the petstore. its about the same size as a FN cage though.

As said the plastic flying saucer, if that is what it is, most chins don't like (too small,wobbly, and tend to tip over), but also the plastic grinding against plastic creates plastic dust which is then inhaled. If it's one of the drum style wheels 12" is way too small, it causes them to bend their back at an unnatural backwards angle which will cause back problems. Chinchillas backs arch upward and aren't as flexible as most other rodents. Chin safe wheels include the metal flying saucer (either the standard or large), the chin spin, and the silver surfer, all those are metal and large enough for a chin to properly run on. Chins don't need a wheel, so no wheel is better then an unsafe one.
Also just because she isn't chewing on it yet doesn't mean anything, I've had things in the cage for months before the chins decide one night that they need to demolish it, sometimes in a single night, so anything in the cage they have access to should be safe to chew on.

 

[IceMaiden]

I (personally) recommend a vet visit, ASAP, based on my own personal experience with a petsmart bleeding-heart rescue.

My husband and I did the same thing you did with a chinchilla we lovingly named Oboro after rescuing her from the glass tank of a petsmart...she was also acting strange at the store, was obviously uncomfortable, etc etc, we felt bad and rescued. Little did we know, she had suffered a heat stroke at the store. We adopted her on a Saturday, she was dead Monday morning from complications. We could not get her to the vet in time. She progressed through the weekend eating/drinking less and less, and becoming less and less active until she passed around 4 am Monday morning.

In our attempts to save her, all we could do was give her a quiet, comfortable place to die, with someone who loved her at her side. The chinchilla who was with her at the store that we didn't take home died the day after her, still in the tiny glass tank at the store.

Please, please, please take her to the vet and make sure nothing is wrong. After what we saw happen because of the lack of knowledge/resources petsmart gives their employees for taking care of chinchillas, it is so important to make sure that nothing is wrong with her, before you find out that it's too late to do anything. And if it turns out nothing is wrong...I would personally not regret spending the money to find out she is fine.

That is absolutely appalling from a pet shop What chance has the average owner got of getting it right, if the shop selling the animal can't even do so? None of the large pet shops over here would ever keep a chin in a tank of any sort, nor with any plastic accessories! Their all in wire cages with wooden toys and beds. Our large chain national pet store got put on a consumer investigation TV programme after some dead fish were found in the tank of some stores, there would be backlash and huge complaints if an animal was found sick or dead because the shop had failed to keep it in appropriate conditions!