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Maggie:-)

Maggie:-)

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Jan 16, 2012
Messages
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Hi my name is nicole, i am new here. I got a chinchilla named maggie 6 weeks ago from petsmart. They said she was 3 or 4 months old but she looks full grown to me? Does anyone know about how old chinchillas usually are in petsmart?! She is doing great and everything is fine except she keeps getting soft stools, and im sure its because she refuses to eat hay. She would rather just eat her pellets. I had her on mazuri but i had read that gives alot of chins soft stool so i am in the process of switching her over to oxbow. I give her oxbow hay-western timothy,alfalfa,and orchard grass. Plus the compressed timothy hay also. They only way she will really eat the hay is if i take away the pellets for a couple of days- then sge eats tge hay and her poop returns to normal. Please email me if you have any suggestions.
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Welcome to CnH. :)

There is no way for Petsmart to have any clue how old a chin is when they get them. Their chins are purchased through a broker and the broker doesn't even know. If your chin looks like an adult, it most likely is.

Give the Oxbow time to kick in and that may help with the soft stools. Something else important to think about is your water supply. If you are using tap water, that could be causing the loose stools because there is no filtering system on it. I use reverse osmosis water that I get by the 1 gallon jugs at Wal-Mart. Other folks use filtered water.

Keep offering the hay. She may not be eating it because she's not used to it as much as she is the pellets. Pet stores (and some ranchers who supply them) rarely use hay so I've had chins come here that look at it like it's an alien being.

For right now I would check your water supply. Then I would pull all the pellets and offer nothing but the western timothy hay for 3 or 4 days and see if the poops clear up. If they do, ditch the Mazuri and offer nothing but small amounts of the Oxbow, building up from there. If the stool continues to be soft, I would get a stool sample checked just to be sure you're not dealing with giardia or some other parasitic infection.
 
Tunes thank you for the info. I give her bottled spring water,is that okay?!
I wish i had gotten her from a more reliable source but to be honest i went to petsmart to get my 4 year old son a pet,most likely a guinea pig. But he held the guinea pig and pet the chinchilla and chose the chinchilla. Im quite happy he chose her she is alot more fun and entertainment then a guinea pig,alot more confusing too,but im doing my best. I know chinchillas are not recomended by alot of people for young children,BUT she seems to be perfect for him. He is not a rough grabby kid. When we let her out of her cage he sits on the floor and she comes and climbs all over him and he pets her. I know hed like to hold her but we havent come along that far yet. I have only held her a few times myself. She is too wiggely!
He feeds her everyday with my supervision and feeds her.
If anyone has any other suggestions or useful info pleasr share. Thank you :)
 
Welcome to the forum.

Just a quick note, you are in new member moderation. Meaning your posts will not show up immediately, they must be approved by a moderator. I deleted your other reply.
 
I have had her 6 weeks and yesturday i switched her aspen bedding to a fleece liner. She doesnt seem to like it very much yet. But i was wondering how would i get her to pee in a litterpan?
 
I put my chin's used (peed on) bedding into a litter pan and put it in her favorite corner. I also had to block other corners so she wouldn't go elsewhere. She caught on quickly.
 
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