Oh, the things we did!

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ErinsChins

ErinsChins

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 7, 2010
Messages
589
Location
Johnson City, TN
So I am sure I am not the only one that wishes I had done more research when I got my first chin!

I fed Kaytee Fiesta and Red Leaf Lettuce frequently. I also gave tons of the bad treats from petsmart. He was in a cage that was about 1 ft tall and 1 1/2 ft wide. I also had a death ball. Why did I have these things? It's what the petstore recommended, and I did little to no research. Thankfully I switched over after a week or so!

Thank god he's still alive and happy and healthy!

What did you guys do wrong with your first chinnie?
 
I fed them five or six raisins a day...fed him keytee fiesta...gave him a roly ball, put him in a rabbit cage that was too small for even a rabbit and never ever let him out without the ball.
 
Fed Charlie Chinchilla... we fed her tons of fresh celery daily... my poor baby. I'm so glad I found this site and learned what not to do.
 
I got a pet store plastic wheel. I knew it wasn't appropriate but I was looking for a temporary fix from her original mesh wheel and I was really just looking for a solid wheel. Thing was so flimsy it wouldn't even hold her while she tried to run on it, so suffice it to say, it was in her cage for about 20 seconds all in all. Shortly thereafter I got a chin spin.

I also got her that hanging hay ball. It actually worked fine since I clipped it to the cage but I know there's a danger of limbs and such being caught (now I know, that is--didn't dawn on me before) but I took it out because I saw a tooth mark on it.

I'm sure there's more I'm just too tired to think of them at the moment.
 
I guess I'm out of the ordinary, but I wish I wasn't. I did what I would like to see more people doing.

I knew a few days ahead of time that chins would be coming into the rescue and that I was going to take the females for pregnancy watch. So I got on the internet and did my research and started them off on the right food, bedding, etc. I found reference photos so I was able to sex the chins and shared the information that I had learned with the person that was going to take care of the males while awaiting adoption. Since the internet has become available to the general population, there is no excuse for getting any animal without doing extensive research first. Before I agree to take on a new species, I spend some time researching to see if I will be able to meet their needs.
 
menagerie said:
I guess I'm out of the ordinary, but I wish I wasn't. I did what I would like to see more people doing.

I knew a few days ahead of time that chins would be coming into the rescue and that I was going to take the females for pregnancy watch. So I got on the internet and did my research and started them off on the right food, bedding, etc. I found reference photos so I was able to sex the chins and shared the information that I had learned with the person that was going to take care of the males while awaiting adoption. Since the internet has become available to the general population, there is no excuse for getting any animal without doing extensive research first. Before I agree to take on a new species, I spend some time researching to see if I will be able to meet their needs.
Click to expand...

I think it should be rather obvious that i'm not trying to say it's okay to get an animal without first doing research, but at the time, I had limited internet and even so, much information out there is false. I can still google chinchillas and in the first page find a link to a website saying that raisins, veggies, fruit and other things are okay. Also, I should've stated that I DID research chinchillas, but it was very inaccurate. I went to the petstore and spoke with the guy for 15 minutes once a week for about 4 weeks.

TL;DR It should be much easier to find accurate information. I had to do a VERY specific search to find a chinchilla forum.
 
I'm kind of like Meanie, I guess. A few days before I went to look at Tia, I started researching because I had no clue on how to deal with chinnies. I lurked on this site a lot, but I don't think I made an account until I actually got my princess.

The worst thing I did... not even that bad, actually. I took a craisin and I'd cut it into eight tiiiiiiny pieces and I'd use those for treats. Tia would get one little piece each day.
 
Pudge's old owner gave her to me with a bagfull of no nos. She had a bad wheel, plastic everywhere, dandelion yogurt treats (what?!) and Kaytee fiesta. I ended up having to pay for all that crap, since she wouldn't let her go without selling everything :rolleyes2: but it was worth it for my Pudgeeeey
 
I did what most everyone, who does not know not too, did. I fed raisins,nuts,lettuce, Charlie Chinchilla food and had Herby in one of those rectangular rabbit/rat cages with no ledges and had newspaper for the bedding. I did feed hay, but I just gave her plain old unfiltered water. She never got play time and I used the chinchilla sand instead of the dust. This coupled with other bad things I gave to her, I am surprised she is still alive, but I learned from my mistakes.
It was not until Herby got really sick and had to spend almost 5 days in the vet hospital that I found this site and learned I was the reason she was sick. Thanks to me, she now has chronic tooth problems, and always will have to go in for filings and eventually one day I will have to make that decision to continue on or let her go. But since finding this site, I now feed PRCS, give good hay and she, and the other chins, now gets reverse osmosis water. They all get play time and Blue Cloud dust baths and are all in cages with lots of ledges and tubes and hammocks and chew toys galore with lots of room to hop around.
And if I was able to go back in time, I would do my research first and learn everything I could then go buy a chin!
 
Oh yeah. I also used the vanilla scented dust and rarely gave hay.

I've said it know and I'll say it again, thank God for CnH!!!
 
I did a bit of research so I knew when I saw Chula his conditions weren't great. I knew they needed hay and actual food (was eating cheerios and no hay in site). He was also on cedar bedding in a garage that wasn't temp. controlled so that much I also knew was wrong. I didn't find the forum for a little bit after getting him so he had the food with the colorful bits in it because I thought that it was better for him (said premium pellets on the bag while the other bag just said pellets). I also fed some yogurt drops and I had one of the snack shacks.

Luckily I didn't buy a whole bunch of accessories that I needed to throw away. I was too focused on getting him some actual food and hay in the beginning to care about a ball and such.
 
Actually, I did quite a bit of research before we got our boys. The only thing that comes off the top of my head is we had plastic shelves for a little while until we could get some wood ones made.
 
I did some research before getting more than one chin, because my boyfriend told me: "make sure you know lots before adding some new chins" so I did it, but even though I read lots, I still gave them some treats from the pet store, but later I was able to find some better supplements out there, like rosehips, and lifeline, etc., but I am sure if my boyfriend didn't tell me that, maybe I would have not found at least enough information to start with, but I still consider that there is always lots to learn and that you can never learn everything in one day!

And fed them the kaytee hay, but it was awful, so I switched to oxbow hay, I also gave them some pellets from the petstore, that I don't remember the brand now, but I never liked them, so I got them riedstra pellets and then I got them oxbow, because for the riedstra, I had to go pick them up all the time, even though they were really good, but oxbow, I have here a supplier that I don't need to pay for shipping anymore.
 
I did a lot of research before I got my first two, I think I even found CnH before they came home, but my biggest mistake was getting two young chins from a girl off of CL and not checking genders before I brought them home! Needless to say my two "boys" ended up being one boy and one girl.
 
richie came to me in a cardboard box as a "surprise" gift for my son.
i did do a little research but did not join any forums. he always had good pellet & some hay and he was put in about 4 different cages, each one larger than the next.
but i did give him raisins & peanuts in the shells. :(

once i got on this forum i changed anything bad and learned SO much. got lots more chins and am so much more confident now and such a better chin mom.
 
We actually bought a few books before we got our chins and still Made plenty of mistakes. By no means am I perfect yet but have definitely worked out a lot of the bugs and bad habits. There's a lot of misinformation and things they don't tell you even in the books. It wasn't until 8 months in after have my first 2 chins that I found this site. I've caught on, but it seems harder for me to break my wife of buying garbage treats, simply because it has a picture of a chin on it or the bad says chin safe. ( sunflower, Papaya, bananas, nuts, pumpkin seed, raisins, split peas, rose hips, puffed wheat,) I'm like wow babe,Good job they basically can't eat anything in that mixed bag of crap. I keep throwing stuff out and saying the dogs ripped the bag up and ate it lol
We still have one ghetto wheel, and used to use a large rat ball... these were all things the books said were fine, it wasn't until I got on here a couple months ago I found they were no good. Guess it also explains why the chins broke the first 4 wheels we got the too.
 
Dessy came to me in a smallish cage with plastic shelves, a death ball, a 12" wheel, a carton of raisins, and a ten year old book.

Thanks to CnH having as much info (and merchants!) as it does, her shelves have been replaced, her death ball is gathering dust in a closet, she has a 15" wheel, and I have an herb sampler on the way. No more raisins!

Her former owner was certain she was an expert on chinchillas! >,<
 
When I got Chilly, I wasn't ready. My brother got him for his kids(7 year old twins.. Wonderful idea right? ._.) and when it didn't work out, he handed him to me. While he did purchase some Kaytee starter pack(cage, kaytee food, water bottle, ledge, bedding), it didn't last long.

So since I had nothing for the little guy, I had to go out and get supplies. Financially, I was not ready to do this... As I ended up having my parents give me money for it. He stayed on the Kaytee food until I could afford to buy something better, which was rather quickly. After having him on some other kind of food with less tidbits for like two weeks, I could finally get him some Oxbow.

He was originally eating Kaytee hay as well... Which I hated, but it was literally all that I had access to at the moment. Soon that was switched out for Oxbow once I found it in my local store.

His starter cage was switched to a CN double unit for Christmas, and I filled it with ledges and fleece.

I remember giving him too many oats in the past, resulting in soft poos. I hadn't given him many raisins though. But CnH has helped me a lot. ^.^
 
Raisins, sunflower seeds, plastic wheel, plastic ledges, oh my! This was the first site I found and immediately threw everything out. I inherited my little girl, never having even seen a picture of a chinchilla, so I consider her to be very lucky she was only abused a short while. Her flying saucer was the best purchase I've ever made. CnH is awesome.
 
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