over eating chin?

[harleycowgirl22]

anyone ever heard or seen a chinchilla over eat?

i have a little chinny named Gordon who never gets out of his food dish. he will let cagemates eat without a problem but sits there and eats and eats and eats. after awhile he gets to the point he can't move and sleeps it off for awhile (still in the food dish) then he will leave the dish for water and right back to the food dish. i noticed he has very wet stools and his back end seems a little "messy" but after an hour away from food they seem to get more solid. and he gets more active. i have taken his pellets away and given him only hay because of the loose stools but he over eats the hay as well. i am wondering if i take them both away what he might over indulge in next (wood etc)

has anyone ever seen this before or have any good suggestions to get him to relax on the eating?

 

[Carol~Anne]

I've honestly never experienced a chin who overeats. Each night I give each chin about 1/4 cup pellets and a handful of hay and all if not all of the pellets and hay are gone in the morning. Maybe just put a scoop of pellets into your chin's bowl each night along with some hay and see how that goes?

 

[AZChins]

How old is Gordon?

 

[harleycowgirl22]

Gordon is about eight months and he is rather small in my opinion

 

[InkedupTara]

I would be concerned more with the loose stool, what are you feeding?

 

[harleycowgirl22]

he is on the nutrowise (sp) pellet has been for awhile his stools get lose and then as he stays away from food they are normal size shape and hard i held him for hours today and he regained energy after his poops normalized put him in the cage again and they got lose because he will not stop eating

 

[AZChins]

That's so weird. He's not a kit, so it's strange that all he does is eat. He is just eight months old, so it is very possible that he's growing and is eating much more because of that. Sometimes I have juveniles do that, but they rarely will have mushy droppings from overeating. Has this been going on for long?

 

[Claire D]

How many chins are in the cage with Gordon & how old are they?

It is possible that he is protecting/defending his food by hovering near the bowl & eating all the food first.

How many food bowls do you have in the cage? I would have one at opposite ends or heights of the cage to see if that helps.

 

[ticklechin]

I would have a fecal float done, giardia could be robbing him of nutrients causing him to eat more than normal.

 

[harleycowgirl22]

lets see i noticed he was always munching over a week ago but this never getting out of the food dish and napping in it just started this week.

there is Gordon, Joker, Two Face, and Violet in the cage all 4 are boys and they get along great, none have been mated or with a female. they are in half of a ferret nation 142 (where the top and bottom can be separated)

currently i have two little food dishes in there and one bigger one i didn't want to chance 4 males fighting over the food, he stays in the bigger one which is never filled all the way up the little dishes hold about 1/3 cup of food and the bigger one could hold up to a cup or more i have only been putting a 1/2 cup in there along with fresh hay daily. they also have their wood chews but no treats.

the locations of the food dishes are the big one is at the bottom of the cage and one little one on a ledge the other on the half shelf that comes with the ferret nations.

the ages of the other chins are from 8 months to a year and a half (two are a couple weeks apart and the other two are a little older the oldest one is just a little over a year so approximation would be 10 months range in age)

if he were to have giardia would he show any other signs? he acts normal other than over eating, when i take him away from the food and give him some time to digest things he gets real active and curious and his poop gets hard and normal sized again. you would never know it was the same chin that can't find his way out of the dish.

i thought there was a chance he was protecting the dish but he has no problem letting everyone else in there to eat i think he likes sharing because as the others come up he will groom them a little and then munch with them but he is always in the same food dish, they all eat from the big one when food is added but will much out of the small dishes through the night.

how do i go about the fecal float test?

 

[AZChins]

You would gather up some of his droppings and take them in to the vet. Some vets let you go in and get the test without an exam, some vets require you to bring in the chin for an exam. You would need to call your vet and ask.

Has he lost any weight? If giardia was causing diarrhea in this chin, the diarrhea most likely wouldn't disappear and then reappear like it has been. But, the chins are always doing strange things with their symptoms...so you never know.

I have had adults overeat but most of the time it's when they are first put on a new food or hay that they haven't had before.

I'm not saying that this is what it is, but it could be a possibility. Sometimes when there is a lot of food competition the chins will stuff themselves when they are near the dish. Maybe this little Gordon is just eating so much because the other guys are a threat to his food source? I've seen that happen with kits before so I suppose it could be possible with juveniles. Has he gained much weight since he started this non stop eating thing?

 

[harleycowgirl22]

no weight loss and very little weight gain. i was expecting to see a big difference when i put him on the scale but it is about 15g which is nothing concerning or alarming for a chin to do regularly (from what i have read, please correct me if im wrong)
the food has been the same since he came here although i just got a fresh bag, but that happens every week to every other week.

i have called my regular vet which is not an exotic vet specialist to see if he can do the test because he is closer, as soon as he is out of surgery i will know if i can run to him since its only two blocks away if not i have an exotic vet that said they can do it if i bring the animal in for a visit. so that is on the way.

it was suggested to move him to a wire bottom cage and limit his food and hay intake and see what happens. i know when i take him out for a few hours everything goes back to normal but since he cuddles with his cagemates im wondering if he will like being housed alone or if he will quit eating, i have been kicking him out of the food dish every time i see him in there and just get a stink eye but he leaves it for awhile to cuddle with the others, then when im not looking or leave the chin room he is back in there. im rather stumped.

 

[ticklechin]

If it were my chin I would do the fecal to rule out a physical reason for it before I would tackle a psychological reason for it. I had a chin with silent giardia that caused weight loss and food intake increase but not to the degreee you are stating. With that much eating he should be gaining nicely as a teenager.

 

[Claire D]

Limiting his food intake is not going to help if he has something like giardia going on - he'll just starve.
I'm with Dawn - you have several bowls so that's probably not an issue but his weight & the change in droppings are both concerning - ruling out physical issues is necessary.

 

[mistywaterwoman]

I'm sorry but I have a big issue with you having 4 chins in half of a Ferret Nation. Cramming them all into one small space is going to cause fights over food, toys, etc.

However, with him having runny stool he DEFINITELY needs to see a vet, as soon as possible.

And I've never heard of Nutrawise as a chin food... who makes it? Is it specifically for chinchillas?

 

[Essentia]

Maybe she is referring to this?

 

[harleycowgirl22]

yes that is the food they are on and the brand and place i get it from was highly recommended by someone i trust who also deals with chinchillas all the time.

i hardly think i these four chinchillas are crammed into a ferret nation are you familiar with the size of these things? if not here are the dimensions 3 feet long x 2 feet deep x 2 feet high this is the ferret nation that the top and the bottom divide if you want to use them as two cages and that is what i have done like many many other people on the forum. there are four in that much space and in the bottom half of the cage there are three full grown chins but they share the same space 3'x2'x2'. all of them have plenty of room in their cages to hop jump leap etc, even enough room to have a full size wheel inside.

my vet that is only two blocks away is firmiliar with the test and willing to do it, but just to be sure since he is NOT an exotic vet the little guy is also going into an exotic vet and getting the test done there as well.

if anyone could let me know how long it takes for the results to come back that would be great too, im trying not to alter too many things for him at this time because i dont want him to quit eating altogether, and create a bigger problem i have four spare cages so im not worried about keeping him separate if need be but he seems to get depressed when he is alone. i don't want to add fuel to the fire and make things worse, but i also want him to get better or at least know if this is anything i should be concerned about.

 

[Carol~Anne]

If I'm reading this right, you have seven chinchillas in one FN, four in one section and three in the other? If so, that does seem really cramped to me as well but I am a fan of lots of space for each chin. To each their own.

It will be interesting to see what the results of the fecal test reveals.

 

[AZChins]

The space being too small can depend on the chins in the cage. Some chins aren't as bouncy, some get along really well, some cuddle. I think the worst part of having a cage that is too small is that it may not get cleaned enough. Multiple chins make multiple messes and that can make it difficult if the cage isn't cleaned more often.

I'm hoping that this little guy has no parasites and that may he just likes to eat. I do have a few chins that eat significantly more than some of the others, they aren't really too thin or too fat...they just eat more.

 

[InkedupTara]

I hope he gets better soon, but 4 chins is too many for half a fn. I own Fn's and I dont think it accomodates 4 in half, maybe the whole but not half.

Good luck with the fecal float, it usually takes a day or so to come back, the test that is.