Question about mats

[Daina91880]

Ok, so I've have my girls for about five months now. They both came with a few small mats on what I guess you would call their lower back/rear end above the tail area. I noticed that Bella had less, but they were a bit larger, and Cissy has a bunch of what I would call little ones. I only notice them because they look like little tufts of hair that sticks out just a bit further than her regular, unmatted coat.

Of course, it took a while for the girls to get used to me petting them and such, so I would only be able to pull them out one at a time every once in a while. Now that they've been coming out for regular playtime every day, they've gotten much more used to me being in the same space with them. Both have been hanging out on my lap for the past couple days and running laps around me. So today I took advantage of Cissy's trust and went to town on her mats while she was munching on a bit of shredded wheat on my lap. It didn't seem to bother her and she stayed where she was, so I managed to pull five little mats out before she scurried off again.

SO... after this long-winded backstory... here are my questions. First, is there a way to prevent matting aside from regular dusting? As it is, they get their dust bath at the very least, twice a week, with Blue Cloud dust. Second, I uploaded a picture of Cissy's mats. Are they big or small? Totally normal or something to worry about?

I'm still not completely sure if they're new mats or if they've been there the whole time I've had the girls. For now, I'm just going to keep plucking them out when I see them and get the opportunity.

Here's the pic...

 

[halfstache]

I was just about to post a similar question when I saw yours. So if I may I'd like to add an extra question to go along with the others for someone more knowledgeable to answer. Is the likelihood of getting mats a genetic issue, or is it something that just an individual chin is gets at random? I can't say I've ever had to deal with any but I'd like to know more about it just in case.

 

[javachin]

I'm not sure if it would be genetic, but it is something that just happens. Other than dust baths, you could comb them. Mine tend to get small mats especially when they are priming, but its nothing to be worried about.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Chins with really dense coats tend to mat at times because the shed hair gets stuck in the coat.

 

[Dreamlite]

As long as you dust them regular they should only get mats occationally. The more dense their coat is the more likely they will mat as they prime. Like cuddlebug said, combing and dusting is the only thing you can do about it. A lot of the chins I get in as rescues have severe matting. After pulling them out and regular dusting they don't usually come back.

 

[xBrianx619]

My chinchilla loves it when I use a lint roller on him...lol, but before I use it, I go over my shirt a couple of times so its not so sticky that he has to slip fur to get it off. It's one of the few times he will sit still and just chill there. haha.