Some Questions from a Newbie

[Aridan]

So I recently decided that I would like to add a chin to our family. I've been doing a lot of research, and I feel confident that I have learned enough to provide a healthy and stimulating environment for a chin. I do have some questions and thought I would jump in here with my questions.

Food: For a single chin what amount is good to buy? I know that it can lose nutritional value after it's opened, so I don't want to buy too much and take too long to go through it. Also, is there a recommended way to store the food? Same question on hay, how much to buy at once, and is there a specific way to store it? Does it tend to attract any kind of insects?

Playtime: Some people I've seen recommended building up to a longer amount of playtime, and watching the chin for exhaustion. Some people say that they won't exhaust themselves. I'm wondering what the people on here think about that.

Health: The health and emergency stories I hear about always concern me. Aside from genetic issues I am wondering how often in general dental issues and broken bones happen among chins. I know breaks can happen through accidents, but are they common? And dental issues, aside from genetic disposition, do you guys experience dental issues often even when giving your chin all the right things for proper tooth wear? Same for bloat, does it happen even if you are feeding your chin all the right things?

Thank you in advance for any advice you have. We are looking to bring a chin into the family in late Sept or early Oct, when hopefully the weather cools a bit, so I have lots of time to continue researching and getting the environment ready for her.

 

[greychins]

I believe chins go through about 2 pounds of food a month. As food doesn't start losing nutritional value until 6 months after it's mill-date, you would want to buy an amount of food that you would use prior to that 6 month date. So, here it is August. Say the mill date is July 1. Six months from that would be December. So, 2 pounds for August, 2 pounds for September, 2 pounds for October, 2 pounds for November, so that'd be 8 pounds that could last you til then, on the assumption that the mill date is July 1. If you're getting the food from a supplier on here, you can always ask what the mill date is, so you can figure out how much to buy.

I store my food in air-tight containers. We buy 150 lbs at a time, so some of it stays in the bag, but the stuff that's opened goes into one of those big dog-food storage containers that has wheels. But the same goes for someone with one chin -- the pet store sells smaller versions of those air-tight containers, and I've found those to work good over the years.

You can buy as much hay as you want, as long as it doesn't get wet or moldy it will last pretty much indefinitely. The only thing about storing hay is that you don't want to store it directly on the ground, as the hay directly touching the floor could create moisture which could lead to mold. We have bales, so our bales are held a few inches off of the floor by wood planks. I wouldn't store the hay in plastic, for the same reason -- moisture could form. A lot of people store hay in a box or in a paper bag.

I've never noticed the hay attract any type of insects. We buy 5 bales at a time (lasts us about 4-6 months) and even when we have all the bales freshly in there with that nice fresh hay smell... I don't notice any insects. Well, I take that back. Sometimes a spider will crawl out of a bale or something, but it's not like you get a swarm of gnats or anything from a bale of hay.

For playtime -- because of the debate and differing opinions on playtime, we only give the adults playtime. We do about a half hour of playtime in our playpen for each group of chins. I suppose the average person might do longer, but with the number of rescues we typically have, we can't do an hour or two for each chin. How often you do playtime is up to you. They do get used to it if you let them out all the time.

The health and emergency stories could make the average person think that every chin is sick. But the reality is that people simply don't post, "hey, my chin is fine and healthy today, just like yesterday!" What gets posted is the problems. As for how common, it's hard to say. I've heard (though I can't back this up, so someone correct me if this is incorrect) that 1/3 chins are carriers for dental disease. Carriers, though, should not show signs of the disease, so it would take two carriers to produce a baby that would have dental disease. Despite that high percentage of carriers -- which I would have to guesttimate is more true for back-yard-breeder-bred-chins, as I don't see as many malo problems with pedigreed well bred chins, I don't think it's ridiculously common. For dental disease that is. In the 9 years we've been doing rescue, we've gotten in a total of 5 malo chins... we've probably had a few hundred chins pass through, and only 5 (2 are still living and still here with us).

As for broken bones, that I've seen a bit more, but a lot of it depends just on how the cage is set up and all, cause I've heard of a lot of them happening from falls in the cage. We have never had a chin break a bone here, but we have gotten in two chins that had a broken pelvis (which the people did not realize, either instance, and let it heal badly, so the chin limped), and then one of our rescues was adopted out and fell in his cage, breaking his leg. So, it does happen.... but again, in 9 years, we're talking about 3 chins... so it's not hugely common.

Going back to the dental issues, you asked about experiencing them when giving the chins the proper stuff to chew on -- not so much. We do have one chin here, one of my pet chins, who had everything he could ever want to chew -- he developed teeth spurs. We had them filed down... he was about 1 year old... he's never had them again, and he's probably 7 now. The vet said he was likely just a lazy chewer, and suggested we give him some coarser hays to chew on (now we feed horse hay, before, we fed straight timothy from the pet store)... he doesn't even eat a ton of hay or chew a ton of toys, but he's never had the problem again. And in all of our cages, we have tons of chew toys and stuff, and only one of our chins (out of the herd we have and the hundreds of rescues) have developed teeth issues. That makes me think it's more genetic than environmental, though definitely, if you don't provide chew toys, I would say that's not good for their dental health.

If you're feeding the chin right and giving only the right, safe, healthy treats, there should be no bloat. We've had people tell us that their chins got bloat when they were feeding them leafy greens and stuff, which would cause gas... but as that's not supposed to be part of a chin's diet, we don't feed it. We feed pellets, loose hay, some hay cubes, and the occasional treat (cheerios, rosehips, rosebuds, shredded wheat... all in moderation) and we've never had a chin bloat. So I think if you stay away from the bad treats, you'll be fine in that regard.

 

[Aridan]

Awesome answer! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, it's very helpful, informative, and eases my mind around some of my concerns. I've read some of your blog entries and been to you site, and appreciate all the information you share with potential chin owners, as well as all the happy adoption pics you post.

 

[greychins]

No problem. Always happy to help. If you've read the blog, you know -- I can't help but write a book every time I get going on something.

 

[Godofgods]

No problem. Always happy to help. If you've read the blog, you know -- I can't help but write a book every time I get going on something.

Thats the best way to do it!