Weight issue?

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MMMTDF

MMMTDF

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
51
Location
Colorado
I have a small standard female, she weighs only 450 grams, and I'm really worried. She is a feisty little girl and has isn't really lethargic. She eats her pellets, her hay, and loves her few treats. I can feel the outline of her ribs and her backbone. I know she is considered underweight, but I can't seem to get her to GAIN weight. She has always been small and hasn't really lost weight. She is a pet store chinchilla, but is quite healthy other than the weight problem.
She is living with another male as of lately, she has never lived with another chinchilla and is really enjoying the companionship, and I know I will be told to separate them, but they are so close and I don't have the heart to separate them. I wouldn't be as worried but the male she is living with weighs 656 grams and is CONSIDERABLY larger than her. Is there a certain food to feed to get her to gain weight, or is she destined to be small and I will have to separate them?
 
She is living with another male as of lately, she has never lived with another chinchilla and is really enjoying the companionship, and I know I will be told to separate them, but they are so close and I don't have the heart to separate them.
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Get the heart. This is absolutely the worst reason to justify keeping a male/female pair of chins together. If she enjoys the companionship, get her a female cage mate or a stuffed animal. If she gets pregnant at such a small size, there is the very real possibility that it could kill her. Which would you rather have a heart for - a live chin or a dead one?

Get them separated and keep them separated.

As to the weight gain - odds are she's the size she's meant to be. Feeling the ribs and being able to count them individually is a completely different thing. Unless you have a really big chin, which at 450 gm you don't, you don't need to panic over feeling her ribs.
 
You need to get the heart to seperate them. You are giving this poor girl a death sentence. At 450 grams who knows if she can carry/give birth and with you putting them together you are just asking her to get pregnant.
 
I know I should and I will, and I can count every one of her ribs is this a bad sign?
 
How is her eating? If she eats well that may just be her body structure. I had a rescue here named Pixie was was built ike that. She ate like a horse, had perfect poos, but she ran on her wheel constantly so she was basically working off all the calories. I ended up giving her some alfalfa hay and some additional pellets (Equine Senior) that are higher in fat and that helped a lot. She still mainly ate the regular pellets and timothy hay, this was just to supplement her caloric intake.
 
She doesn't run though, she has a wheel, but she won't run. She eats, she poops, but she doesn't run, and is still very very thin, I'm starting to agree she is just small, her feet are small too, so maybe that's just it, when I get a new cage we will separate the two. Do you think that they could still have play time together?
 
No, they can't have play time together. They can't have ANY time together. You can't wait around until you get a new cage. You need to separate them right now. Walk away from the computer, take the male or the female out of the cage and keep them out.
 
Where do I put her though, I DO NOT have a cage. I will have a cage in a few days.
 
Is there any way to separate the cage, if that's easier? Like in FNs how they have a pan that seperates the two subunits. Maybe you could DIY something like that.
 
Olallie said:
Do you have a cat carrier or anything like that? Also since the male is large, he might be keeping her from the food.
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This was also my next thought. I would put her in a cage by herself for awhile and see how her weight does. You can always get her a female partner later on if you decide to do so, and keep two food dishes in the cage. In the mean time you can get a fleece cuddle buddy for her to cuddle up to.

As for getting another cage, I would either seperate the cage you have for a temporary fix, or hit up craigslist. I can usually find a good amount of cages that are decent for cheap when I need it on CL. The longer you keep them together the worse you are making it for her. Once again, if she gets pregnant this could very well be a death sentence for her. Who knows if it hasn't already happened, but waiting even longer ups the chances even more.

You can't have a mixed play time with the two of them. Chinchillas can mate at alarmingly fast speeds. I would not ever take the chance.
 
hopefully you have separated them or the weight she will gain will be from being pregnant and at that weight, the risk is high for complications.

having said that..........i have a male chin, he is a sapphire, from a breeder and he is tiny. they highest weight he has ever been since he has been with me is 452. he is almost 2 years old and is very active, eats lots of hay & pellets. I do give him one whole mini shredded wheat each night (the rest of my boys get 1/2). i have tried a few things to bulk him up but they are mostly temporary (i have handfed and he gained a little but as soon as I stop, he is back down to his weight). i believe this is probably the weight he should be and i dont want to bulk up on treats for him to gain.
 
I'm having the same problem with my female chin. She is about 5 years old now. She was never a large chin, but over a few months she just dropped weight drastically. She seems fine other then that. She poops, she eats, she plays with her cage-mate. She doesn't run, though. I'm working on buying them a chin spin. I took her to a regular vet who diagnosed her with a yeast infection on her hind legs, other then that a clean bill of health. That didn't really explain the weight loss, but I gave her some time to see how things went. Her legs cleared up, but she was still very thin, so I made an appointment with an exotic vet. If I hear anything worth while I'll be sure and let you know. Right now I'm just making sure she's fed and nothing seems out of the ordinary. A friend suggested I try a weight-gain supplement which is like a mix of oats and wheat and other good stuff mixed in. I'm unsure how effective it will be so I'm not going to tell you to try it, but I'll let you know how it goes.

As for the heart. You need to split them ASAP. She might be upset, but it is in her best interest. If you love her keep her safe. If she is lonely try a fleece buddy, or another female if that doesn't work out. I found out my store bought "male" was a female and split them up. Another female worked fine for me. They are the best of friends! It took them a few weeks to really bond and I was starting to worry they weren't going to do well, but in the end it all worked out fine. So please for your girl's sake, don't keep the male/female together.
 
With a drastic weight loss in a short period of time I would get xrays done of her teeth. She may still be eating, but due to pain she may not be eating as much. Also with pairs it's harder to see who is eating more than the other.
 
We're moving her today! Cat carrier is okay I'm pretty sure she'll do fine, do you think she'll eat the plastic? :\
 
She might. I used to put Mr. Whiskers and The Snuggler in a plastic cat carrier while I cleaned their cage, and they made a pretty good sized hole in it after several times.

Petsmart has a guinea pig cage that is all metal for about $25-$29. I used it for quarantine for Little Two Paws when I first got him. Now it's the cleaning/travel cage and emergency backup for if they ever start fighting and I need to separate them...

ETA: Here is a link to a photo of what it looks like. I couldn't find it on the Petsmart website, but they are available in the stores. This person gave it a really crappy review but for what it is, it's a good deal. I have had mine for 5 years, and it has been used numerous times and has not fallen apart. Yes, it's small, but then this is an emergency and your girl is small, too.
 
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Oh thanks! The link might be nice...:rofl: I wish I cuold get one but we live out in the middle of NOWHERE! :impatient: I think I'll keep her in her play pen and put some cardboard over it....
 
I had a chin who was very small like that as well. She was a rescue and she came with a female cagemate who was double her size. So when we first got her we had them seperated for a few hours a day in hopes that she would bulk up. She didn't. She ended up suffering a prolapsed rectum,which was very scary and cost me quite a bit in vet fees. They believed it was related to her small size as she was healthy in every other way. I began to give her IV fluids and feed her Critical care several times a day. She still ended up passing a few months later, and the vet felt it was just from her failure to thrive. Please be careful if your chin will not gain weight. Try everything you can to get her to put some on, and hopefully this will not end in heartbreak for you.
 
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