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Fractured Moonlight

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Hi, I was referred here from Yahoo!Answers and I have to say I am very happy to have found a community that seems so knowledgeable and helpful to one another.

Xaine is my first chinchilla. He's a standard gray who loves to be cuddled and is currently obsessed with following me everywhere I go.

I have a concern about his weight though. He is about four and a half months old. He only weighs 207 grams and he doesn't seem to be putting on weight like it seems he should as a growing boy, he just maintains at 207.

I got him back in March when he was three months and took him to a peds visit with the local pocket-pet/exotics specialist. He was given a clean bill of health and weighed in at 164 grams. So he has put on a little weight and size since then, but it seems he's stopped there and I'm afraid he's too thin. He eats everything that he's given, seems more hay than pellets and he's on Oxbow timothy and Mazuri pellets.

Do I need to help him put on weight, should I be expecting a growth spurt, or is it possible that I just have a litter runt?
 
Does seem small, as most of mine are between 210 - 250 @ 6weeks and I usually figure about 100 grams a month for the first 6 months!
First thing I'd do is switch him to PANR, [available in the 'supplies fer sale' section, and cheaper than Mazuri] and see what happens!
Are you using filtered water? That can be important, especially with well water!
I've a girl who started loosing weight, and she's now getting LifeLine and Dyne from Dawnna @ chocolate chinchillas.com and now's gaining it back! Good luck with him!!
 
First let me say welcome! I'm glad you joined. It's a little hard to answer specific questions on yahoo, where there isn't room for give and take. This will make it much easier for us to pick your brain over what is currently going on and, hopefully, help you with your little guy.

I will say again, that 207 gm at 4-1/2 months is very small, even for a "runt" in a litter. There are several foods you can purchase for him, depending on what you feed now. PANR is a good feed if it's readily available in your area, but it's not a magic formula. There are others that are as good, Tradition, Oxbow, Nutrena, APD. Many people have had issues with Mazuri, and quite a few have switched from that feed to a different one and and had weight gain as well as just an overall better health of their chins occur. You could try any of these listed, but try to find one in your area that has a ready supply available so you get fresh feed each time. Or, a lot of people sell feed through the classifieds here which is sometimes easier (and cheaper) because it is a constant fresh amount that you can get in smaller quantities.

What kind of water do you use? A lot of times water can be the issue. I use reverse osmosis or purified through a filter that filters out giardia and other nasties. If you use just plain tap water, that may be part of the issue with him not gaining.

Do you offer any kind of supplement or treats? Treats in a chin under 6 months is a no-no, and if you are offering quite a few, it could very well be taking away from his appetite for the food that he needs to help him grow.

Do you feel ribs on your little guy? I can't imagine that you don't with him being so small, but I want to ask anyway because the more we ask, the more we can try and help. We also have a vet expert that answers questions here, and this might be something we can address to her.

I'm also curious about the situation you described in your email to me. Can you explain further about the "foster" setting that he came from?

Again - welcome! Hopefully we can help you get that boy to put some weight on!
 
Thanks for getting back to me, I worry about him and it's nice to get some hands on experience information from others.

As for water, I don't give him tap. Right now I'm just changing his water every day and using bottled water. I make sure to monitor his water carefully because he doesn't drink from a water bottle, he refuses to in most cases, so I keep his water in a bird style cage side hang cup, away from his food and anything else that can get into it. When I change his water, I make sure to scrub his cup down really good with hot water.

The only 'treats' he's ever had is a little shredded wheat. He doesn't get any other supplements. I've always been wary against giving him any of this stuff because I know it could be bad for him.

I do feel his ribs which was another concern of mine to him being thin.

As for the foster situation, it was explained to be as thus: When the kits are old enough to be weaned and go to a new home, the breeder gives them to her and then she takes on the task of finding new homes. Xaine wasn't the only chin she was selling, as she was also selling his sister of the same litter and another 6 month old as well.

I did go out and buy some of the supplement that you suggested. I was unable to find powdered goats milk at the moment, but I have the other ingrediants. Xaine however doesn't seem too interested in eating it though. Would it be okay if I wet it down and syringe fed/let him lap some up each day?

I'll look into switching his food from Mazuri to something else.
 
The goats milk is what is going to attract him to that mix, so the sooner you can get it, the better. I know around here they have it at TSC (tractor supply company), Bomgaars, Runnings, and several other farm stores, so hopefully you can find it near you. The milk replacer smells really good, like vanilla, and the kits just dig into it. Just the pellets and the baby cereal though isn't going to be all that tasty to him.

Something else you can try is Critical Care. It's a complete meal replacement for herbivores that should help with bringing on the weight. Menagerie on here sells it cheaper than anywhere else I've ever seen it. You have to hand feed it to some chins, and others love to eat it off the spoon. What you need to be careful of is that he doesn't like it TOO much, and give up on his hard pellets and hay. Those are what are going to keep his teeth healthy, so keep it balanced.

Speaking of teeth - what color are they? A healthy chin's teeth should be dark yellow/orange.

There is an herbal supplement you can try to give him, and I recommend it mainly because of the acidophilus for this little guy. It comes in a palatable mix that most chins just love, and a lot of people recommend it. It's called Lifeline and you can find it at http://www.chocolatechinchillas.com.

You can also offer him some old fashioned oats, just a pinch, every other day or so, and you can sprinkle some organic wheat germ on his pellets to help stimulate his appetite. It may simply be a case of he's not eating enough. Between the Critical Care, the Lifeline, and a good pellet, hopefully he will start to gain.

Did your vet run a stool sample to check for parasites?
 
Welcome to the forum.

Fractured Moonlight said:
Xaine is my first chinchilla. He's a standard gray who loves to be cuddled and is currently obsessed with following me everywhere I go.
Click to expand...
Can you clarify this? Does he have free range and literally follow you everywhere? If he has too much out/exercise time, it could be affecting his weight. I'm still trying to get Sophie to gain weight after surgery. I have to limit her exercise time. If she is out in the playpen zooming around like a crazy chin and wall surfing for more than an hour, she will lose 10+ grams and it takes days to gain it back.

In my experience, every chin is different in what it takes to get them eating and putting on weight. For Lily it was a combination of syringe fed Critical Care, LifeLine, Critter Be Better and a good grain supplement. For Tucker it was a combination of Critical Care, LifeLine, Critter Be Better, canned pumpkin and blackstrap molasses. All mixed together and fed from the end of a popsicle stick. For Sophie it was canned pumpkin with ground up Oxbow pellets mixed in and topped with a few crushed rose hips served in a tiny dish.
 
His teeth are a nice healthy dark yellow/orange and I did have my vet run a stool sample, and it came back negative for parasites.

As for his exercise he doesn't have free range of the whole house, just my room and only when I'm in it. I let him out when I get home from college/work since my schedule is a little sporadic right how. He's happier to follow me around the room as I go about doing things. He's not really a wall bouncer type of guy.

I went to the pet store a little earlier and got him some Critical Care as it was readily avaliable to me. I'll see if that helps him put on some weight until I can get some powdered goats milk replacement on Monday and look into getting him the other supplement, as well as switch him off the Mazuri.
 
Who is weighing the chin and what are they using? 207 grams at 4+ months is FAR beyond tiny, I thinking of the way they should be proportioned at that age frankly I cannot even imagine a chin that age at that weight. Any possibility of a picture?
 
I'm weighing him according to my vet's instructions. Sitting him on a digital gram scale and having it take his weight. His weight is completely on the scale when it takes it's reading and he's sitting still so it can read accurately. Compared to the chins in the store, he's pretty small.

I took some pictures of him compared to a soda can for size reference.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j64/FracturedMoonlight/Chin004.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j64/FracturedMoonlight/Chin003.jpg
 
Aww, he is teeny tiny thats for sure, you have some great advice here, good luck with him. The only thing I can add, in my experience, that as soon as I switched their pellets, with a little help of the "Lifeline" from chocolatechinchillas, from Mazuri to Oxbow, there was less waste of the pellets. Also, one of my chins seems to need a little help with his weight so I continue to give him a pinch of the lifeline twice a week along with Oxbow pellets and hay.
 
Ugh - There is no way that baby was ready to be weaned when he was pulled. Good God, it just dawned on me, you said when you got him he weighed 164 gm? I am sickened at the thought of someone not only force weaning, but selling, a kit at that age and weight.

I don't have anything more to add right now. Just follow the advice you've been given and, please, keep us posted. I'm very worried about this little boy.

Edited to add: Actually, I lied. I do have more thoughts. I would not normally give a 4 month old chin liquid formula, but he should have never been taken from his mother at that age and weight, just to sell him, so I'm going to suggest you at least give it a try. Will he drink from a water bottle? If he will, then you can try hanging a water bottle with the formula on his cage. You need to make sure it's room temperature and that you keep it fresh. Don't let it stay on there for hours and hours. I'm going to refer you to the FAQ on kit care for the recipe and how to store the unused portions.

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21
 
Peggy - do you think Dyne from Dawnna would help in this instance? It's sure helped one of my adults, but I don't know it's potency for kits.
F.M. - was the breeder sure of the birthdate? Were there any other kits in the litter, and were they all the same size?
 
I personally would not give Dyne to a little tike like that. I'd stick with the formula supplements, the Lifeline, lots of good quality hay (as Becky recommended). Slow and steady is better than quick empty calories.
 
It's completely disheartening to hear that he may not be doing so well because he was too little to leave his mother. I'm glad I asked and signed up here, at least I can help him this way.

He gets plenty of loose hay, pretty much eats almost all of the amount that I put in his cage every day.

He's eating his Critical Care without being forced, so right now I know he's at least getting some weight. He's put on a few grams even. He' still eating his hay and I bought him some Oxbow to slowly transition him to.

I ordered some powdered goats milks (organic so nothing bad in it)off the net as I couldn't find it anywhere locally save for the liquid kind, and I also ordered some Lifeline from Dawnna to help him out.

I don't know if I can get him to drink out of a water bottle, as he's just never liked using one since I've had him. He's always perferred his cup. But he may be more tenative to it if it's filled with some formula. He's a good hand feeder though, so if I have to try to get him to drink some from a spoon I think he'll do fine.

As for the breeder and the fosterer; all that was really mentioned was that they were three months old and they were giving them new homes. He had a sister from the same litter but I never saw her.

All this advice is really greatly appreciated. I don't want him to be having a hard time over something like this. I just want to help him get to where he needs to be.
 
I'm going to pick up some goat's milk this morning, but I was also wondering if I should be expecting his poo to change because of the liquid, or should it remain healthy pellets because of the hay and what not?
 
Awesome! Every gm gained is a step in the right direction. :)

Do you have a gm scale? I'm sorry, I can't seem to find it if you did. You can pick one up fairly cheap at Wal-Mart and then you can track his weight. Check it at the same time every day for a while, to see how he's doing. I usually check weights in the early evening, after they sleep all day, and before their active night time runs.

If you want to try and hand syringe him, that's okay too, just be sure to follow the directions in that FAQ. You wouldn't want the little guy to aspirate.

You may see a little change in his poos, but it won't be a great difference usually. You're not giving him 100% formula, you're just going to try and get him to take a little as a boost.

Looking forward to hearing some more positive news!
 
You may want to try putting some of the forumula in a medicine dropper, and let him lick it off a drop at a time. When he gets the hang of that, then hold a water bottle for him, and let him lick the formula off the water bottle. Then perhaps if you hang it in his cage, he'll be more used to it and willing to give it a try.
 
With him being so small, could he be a dwarf?

Best of luck to you and your chin!
 
I have a digital gram scaled. Right now I've been weighing him in the morning and the early evening to check for a consistency in his weight. He's made it up to 211 now.

As for him taking to the liquid formula, I used a small medicine cup that holds about 2 oz in it to measure some out and put it in his cage bowl. He took to lapping it right up, and ended up pretty much licking the bowl dry.

Since he's not really a young kit and since you mentioned you normally wouldn't give his age formula, should I be giving him about that much once or twice a day, or more or less?

I don't think he's a dwarf, granted I didn't even know there were dwarf chinchillas but I looked up on them and he doesn't seem to have most the the characteristics. He looks in proportion to himself and he has a long tail on him.
 
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