ASK THE VET: Treat chinchillas right, and they'll last for years
In my column last week, I wrote about basic chinchilla husbandry. This time, I’ll go over some of the reasons that veterinarians end up seeing chinchillas at their hospitals.
Traumatic accidents and attacks are one reason chinchillas make their way to my office. Dogs can be very interested in the wiggly gray thing and sometimes try to figure out what it is by chewing on it. Even when a dog is not intending to be aggressive, it can severely injure those tiny bodies.
On the same note, young children find a chinchilla’s soft coat and big eyes pretty irresistible, but they have a tendency to trip and fall when carrying their pet — or accidentally pull, yank, twist or squeeze it.
Cage mates can also cause damage. Female chinchillas are more likely to be aggressive than males, but personality conflicts could potentially happen between any two.
Fur slip is a defensive mechanism in which a chinchilla will lose a patch of hair or skin, or possibly even slide all the skin and hair off the end of the tail, so that a predator just gets a mouth full of hair and skin instead of the whole chinchilla. People can cause the same problem by handling chinchillas by the tail. Chinchillas should always be gently and securely cradled in both hands.
Chinchillas are sensitive to heat, and heat stroke can occur at temperatures that would not affect a person, a dog or a cat. Once a chinchilla collapses from heat stroke, it is usually too late. The best defense is to make sure the chinchilla is kept somewhere where the temperature does not exceed 75 degrees.
Digestive problems are some of the most common and most severe health problems chinchillas develop. Their digestive tracts are cleverly designed to extract nutrition from the dry grasses of the Andean mountains. Chinchillas will readily eat lots of things, but a gut full of potato chips, for example, can easily throw the digestive tract out of whack and kill them. Keep the diet consistent with chinchilla pellets and free choice grass hay. Any extras need to be very minimal.
Dental problems are sometimes associated with digestive problems, too. Chinchillas have teeth that grow continuously throughout their lives. The teeth grind against each other to keep them at the proper length. When something happens that causes the teeth to become misaligned — for example an infection in the bone around the tooth that shifts it in the socket, or a congenitally malformed jaw — the teeth grow unopposed and will get so long they may poke into the cheeks or even curl around and penetrate the roof of the mouth. Chinchillas with dental problems often have what is called “slobbers,” or excessive drooling that makes the chin wet. At first glance they may seem to be eating voraciously, but sometimes they are just dropping the food back out of their mouths because they can’t chew. Severe malnutrition and suffering can result if the teeth aren’t fixed.
In spite of this list of potential problems, chinchillas are generally hardy and sturdy pets. With basic care they’ll usually live their normal life span of nine to 17 years.
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Anne Pierce is a Colorado Springs veterinarian and co-owner of High Plains Veterinary Hospital, a Colorado Springs small-animal clinic. Reach her at petdocs@highplainsvet.com.
