The shape of the Chin stool?

This might sound silly (or not) but does anyone have a photo scanned of all various shapes of Chin stool? When I visited the breeder last weekend I saw a drawing (not an actual pic) of four shapes of Chin stool - describing the:
- very tight stool (the constipation)
- normal stool
- loose stool ( the diarrhea)
-...and there was one more something in between but I can't remember now...
I felt so stupid when I saw those drawings cause I thought that when Chin has a diarrhea the stool would be really fluid not just loose and softer in shape...and I also thought that during constipation there won't be any, but on the pic it was a vary small tightly shaped stool. You remember when I wrote about a month and a half ago that my (previous) male Chin was having some cramps. Pore guy...when I saw that stool drawings I realized he actualy had a constipation and I didn't recognized it than He was better a day later but I should have been a better informed - my fault. So, I decided to get more info on all this.

Now my new male Chin and my old female Chin have two diferent colors and shapes of stool and I am not quite sure what to think of it. One of them gotta be normal and the other is just a little bit loose - or tighter than the other...but which one is normal - or they both are normal just a little bit diffenet because they had been eating a differnt food? Male is eating only pellets and female has pellets and some other various additions. So, as silly as it is I scanned these two and shrunk the pic to aproximate original size...so you can tell me what do you think. (A.) is a female and (B.) is a male

[Sassy]

Kat,
If (A) is your female droppings she is slightly constipated, what all are you feeding her? Can you give her a few raisins? Does she have a wheel or some way of getting exercise (a free run maybe).

My recommmendation would be give her plenty of hay (timothy or alfalfa) and her pellets, maybe let her out of the cage for a run, sometimes exercise (running on the wheel or just running) will help get rid of constipation, raisins can also do the trick for you. Nomore than 1-2 raisins a day.

(B) looks more like normal droppings to me.

[Christi]

Also if your male is on the new food you got from the breeder - you should go ahead and start weaning your female onto the same food if you plan to cage them together. This should be done gradually so you don't upset her tummy.

At the moment female has in her food bawl: oats, few row peanuts, just some of the mixed food I bought last week (without corn) and around 1/2 of all food is new pellets I got. I do give her raisins, she got few yesterday and I also gave her a slice of apple - would that help? I do have a hay but I don't know which one is it...I will give her that too. Unfortunately I don't have a wheel ...I'll see if I could let her out of the cage for a run tomorow cause it is late in the evening now - I am going to bed soon and I need to watch her carefuly what she is doing when I let her outside cause I have a lot of electric wires in the room.

So, male is okay...huh...[whiping forehead] He is such a cutie! He is like a naughty little boy. I gave him two raisins yesterday and I noticed he is skipping his pellets and witing for more raisins - LOL...no no I bought him a new food bawl today, the one that has a holder which hangs on the side of the cage and he just can't leave it alone. He jumped in it...than grabbed it...rolled it over and spilled everthing - LOL! now I am trying to find the way to fix the bowl holder so he can not move it...in the meantime he is playing with it like it is a toy. My female seams like a grungy old lady comparing to him.

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Can I ask just one more question? I seam to be asking a lot these days and I didn't wanna start a new thread for this one I saw here some "Trixie" Vitamin drops for all rodents and I was wondering can they be used for Chins? Here are the details from the box:

"Vitamin Drops with carrot, with minerals + vitamin C"
Application: 1-3 drops every day as a reward or a snack corresponding to your rodent size.
Ingridients: Sugar, milk and dairy products, oils and fats, vegetables, vegetable by-products, lecitin, vanila aroma.
Suplementary food for rodents.
Contents /1000 g:
Raw protein - 6,0 %
Raw fat - 23,8 %
Raw fibre-0,4 %
Raw ash - 2,6 %
Calcium - 0,21 %
Phosphorus - 0,23 %
Vitamin A - 12.000IE
Vitamin D3 - 1.200 IE
Vitamin E - 48 mg
Vitamin C - 40 mg

Here is teh pic of the box...

[Sassy]

Kat,
I would not bother with the vitamin drops.
I would also recommend not feeding her raw peanuts, just my .02

Ask all the questions you need to ask, we like helping.

[Becki]

Hey Sassy, just out of curiosity, why no raw peanuts? I give mine whole raw peanuts and they LOVE them. I have heard that they are very fatty though, so they only get 1-2 a week, if that. Is there something else about peanuts I should know?


I woulds say to skip the vitamins too Kat, I've heard that they're WAY more trouble than they're worth and in general, the chins don't need them.

okay, I will skip the Vitamins than...and I guess the peanuts too - my female Chin really IS a little bit fat lady, maybe that's the cause - LOL

Just curious but can she become barren because she is too fat? In three years and two males so far she never got pregnant Anything els that could have caused this?

[Jade]

I doubt the fat would make her actually physically barren, but it may have other consequences such as sluggishness that might make her unwilling to mate.

On a side note, you may want to really consider neutering your male if you're not prepared to handle chinnie babies and all that comes with them. There is a lot to learn and a lot of things that could go wrong when it comes to breeding animals.

I can't remember exactly why you shouldn't feed the peanuts, but the breeder I got my first chins from told me about it. I've emailed her and am waiting on a response.

[Sassy]

I have always been told not to feed my chinnies peanuts because of the fat content in them. I don't recommend feeding them. I have used sunflower seeds very sparingly though.

[Jade]

I just received a response from the breeder I mentioned and this is what she said:

Quote: aflatoxins are an issue with peanuts but the biggest problem is they block certain digestive enzymes and this is a problem with flora balance in the stomach and the intestines