[chinchilliday]

My chinchilla that I have had for years (8 years now), started barbering. I thought maybe it was because when I had her at my parents house, she did it because of the warmer temperature of the house. But now that I have her back at my new place, she is still doing it - and has started barbering her mate as well. I took her to a vet and they just said "barbering" and gave me no advice on what to do. She has plenty of toys, gets lots of play time, and is well fed- but recently she has also been picking through her food (she will only eat the seedy stalks of her hay). Can anyone give me some advice on what to do? I googles chinchilla barbering, and all I found was breeders and chinchilla farm people talking about how they disown them and do not tolerate barbering. I am open to any advice!!! Thanks!!

 

[Chinchi]

You are talking furbiting right?

It could be fungus. That would not explain why she bites her mate though.

Furbiting can be genetic (or at least tought by the parents), and it can be steriotypic behaviour.

If it's the last thing, it can be because of boardom, or sometimes they just seam to start, for no obivious reason.
Your girl sound like the last option.

I guess it could be some kind of stress reaction, because of some thing when she was with your parents.

But try looking up fungus. You can get some dust you can put in the sand.
If that dosen't help within a week or so (shouldn't be put in the sand for too long), your left with furbiting.

Furbiting dosen't hurt the animal in any way, and it is very hard to get them to stop.
The only thing you should make sure of, it no breeding on a furbiting animal, because the kits will get the bad habit.

I have one furbiter.
She began out of the blue one day. I have absolutly no idea what made her begin. She's with her sister, and has always been with her. The sister dosen't bite her fur at all...

 

[chinchilliday]

Well, the vet said it wasnt a fungus... and he specifically called it barbering. Alot of stuff I have read is controversal about it being genetic (getting it from the parent, or passing it on to young) but she is 8 years old... and just started it this summer. So I feel like if it was inherient... she would have started a long time ago. I am thinking its just something situational... but I don't know what.

 

[chinchilliday]

And she is doing it to her mate... and I don't want him to get butchered too (haha).. but I would hate to seperate them because they are a truely bonded pair

 

[Chinchi]

Then get the male sterilised.
She's also beginning to get a bit old for breeding (yes, they can get much older, but 8 is still a lot )

The whole furbiting thing is a bit hard to find any good solid info about, mainly because it hasen't been studied that well.
Personally I don't think it's genetic, I think the kits simply learn it from the parents.
But it's always nice to list all the possibilities

Try out the fungus treatment.
It won't hurt the animals, and better safe than sorry.
A lot of vets don't know that much about what they are talking about, when they are dealing with rodents, and chinchillas are not that common, so it can be a problem.

Her mate dosen't suffer just because he bites his fur.
Sometimes they overgroom each other that way.

Oh yeah, you could try giving c-vitamin.
Sometimes when the fur gets kinda bad, and you can't find any logical reason, it's because they need some c-vitamins.
I'm not saying this is what's wrong with your animal - just throwing idears out there

And how often do you give calcium?
If you have the chance, try offering a cuttle bone (sepia).

 

[chinchilliday]

Where can I get a fungus treatment? (or do I have to go back to the vet?)

And I have actually give my chinchillas cuttle bones in the past as a Calcium boost, and I have done the vitamin drops in their water to cover the rest of the mineral spectrum. However... I may not do the cuttle bones often enough. How much of one and how often should I give the cuttle bone to her?

Thanks for all the ideas; I agree with the barbering too. I don't see how it can be gentic - I think its learned behavior. I have had my fair share of genetics classes and research, as well as animal behavior. I hate it when people blame their inability to take care of an animal on genetics... lol.

Thanks again

 

[Chinchi]

The pellets should cover the vitamines on their own.
Never use the vitamines you need to put in water. They only work for a very short time (meaning your animal need to drink the whole bottle in a day or two to get vitamines), and it's too easy to give a wrong dosage because of this.
Now you could say that c-vitamin (the one normally put in water), can't really be overdosed, but it's still a wast to use it

If the cuttle bone dosen't work, at least they will have a fun time

You should be able to get the fungus powder from some online stores. Try out the ones you know.
I'm not sure where you are from, but I guess you are from the US, and I don't really know any good online shops from the US.

 

[chinchilliday]

I am from the east coast in the US. I will try some online stores; usually I get most of my stuff from a local feed store, and major petstores. I do use an online store for my sugar glider stuff - I'll check their chinchilla section and see if they have anything. And thanks for the tip about the drops! They do go through water fast... but not that fast!!

 

[Chinchi]

If you are interested, I just got the "recipe" for the fungus powder:
5 grams of sulphur
10 grams of babypowder

This should be used for 1 kilogram of chinchilladust