I also encountered the same problem. I have a couple of charming chinchillas - Cupcake and Pistachio. The other day, having noticed blood in the cage, I began to examine my charges and discovered terrible wounds on Pistachio’s hind legs. They were torn almost to the bone, and the chinchilla was constantly gnawing on them. It turned out that in rodents this happens due to nervousness due to hormonal imbalance in the body. The specialist recommended treating the wounds with Traumeel ointment and hydrogen peroxide, and also fixing Pistachio’s neck in a collar so that she could not injure herself. I had to do it myself. I think many owners may encounter a similar situation, so I decided to tell you how I made my own collar for a pet.
You will need:
-Plastic folder,
-Thick lace,
-Scissors,
- Lanyard fastener,
-Ruler,
-Pencil,
- Stationery stapler.
How to make a collar
First you need to draw a drawing of the collar on a plastic folder. Cut it out. Dimensions that fit completely under the chinchilla's neck: width - 210 mm, height - 115 mm, width of the lower semicircle - 90 mm. This is what the workpiece looks like.
After this, you need to bend the strips located on the inside. Thread them through the slits. Fasten with a stapler so that the strips and ends of the staples are on the outer part. This is necessary so that parts of the animal do not tear out pieces of fur.
The ends of the lace must be singed, and a fastener must be attached to one. The fastener is ordinary, the kind that is attached to clothing. We tie the second end of the lace with a knot. The lace must be threaded through the loops into the fasteners and then tightened. The result is a collar like this.
You just need to put it on the chinchilla’s neck and fasten the strip clasps. The loops can be covered with medical plaster.
The animal collar really helped me out. At first Pistachio was incredibly scared, she even took offense at me. But after a week, the wounds on the paws were completely healed. The retainer did not interfere with her eating or moving around. By the way, Kex’s friend in this outfit became very interesting. Now I give the chinchilla sedatives and treat the cause that caused this disorder.
The collar can be made for other rodents by measuring the parameters of the neck. I hope many animal owners will find my experience useful!
