WestchesterChin
11-19-2004, 06:06 PM
I don't usually post much, just like to read thru all the informative posts on C&Q and use the site for reference and look at the cute pictures but this time I just had to post a very sad story. On Wednesday Nov 17th I lost the pride and joy of my herd my Ebony male Jettson. I came home to find Jett, the little escape artist he was stuck in the door of his cage. The cage doors are the drawbridge type that open downward. All of my chins over time have learned to open these doors so in order to keep them from escaping I put key locks on the doors. Well here is where I made my fatal mistake. I placed the locks on the corner of the door and Jettson was able to push the opposite corner open slightly and tried to squeeze through. He didn't make it out and became stuck half way in and half way out. He was stuck there for hours while I was at work and when I finally found him there and released him from the door he fell over limp. I rushed my favorite boy to vet and they tried everything they could but Jettson died in his sleep. He apparently was without enough oxygen from his lungs being constricted and suffered brain damage. I share this story as warning for others as I would hate for someone else to have go through this horrible tragedy as I did. My first suggestion is for all out there who may have locks on the doors of thier cages PLEASE check them NOW make sure there is NO WAY that that any of your chins could possibly push them open enough to try to squeeze through. I also would like to suggest the building of your own cages as I now have experienced two tragedys from store bought cages. These cages are marketed as Chinchilla cages and are nothing but! I had a 3 month old chin get caught in the wire of a cage that was sold as a "chinchilla" cage which resulted in him having his leg amputated. I can not stress enough trying to have custom cages built. I love the ones Kammone has on her site and If I had only set out to build these cages sooner I could have avoided these horrible incidents. I know that everybody out there does not have the resources to build there own cages and may need to use store bought ones but PLEASE take every safety measure you can. I now have the locks placed in the top middle of the doors until my new cages are built. I know I have used this site for answers to questions and concerns I have had, and I hope this story will help someone else. He was my buddy, he was so sweet and he use to "talk" to me I will miss him dearly.
Sherri
Sherri