My Chinchilla . . .

Question
I have a grey standard chinchilla Stewie, she is about 1 1/2 yrs old. I had been noticeing she has these fur clots under her bottom. I'm not sure what they are and I have troubles wrapping her up burrito style myself to get a real good look, I have a feeling they may be from urine. How do I know if this is a fungus?And what should I do?

Answer
The best way is to pull the mats out by hand. You are going to want to grip the fur at its base with one hand to prevent as much as possible your chin feeling the pulling. With the other hand you grip the mat and slowly, but firmly pull at it. It will take multiple pulls to get the knot out, but unlike cutting you will be leaving most of the chins fur in that area in place. After you have most of the mat out you can groom with a comb, but you may still want to hold the roots just in case the comb grabs on to a bit of matted fur you missed.

It is possible for one person to do this (involves a certain level of comfort and ability to splay the fingers and hold the chin against your chest), but for the first time you may be better off having someone else hold the chinchilla.

Your chinchilla will probably bark, and not be too happy at times during this procedure. It is very difficult to do without any pain (just like combing tangles out of human hair), but the area with the mat is probably already uncomfortable. In the end, if you can get rid of the mats (or even keep them in check some chins are just prone to matting), he will appreciate it.

As for the wet/dry baths questions, I will echo what others have said: unless a chinchilla gets something that is very bad for them in/on their fur and you must remove it as quickly as possible chinchillas should not be given wet baths.