My chinchilla is chewing on his wee p***s?

Question

1st i'll start with some of his history

His name is Edmin

hes less then a year old, born in October

hes a Grey beige

he use to belong to my younger brother (13yrs old) but he neglected the poor lil fella. in my brothers care, Edmin lost a lot of fur on his sides :[, and had gotten a little to thin.

but he is now safe in my care,

but im worried because he started chewing on his p***s, hes been doing it for awhile now, but hes never done it before, he ALWAYS has it out . out of concern i did some research, i checked him, theres no fur around it, but it looks purple and swollen. im very concerned for him, and the other day, i had him out in his ball, and i noticed he had some diarrhea on my floor. this may have been my fault, i might have given him too many treats in attempt to fatten him up a bit. but i thought it was important to add.

he eats less then my moms chinchilla(but he is bigger) but edmin does eat every treat i give him, come to think of it, edmin sleeps alot more then the other too. plz help my chinchilla!

Answer 1

He has a history of neglect; he's thin; he has diarrhea, and he sleeps more than what might be normal.  With this information, I think you know what I'm going to say.  He needs to see a vet.  All those things combined lead me to believe he might be sick.  

Apart from that, the p***s chewing might be due to a skin infection, urinary infection, fungal or bacteria infection inside the p***s sheath, external parasites, allergy, etc.  It might also be, um, I don't know how to put this delicately ... self-gratification.  Is he neutered?  The purple and swollen look might actually be from infection, but it might also be because it's engorged with blood.  He might have only recently discovered that it feels good to clean himself down there, or he might be responding to the scent of a female (is your mother's chinchilla a female?) or he might be maturing late because he wasn't being well cared for by your brother.

In any case, I think you see why it's important that he sees a vet.