Chinchilla question

[Lumiere Lover]

I am hoping my Dis friends can help me out. We have no kids left in the house. I have always wanted a chinchilla and my husband has agreed to Let me get one. We have no other pets. I have done a ton of reading on these. Does anyone have a chinchilla and what do you feel are the pros and cons of ownership? Previously in my life I have had dogs and an indoor rabbit. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mickeymedic]

We have a chinchilla. We used to have a whole chinchilla colony (seriously 16-20 chinchillas at a time.) We are down to just one. They need a big cage so they have lots of room to jump around. Avoid anything plastic. They will eat it and it will make them sick. Your best bet is a metal cage with wooden shelves. We've had to customize our store-bought cages with wooden shelves, as most come with plastic shelves.

Chinchillas are naturally stand-offish when it comes to humans. Try to get one who is young and hold it on a daily basis. If they get used to being held, they will let you hold them and play with them. If you just leave it in the cage all day, it won't play with you. I actually recommend getting 2 chinchillas (of the same sex unless you're trying to start your own chinchilla colony). When we got our first chinchilla, he used to make the most pitiful squeeky/crying sounds at night. I think he missed his family.

You asked for pros and cons. The pros: they are easy to maintain. You can fill the food bowl every-other day; fill the water bottle every 5-6 days; change the little once per week. If you change the litter regularly and bathe your chinchilla daily they don't give off an odor. And by "bathe" I mean put a bowl of dust in the cage for them to roll around in. They take dust baths. A fish bowl works well for this.

The cons: They are fast. So if you let him out of the cage and he gets away from you, you might have a heck of a time catching him. They like to chew everything. Again, in the cage this should be fine. Outside the cage this could be a problem. The dust from their bath tends to get everywhere. So plan to dust around the cage daily. Or, just do what we do and let the dust layer build up for a week.

One last thing - chinchillas can live up to 20 years. So be sure you are OK with a long-term commitment. Our first chinchilla lived to the ripe old age of 16. If you have any specific questions let me know.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

Thank you very much! Does your chin throw its poop?

 

[mickeymedic]

Not on purpose. If he poops on the shelf and then runs around (or rolls around) the poop ends up outside the cage. But that's easy enough to clean up. Chinchillas poop solid little pellets (unless they are sick...you can tell a chinchilla is sick if the poop is soft.)

 

[Lumiere Lover]

Thank you very much!!!

 

[Micca]

We once had a pet raccoon, we've known folks who have owned monkeys, and exotic birds. My general observation is that cats & dogs make the best pets. Everyone is different in their preferences, but experience tells me that a couple of kittens will bring you years of joy and entertainment, exotic animals are much more of a wild card. Good luck with your choice!

 

[Lumiere Lover]

We have to go with the Chinchilla- it is one of the very few animals that doesn't kick in my husbands asthma or allergies.

 

[tabby1881]

We had a chinchilla that we loved. He had a good long life and was very friendly. When we would come into the room, he would stand at the front of his cage on his back legs with his head tilted to the side. He was begging to be tickled behind his ear. One surprise we had was that chinchillas make noise. He used to "bark" every now and then. As the previous poster said, they are fast. They can jump, too. We had a little playpen type area for him to play in, but he soon found out he could jump right out the pen. He loved his wheel and enjoyed destroying the little chew toys we would get for him.

 

[mickeymedic]

I forgot to mention that chinchillas are very smart. They can learn certain words, but probably won't actually follow your commands. They tend to use their intelligence for evil, not good. (Not really, but it seems that way sometimes.) Our chinchilla, Booger, has taught my husband to play fetch. Booger will throw one of his chunks of wood out of the cage and then stand there and stare at my husband until he picks it up off the floor and gives it back. Then he waits until my husband is back on the couch before he chucks the wood out of his cage again. If Chris stays on the floor next to the cage, Booger pretends to loose interest in the wood...until he is back on the couch. Then Booger starts at it again. Booger has also learned the quickest way to escape off our couch and zip across the room so that he can run free. He certainly lives up to his name.

 

[low-key]

I have one and love it

 

[Lumiere Lover]

I forgot to mention that chinchillas are very smart. They can learn certain words, but probably won't actually follow your commands. They tend to use their intelligence for evil, not good. (Not really, but it seems that way sometimes.) Our chinchilla, Booger, has taught my husband to play fetch. Booger will throw one of his chunks of wood out of the cage and then stand there and stare at my husband until he picks it up off the floor and gives it back. Then he waits until my husband is back on the couch before he chucks the wood out of his cage again. If Chris stays on the floor next to the cage, Booger pretends to loose interest in the wood...until he is back on the couch. Then Booger starts at it again. Booger has also learned the quickest way to escape off our couch and zip across the room so that he can run free. He certainly lives up to his name.

Thank you so much for your help. I ordered a very tall (about 65 inches) cage online. Once I have all the accessories in place we will start looking for the chinchilla. We found a gorgeous one yesterday but it was a female. I definitely want a male.

Thanks to everyone for their input (except for the coat).

 

[Lumiere Lover]

We have a chinchilla. We used to have a whole chinchilla colony (seriously 16-20 chinchillas at a time.) We are down to just one. They need a big cage so they have lots of room to jump around. Avoid anything plastic. They will eat it and it will make them sick. Your best bet is a metal cage with wooden shelves. We've had to customize our store-bought cages with wooden shelves, as most come with plastic shelves.

Chinchillas are naturally stand-offish when it comes to humans. Try to get one who is young and hold it on a daily basis. If they get used to being held, they will let you hold them and play with them. If you just leave it in the cage all day, it won't play with you. I actually recommend getting 2 chinchillas (of the same sex unless you're trying to start your own chinchilla colony). When we got our first chinchilla, he used to make the most pitiful squeeky/crying sounds at night. I think he missed his family.

You asked for pros and cons. The pros: they are easy to maintain. You can fill the food bowl every-other day; fill the water bottle every 5-6 days; change the little once per week. If you change the litter regularly and bathe your chinchilla daily they don't give off an odor. And by "bathe" I mean put a bowl of dust in the cage for them to roll around in. They take dust baths. A fish bowl works well for this.

The cons: They are fast. So if you let him out of the cage and he gets away from you, you might have a heck of a time catching him. They like to chew everything. Again, in the cage this should be fine. Outside the cage this could be a problem. The dust from their bath tends to get everywhere. So plan to dust around the cage daily. Or, just do what we do and let the dust layer build up for a week.

One last thing - chinchillas can live up to 20 years. So be sure you are OK with a long-term commitment. Our first chinchilla lived to the ripe old age of 16. If you have any specific questions let me know.

Thank you all very much for your help. Mickey came home today! The photo doesn't want to upload for me. He is a gorgeous dark gray.

 

[mickeymedic]

Thank you all very much for your help. Mickey came home today! The photo doesn't want to upload for me. He is a gorgeous dark gray.

Congratulations! I can't wait to see a picture. Sounds like he is the standard color. Our Booger is standard grey, too. A few more tips for you. Lots of chinchilla food is made with alfalfa hay. Chinchillas actually do better with Timothy Hay. We feed ours Timothy Complete pellets from KayTee. You can sometimes find it in pet stores. We order ours from Amazon. We also buy Timothy Hay to give him once per week. My mother-in-law gives him his daily Craisin as a treat. I also bought ours a toy/house that looks like a log. He can crawl through it, climb on it and chew on it. The last one lasted about 6 weeks before it was gone.

 

[MickeySP]

I have one and love it

OK that is where I went too !! LOL

 

[Lumiere Lover]

We actually got the Timothy hay first to make sure we didn't have any allergic reactions to it.

 

[aprilchem]

Chinchillas are social animals and really prefer to be in pairs rather than alone. You should really consider getting a second one, although I think that's easier to do if you buy them in a pair rather than try to integrate two together. You'll have a happier chinchilla if he/she has a friend!