Any Chinchilla owners in the house? Considering a chinchilla?

[Aruba417]

Hey Everyone! I've owned and bred chinchillas...I just wanted to point a few things out about them.

They are very cool pets. They're very easy to take care of, and very clean. However, you have to make sure you're ready to take on a long commitment, because they can live 10 or more years. They eat special food and have to take special dust baths.

Also, be aware that they're not always spayed/neutered when you buy them from a pet shop. So if you get a male and a female, you may end up with a mating pair! And you CANNOT breed specific colors together.

[goatgirl]

We have a lot of pets at our home, but have never thought of adding a chinchilla to the mix.  I know very little about them except that when I worked some place that had a pair of chinchillas we had a difficult time keeping them contained because they were always escaping from their cage.  Did you have any trouble keeping your chinchillas contained?  I'm not so sure we are ready to become chinchilla owners, but thought I would ask the question anyway.  Thanks.

[Aruba417]

One of ours was an escape artist. They're very smart. She never escaped out of the store-bought cage. But when we built cages, those were the ones she was able to get out of. But one of the reasons was because we didn't put enough clips on the doors. And the other problem was we were dumb and made the cage out of wood. Well, chins bite wood! haha. So we had to experiment and finally were able to keep her contained. Much to her dismay! LOL. The other one had no interest in escaping. He was always a good boy.

[tmv]

My daughter wanted one last Christmas. Luckily, she got to "test drive" the one in her classroom and we found out that she is allergic. She is also allergic to cats. I wonder if this is a similar thing or just with my daughter. Her eyes get red and itchy/watery and she coughs. Anyone else???

[Aruba417]

I wonder if she was allergic to the chinchilla itself, or the dust that it bathed in. I was REALLY allergic to their dust. I would itch after I held them. But my allergies weren't that bad so I would just wash my arms after I played with them.

[Emily522]

I have a male chinchilla who is 6 yrs old. I love him so much but I feel I have been not been able to spend as much time with him lately. I'm going to college next year and I will not be able to take him with me, and my parents don't want to take care of him. I need to find him a new home. I'm really scared that I will find him new owners that won't take care of him the way he deserves. Any suggestions?

[cairo774]

also, just to add, if you are interested in purchasing a chin, i personally would not recommend getting one from a pet store, for you do not know what type of heath they are in, and lets face it, many pet stores don't take care of their animals.  so i suggest going to a good breeder.  they breed to better the breed, and not just to try to make money, and if is a good breeder you will get a good chin with no health problems.  health problems with chins and be very lethal if not taken care of very quickly, so it's important not to go to a pet store.