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.

[bellas_mommy]

do you breed them anymore?
i lost my chinchilla last year on my birthday,
he got sick from eating grass in a field i took him on a walk in, and well he passed :'(
i really want a new one,he was everything to me and miss him alot....
dont have money to buy one from the store and all the food and equipment right now though so looking for one cheap.
do you know where i can find a cheap one?

[Tammy2009]

Just a comment here from someone who works at a pet store ...

Yes there are many bad pet stores but there are some that do take care of their animals.  I work at a large independent pet store here in Calgary, Alberta and our animals are healthier than most people.  All the animals are from breeders that know what they are doing and care about the genetics and health (we do not accept "oops" litters from customers because they could be inbred or not handled).  All the animals are isolated for 10 days after recieved to ensure they are healthy and not stressed out before they are put out for the public to see.  We do as much as we can for the health and care of the animals as possible.  

The animals are handled daily from the staff and kennel cleaners, plus come with a 7 day health guaranette (after that time frame, they most likely got the disease elsewhere).  Our chincillas get dust baths every couple days for 2-3 hours at a time (some of our babies try to eat the dust is left it longer than that), are on aspen shavings (did NOT like the care fresh with any of the animals; stayed wet and clumped together and became very hard on the bottom of the cage even when cleaned once every 24 hours) and eat kaytee chinny food and hay, plus fresh pet grass and a few veggies a couple times a week.  

If any animal seems stressed or having problems they are checked by the local vet and isolated until they are better.  

I will add we have problems selling chincillas because the animal and their care is a lot more expensive than something like a gerbil or a budgie.  Therefore we do only bring them in rarely.  In the three years I've been and we've had probably close to 30-40 chincillas in this time, we have had no health problem minus a couple that got stressed out due to a dog barking in their face.  None have been returned within the first week or got calls about health problems.  

With any animal you have to do your research and know the care of the animal from where you are getting it and how to care for them at home.  

[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.  

[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?

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.