By Valerie Garner
You may wish to consider a chinchilla as a possible pet. Theyare of the rodent family, (but it doesn't seem that way).
Also known as “chins” they have incredible velvety fir, and theyresemble a chubby squirrel with Mickey mouse type ears. They arenocturnal, although they do get up and play alot during the day.Chins are very smart and playful, and I'm told can be trained.They are also very clean,so their cage area doesn't tend tostink as many other types of caged animals can.
I got my first pair of chinchillas, as adults, a proven breedingpair. They were nice enough but they never really did bond withus. We ended up having 3 litters total. They usually have 1-3babies (also known as kits), and their pregnancy is 111 days(about 4 months), which is very long gestation period for ananimal that size.
The babies are born fully formed, "ready to go" you might say.Fully furred, eyes opened, running around. They can even eatadult food almost from day 1, although they prefer to nurse.
Chinchillas eat prepared chinchilla food that comes in a pelletform. They also need 1 raisin a day (which they LOVE!). Everyfew days it's a good idea to give them a dust bath. You canpurchase"chinchilla dust" at a pet store. You put it in a bowland they dive in, roll and kick up a fuss, and is pure delightto watch. Company always love to watch "Ittle bittle" take herbath.
The real joy for us came as we kept one of the babies, we latersold mom and dad. She bonded really well with us, she washandled a lot from birth on. She has been one of the BEST petsI've ever had (of any kind of animal). She is playful, friendly,never bites, when she "barks" its a quiet, cute kind of bark. Awhole lot of personality and character she is.
Chins are more playful type pets, than a sit down lap typeanimal. I would recommend getting a baby if you decide to get achinchilla. They usually run about $100. in the US for a pet,but that price can vary a lot. Try to purchase one from areputable breeder.
Another very nice quality about chins as pets, is they have noclaws or fingernails. They have these little soft pads on thebottom of their feet, so you don't get scratched. I wouldn'trecommend them with small children however, as young childrencould easily hurt a chinchilla.
They have a life span of about 25-30 years. They do need to liveindoors, or climate type controlled setting. Chins come in avariety of colors but the standard gray color is the mostcommon, and the other, more rare colors will cost more usually.Because of their very long life span, be sure you’re ready forthat commitment before getting one however.
I found when I was trying to sell the babies that most peoplehad no idea of what a chinchilla was, or had even seen them.That made it a bit difficult to find homes at times, althoughwith such few babies, this wasn't a problem. The people who didcome to purchase a chin had this 1 thing in common: all of themhad either owned a chinchilla previously, or had a close friendwho did and had been around them. That really says somethingabout this type of animal for a pet.
I would however, if you do decide to purchase a chinchilla, getonly one and not a pair. If you have one, they bond much betterto their human owner (you), than if you have a pair. That’sprobably the biggest reason why the original pair never bondedmuch to us, because they were so closely bonded to themselves.
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