Who here has Chinchillas?

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Sammo123

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

180 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Afternoon,

I don't think I have seen a Chinchilla thread on here before so I thought I would start one.

I bought my Chinchillas in 2000. They were advertised in Loot of all places and were about a mile up the road. It was a vague advert so I went along to have a look and was pleased to find 2 very healthy looking female Chinchillas. Both 4 years old, one standard grey and one black velvet. About a week later they arrived at my house (the owner brought them and their cage round in his car) and I was a Chinchilla owner smile

Now I had done plenty of reading about them before buying these 2 and understood that they could live on average about 15 years!!! Not bad for such a small animal.

Well I reckon I must of done a good job looking after them because my Black Velvet (Black) died about 4 years ago at the grand old age of 14(ish). When I took her to the vets, he couldn't believe how old she was and told me that a lot of them end up dying after a few years as people just don't know how to look after them frown Fortunately whatever it was that killed Black didn't get passed on to Grey (yes I know the names were very imaginative!) and as of this morning she is still going strong and is now aged 18(ish). She is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon and still has a good bounce around the living room when her cage is being cleaned, although she does do a lot more sleeping than she used to!

Annoyingly I can't find any pictures of her or Black at the moment but I have some somewhere which I will add later.

So, does anyone else have Chinchillas? How old are they and how long have you had them?

Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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I had a Chinchilla for a few years but sadly my niece came round one day. So she got it. They are pretty sweet little things.

HTP99

22,443 posts

139 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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We looked after two Chinchillas for a few weeks many years ago, the "few weeks" turned in to a year!!

Lovely things, fun to watch and the bathing in sand thing was a bit odd however I was glad when they went as their vivarium thing was huge and took up far too much room in the lounge.

reaper668

495 posts

208 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Last year I rescued a male and female pairing from a family that just have the time to look after them. Both were approximately a year old. It took a little while for them to come around and stop hiding in their cage but now they are really friendly and loving. Kai (male) and Meera (female). I have no idea exactly which of the multitude of colours they are. Both are light grey with bits of white. 7 weeks ago I came home to find 4 chinchillas instead of the usual two. 2 boys were born. 1 very light, the other a lot darker. I still haven't named them as the original plan was to rehome them but I think I may have fallen for their charms.

Kai. The dad.


Nugget 1


Nugget 2


Meera (the mum) and her Nuggets.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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reaper668 said:
Last year I rescued a male and female pairing from a family that just have the time to look after them. Both were approximately a year old. It took a little while for them to come around and stop hiding in their cage but now they are really friendly and loving. Kai (male) and Meera (female). I have no idea exactly which of the multitude of colours they are. Both are light grey with bits of white. 7 weeks ago I came home to find 4 chinchillas instead of the usual two. 2 boys were born. 1 very light, the other a lot darker. I still haven't named them as the original plan was to rehome them but I think I may have fallen for their charms.

Kai. The dad.


Nugget 1


Nugget 2


Meera (the mum) and her Nuggets.
biggrin They are beyond cute!

reaper668

495 posts

208 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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And just taken 10 mins ago.

HTP99

22,443 posts

139 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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They are gorgeous looking.

Is it correct that as a defence mechanism their tail can come off, but it can grow back?

reaper668

495 posts

208 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Their tails can come off but they will never grow back. So you have to be really carefull handling them.

Fort Jefferson

8,237 posts

221 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Sammo123 said:
So, does anyone else have Chinchillas? How old are they and how long have you had them?
We bought one in 1984 and it died in 2004 when it was 20 years old.

Hoover.

5,988 posts

241 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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my boss looked after some for a neighbour, and left them running around his porch....... he then moaned about the amount of malteasers he had to clear up hehe

gaz1234

5,233 posts

218 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Hoover. said:
my boss looked after some for a neighbour, and left them running around his porch....... he then moaned about the amount of malteasers he had to clear up hehe
st?
Hoover them.

gaz1234

5,233 posts

218 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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How do you look after them?

Crafty_

13,248 posts

199 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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One of the problems they suffer is poor genetics, allegedly all of the ones in captivity are descended from a relatively small number of animals (under 100 IIRC). Not sure if thats true but something I've seen from a number of sources.

There was or is a guy not too far from me who takes them in and looks after them whilst they get rehomed. He doesn't advertise or make any money from rehoming, just tries to cover his costs.

I had a black velvet who unfortunately started to suffer organ failure. He was always very meek and a bit shy, never really moved around much. I hadn't had him long and he very quickly became very sedentary, he was clearly not well and the vet advised to euthanise. frown

He was replaced by a pair of beige girls, who within weeks had produced a pair of kits irked the kits were fantastic, I rehomed them with friends/family.

A while later my sister calls me, saying that she'd found one through an acquaintance that needed rehoming. He was a white and was apparently 9 or 10 years old. We were told he was rather grumpy, would nip everyone and generally quite unfriendly.
I took him on and pretty much straight away I realised someone had not treated him too well - he came with a bag of peanuts (bad for them - they can't break down the fat).
I weened him off them and he developed a great character and never bit anyone, he liked being made a fuss of, especially by my mum - if anyone knocked the door he wouldn't flinch, if she did he'd jump up and sit at the front of the cage, waiting for her. He also liked sitting in the sun and having a snooze! I had him for about 3 or 4 years and he just slowly faded away.

The beiges meantime had another set of kits that I rehomed. Eventually I didn't have the time for them that they needed and space was becoming an issue, so my sister took them.

Lovely animals, the mess used to pee me off at times though.

jackthelad1984

838 posts

180 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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We currently have 4, 2 girls daisy and dee, all grey, and 2 boys dave and Darwin. My other half started off with just dave not long after we started seeing each other. Then two Christmas's ago I bought her two females that were advertised with there cage etc, dee had half a tail but both were alot larger than the male she had.

Then last summer whilst at woodlands adventure park we were in the animal part and they were selling off the excess chins they had from breeding. I reluctantly agreed to get her another as she wanted another colour but all the black or white ones were female so we ended up getting another grey male to keep dave company. Not really sure how old they all are to be honest but they all appear to be healthy.

Dee (for defective due to stumpy tail) lost half a foot last year, not sure how to be honest we replaced the metal cage ladders with wood just in case. Vets didn't really know how to treat them very well so just cleaned wound and gave antibiotics and the chinchilla actually gnawed away the bit of bone poking out herself and healed up fine with no lasting effect of half a foot missing.

They are funny to watch, before we got our german shepard dave used to run about with our Yorkie ollie, our german shepard scout is fascinated by them and will lay in front of the cage watching them, the chins are cheeky sods and I'm sure they wind him up on purpose by going nose to nose with him! The two cages are side by side but the boys and girls have yet to meet properly!

KelWedge

1,278 posts

184 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Sorry got to ask,

Who feeds what feed?
wink


98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Saturday 11th October 2014
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We have a pair.

We originally bought a bonded pair of males (mike and max) couple of years ago but Max suffered with tooth problems (common) and died. The remaining one became very depressed and was losing weight. The vet actually told us to expect the worst.

We decided to get another one and went for one needed rehoming (barney). Barney is much bigger than Max and very lively. Its taken us about 6 months to get them bond, and they now live in the same cage. Mike is now much happier and at his last check up was back up to normal weight.

All 3 have had very different personalities and they are great pets. Mike is very passive and is happy have a dominant male to follow about (Barney is very Alpha male). Barney loves to groom and be groomed, if you scratch his chest he leans right into it smile Mike isn't bothered by grooming, but likes to cuddle his friend when he's sleepy. He will put his head on Barneys back and use him like a pillow.

Dr Mike Oxgreen

4,101 posts

164 months

Sunday 12th October 2014
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reaper668 said:
Kai (male) and Meera (female)
hehe

Plenty of other pairings would be possible: Sag and Aris, Gran and Tura, Tas and Min, Tam and Ora, Cerb and Era...

S11Steve

6,374 posts

183 months

Monday 13th October 2014
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I used to have 4 of them, but the ex took custody when we split, and I kept the rabbits and Tortoise.

They are fantastic animals, with complex personalities and character. I ended up starting a small business that sold chinchilla specific products and food, but still have a few friends that keep them and show them.

RemyMartin

6,759 posts

204 months

Wednesday 15th October 2014
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I love chinchillas. So furry and cute. Also very fun watching them have a dust bath or throw their poo.

Awesome little critters, live for ,twenty years and sometimes longer.

98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
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Just got over a big scare with one of our pair.

I was working away and my wife got up one morning to fine one of ours hanging by his toe. It seems it got caught on a thread in his hammock. He was listless and had been chewing at his leg and foot to get free.

She got an emergency appointent at the vet. They did an x-ray and found no broken bones so they gave us antibiotics and pain killers. The leg was in a bad state and he couldn't use it, but gradually he started getting movement back over a few weeks.

All seemed well then a week ago they told us he needed the toe removing, and possibly the leg as it wasn't healing properly. They could only really tell with the leg if they removed the scabs.

We took dropped him off this morning and waited for the phonecall to say if they had to take the leg. At about 10 the vet rang to say not only was the leg wound now fine, but the toe was showing signs of naturally healing rather than going bad. They want to leave it another week to see if it keeps getting better smile