Thinking of getting a chinchilla...any advice appreciated!

novagirl

We have 2 chinchillas and they make lovely pets. Very interesting to watch and are relatively easy to care for. Just make sure..(like someone else posted) that you 'chinchilla-proof' everywhere. When I had my first chinchilla the cage got pushed against the doorframe and he had a good knaw at it

flybynight

they are very handy if you ever want to decorate........... mine stripped a patch 12" x36" of wallpaper at teh side of their cage during a romp about. on the plus side ... she put all the pieces in a nice neat pile....... on the downside she had real problems holidng the roller:D

clairemck12

Hi I've recently just bought a couple of male chinchillas they are so lovely and still very young. I have done quite a bit of research online so think i now know roughly what they need in terms of food and bedding etc, but i would really appreciate some hints and tips from anyone who has chinchillas on things like treats, toys, chews and exercising them etc. Someone also mentioned in a post quite a long time ago that you can freeze ceramic pots for them to sleep in, does anyone know about this?

Thanks for any help offered.

pboae

There's a thread here with a lot of info in it
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=748861


I freeze clay plant pots for mine in the summer.

Zooxanthelle

Chinchillas are great pets.
As for treats mine love a couple of Raisins hand fed.
I have a block of marble that I freeze in the summer and they seem to enjoy that.
Oh and also they go crazy if you tickle them under their chins!!

clairemck12

Hi thanks for your replies. I'm really enjoying having them, I've never had chinchillas before so it's all new to me at the moment. Thanks again.

kr15snw

I loved my chinnies.

Only advice:

Make sure you let them have their dust baths, and make sure you can watch them! Its so funny and cute!!

Please please DO NOT feed them charlie chinchilla or a similar mix, its no good!!! They need chinchilla pellets, and well not much else. Lol. Their bodies just dont know how to handle lots of moisture,

They love raisans but this is a serious treat! Maybe one or two a week.

Mine loved to chew and used to go through a wood house a month (we made simple boxes out of wood as we knew hed eat them).

The freezing pots is a great idea (which id known about this) as mine hated the summer and used to sit anywhere that was a cold surface. We ended up giving him a cool pack type thing which they liked to lie on

Best way to exercise is to let them out in a big open room, with no cables or things they can eat!! Ours used to love the hallway, stairs are great fun!! There was no where he could go, and nothing he could eat (other than my college work as I used to do this with him) and he could just go nuts for hours And at the end, he would come and cuddle me on my lap

I was always taught to hold them to grip the base of their tail, they dont try to run off then. Lol

notlongnow_2

Mine used to love fruit wood branches...like apple. Id dry it out inside and put in the cage and he would gnaw it for hours.

lowis

are chinchillas affectionate? i had no idea they liked cuddles...i thought they would be like wriggly hamsters or pet mice - never sitting still and wanting to gnaw everything in site - including human fingers! .

clairemck12

I've been feeding them Charnwood Milling chinchilla pellets as that's what was given to me from the breeder, Ive just been online looking to buy some as we were only given a weeks worth and although the food itself isn't very expensive (£3.85 5kgs) the postage is quite a lot - £7 standard delivery :eek: , does anyone know if you can buy this from a shop so i can avoid paying for the delivery?

I've got them in the spare room as we don't have our heating on in that room so it's quite cool, but I've been getting worried that maybe it's to cold. Any ideas on how cool they actually like the temp to be?

Also we put an empty wine box in the cage and its gone down really well, especially as they have now learned that if they jump on top of the box they can jump out the cage when we leave it open, not funny when your on your way out to work and you just open the cage to change food and water quickly before you go :rolleyes:

Anyway sorry i've kind of rambled on here, im loving having them though. They're great fun.