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Chinchillas are members of the rodent family that originate from the Andes Mountains in south-america where they live in holes or rock crevices. There are 2 different types and most domesticated chinchillas stem from the Chinchilla Lanigera species which has longer ears and a more slender body.

Sadly today these magnificent animals are exceedingly rare in the wild and can now only be found in the higher mountain regions as they have practically been hunted to extinction due to their soft fur. Ironically many captive bred chinchillas are now available as pets, originally imported to different parts of the world for their fur. Although the fur trade still exists, many public people, organizations, move stars and fashion designers stopped using furs and shunned fur products. This opened the door for the pet trade to acquire these animals and can they now be appreciated as living wonders.

About the animals

Chinchilla fur has about 60 hairs per follicle making them extremely soft and for this reason they are sought after in the fur trade. This keeps them warm in their natural habitat but may be a potential problem in warm climates as they cannot sweat and if it gets too warm (about 31 C they start stressing)  and at about  33 C plus they may even die from heat exhaustion. The animals are crepuscular and are most active early morning or late afternoon. To keep their skin healthy they often have dust or sand baths to remove excess oils from their skin. They live in social groups and feed mainly on plant matter such as leaves, branches, grass, roots and some seeds. They live approximately 18 years in captivity and normally breed twice a year giving birth to 1-2 pups. Their natural colour is grey but other colour variations are bred and they range from white to an ebony colour.

Chinchillas as pets

Chinchillas do make suitable pets for older children provided they are purchased at a young age or have been handled by previous owners. They are low maintenance animals, odorless but require food, water and grass daily and the cage needs to be cleaned at least once a week. Their poo consists of dry pellets like a hamster and is easy to clean.

Negative qualities:

Ø  Threat of heat exhaustion

Ø  They chew everything (add some fresh Willow branches or wood toys) to maintain their teeth. Don’t leave them unattended in a room as the will chew cables, wood, skirting and do not place the cage right next to a table or curtain.

Ø  They sand bath may be messy as it difficult to contain the sand or dust but it is nothing a quick vacuum can’t cure.

Ø  Older chinchillas may have set temperaments difficult to change i.e. if you buy old chinchillas that have not been handled they may take a long time and a great deal of patience to tame.

Housing

There are numerous cages on the market. One is the layered  cage, takes up little space but is high with plenty of jumping room, then wheeled cage (careful of young babies – they can climb through the cage wires from 3 weeks to about four months!) and the typical rabbit or guinea pig cage (once again big gaps in wire mesh so careful when you have babies) Lastly many pet shops have wooden cages but they will be chewed to pieces in a year or two and some are covered with a varnish that may be harmful  or even deadly to your chinchilla.

Feeding

C-h-i-n-c-h-i-l-l-a  . Read the word carefully again it states chinchilla, not r-a-b-b-i-t. Many pet shops sell rabbit food to chinchilla owners but rabbit pellets are simply not nutritious enough for chinchillas and gradually causes diseases to the liver and other internal organs. I use a mixture of Versele-laga nature which I mix with the locally made chinchilla magic food and then add some lucerne and there will always be some fresh grass or lucerne. A day or two before I clean the cage I add a willow branch with some leaves which is devoured and the branches help maintain their teeth.

 Breeding

The genitalia look similar when young and many people have been sold “pairs” consisting of two same sexed animals. The female seems to have a penis as well but when closely examined you would notice that the gap between the anus and the reproductive organs are much closer than a males. When the “penis” skin is pulled back slightly you would see an opening on the female while the male penis may protrude slightly by performing the same action.

Females may be mature after 5 months but most people recommend waiting 10 – 12 months before attempting to breed. Ensure that young females around 5 months are removed from the same cage as the farther to avoid inbreeding. They give birth to 1-2 pups although I recently had a litter of 4. Their gestation period is roughly 112 – 128 days and they give birth to babies with full fur, open eyes that can jump around within a few hours (precocious) and start nibbling on pieces of grass within the first few days.