AIIIE! I am so happy…I am going to get a pet chinchilla shortly (as soon as I hoard enough money to provide for it.) Any advice on how to care for them? Yes I know they die when it gets over 90 degrees 
so since I am living in California mebbe it ain’t such a good idea. Opinions, suggestions?
And here I thought that you already had a chinchilla and were posting something salacious about its anatomy.
Chinchillas die in temperatures above ninety degrees? Pheh…I thought they were desert-dwellers.
Anyways, Chinchillas do well with lots of space to walk around in, since they are a bit bigger than hamsters and rats. The chinchilla my friend owns is kept in a three-levelled cage which is about as tall as me. (almost 6 feet high). If you get a wire mesh cage, make sure the bottom ‘screen’ is small enough that the Chinchilla won’t get one of his legs stuck through it. If it is, the chinchilla -will- eventually break one of his legs. (they like to run around a lot. So you might want to consider a ‘running wheel’, too.)
They are very awake and playful during their active hours, and eat a diet consisting of a lot of grains and some fruits. (Alfalfa and raisins make good treats in supplement with feed pellets.) It may also be a good idea to look into vitamin supplements and calcium.
I’m not quite sure if they require salt licks, but they do require teething surfaces just as rabbits do. small dowels work well.
They also need dust baths. Watching a chinchilla give itself a dust bath is incredibly cute. There are a few different kinds of bathing dust you can buy from a pet supply store. Goldfish bowls work well for putting the dust in.
Make sure you give him/her lots of love and attention! Chinchillas are cuteness!
My sister used to have two chinchillas. I don’t remember much except that she gave them their dust baths in the bathtub. Make sure to clean out all the dust afterwards if you do that.
I have two of the little fuzzballs. I’m not sure where you go the temperature thing, but it is wise to kep them kinda cool. I have mine in a corner which no light get’s to, it’s also the coolest room. There ya go.
I like chinchillas. Pseudo-squirrel/rabbits. Animated dust bunnies.
My cousin in Florida had a chinchilla that lived outside, and it was fine.
Chinchillas can be kind of weird. Other than a scared cat, chinchillas are the only animal I know of that go from a dead sleep to a flat out sprint in .00016 seconds–for no particular reason.
We have two chins in our apartment, right now. One is about 2 months old and the other is a year old. They are the best pets, and all of the apartment mates now all want chins of our own.
FOOD With the babies you have to be super careful, if you over feed them it can kill them. You’ll need oats, hay, and chinchilla food. I recommend the kind that my roommate uses which is made by Sun Seed. The hay that they seem to like the best is Timothy, so I would honestly recommend that. But, you are going to have to ask what food they use at the pet store and integrate that with the food that you plan to use to wean them off of it. Do not use too much alfalfa, it has calcium in it and that can cause kidney stones. Banana chips, dried fruit and raisins make great snacks, but be careful not to over do it.
CAGE CARE Don’t use cedar or wood chips, you will find that most vets recommend shredded paper. You will also find that once accustomed to this product they will only go to the bathroom on that product. They are pretty much potty trained, because they will only like to pee in one particular spot. You also have to be careful with what type of wood you put in the cage, because they need to chew to make sure their teeth maintain a certain length.
GENERAL CARE They need to spend a lot of time running around, constant excercise is the key. We usually just put up baby gates and let them run around and do their own thing. They do have a habit of hopping the gates though, so you have to watch them. All of our wires are protected so they can’t chew on them. They need a lot of hands on attention, this will make them friendlier pets, but that goes for any pet. You will find that chinchillas are very smart. They learn rather rapidly, especially when it comes to ways of catching them. I don’t recommend using brooms to force them out of small spaces, they begin to dislike the brooms and you for using them. Both of our brooms have most of the bristles chewed off because of that tactic. Be careful with how much force you use with them, they are very delicate creatures and too much force can break bones. When they get sick use a syringe and feed them baby food to keep their nutrients up, they dehydrate easily, but you will also need to take them to a vet right away.
Right now I can’t think of much more to say than good luck with your new pet and I hope you love your chinchilla as much as we love Pretzel and Tequila.
Ooh, I just talked to my roommate. She said that it is over 80 that they will die, not 90. They are from the mountains of Chile, not the deserts. A good way to know if they are overheated is that their ears will turn pink. They also need fresh water daily, even if the bottle is still full.
Don't give them a running wheel it will break their legs and the solid one will be too small. They are hoppers not runners. Keep that in mind when it comes to their excercise.
Newspaper is the only thing that won't give them cancer when placed in the bottom of their cages. Her vet is a specialist in chinchillas and other exotic animals, it is the only thing that they recommend.
It is best that you get two chinchillas, because they live best it pairs. However it isn't needed if you have time to be the other chinchilla. They get depressed rather easily and this can effect their health.
If you need to know anything else, feel free to email me.I love chinchillas. Nothing better than a deep-friend burrito, especially when covered by a good green chili. Oh wait, ChiNCHILLA. I thought we were talking about Chimichangas.
Chinchillas, as opposed to Chimichangas, I hate. I developed this hatred this summer, when I visited my brother. My niece has a thing for the little rodents. She has about 6 of them. I was at my brother’s house one day, and wandered over to look at the cute lil’ chimichangas. Yup, cute lil’ furballs, bein’ all cute in their lil’ cages. I bend over and waggle my fingers at one. “Chimi! Look at the cute lil’ chimi!” I call to it.
The damn thing took one look at me, leaped into the air, and projectile pissed in my face.
I hate chimicha… I mean Chinchilas. If I could, I’d wrap 'em in tortillas and deep fry 'em. I’d steam 'em like tamales. I’d drown 'em in hot green chili. I’d feed 'em to my dog. Don’t talk to me about Chinchillas.
Yeah, that happens, but only when they feel threatened. My only guess is that they weren’t used to people. In my previous post I stated that they need a lot of hands on attention to be friendly. If they don’t have that attention, that can happen.
This is pretty dang weird. I was in the pet store yesterday, and for the first time in years, saw chinchillas for sale. I had 'em as pets as a tad, but didn’t realize they were still popular. Now here’s a Chinchilla Thread!
This ol’ Straight Dope Oracle sees all.
Ooh, I love chinchilla’s. I always wanted one, but I am not around enough and don’t really have enough space or money for one. Oh well, I can coo over the chinchillahs of others. The best thing about chinchillahs: They are SO incredubly soft! It is unbelievable.
There are a bunch of chinchilla sites on the web. Try just typing in “Chinchilla ranching” and you’ll get pet info too. There’s even a memorial site! I know I oughta link, but I’m on telephone internet and everything takes forever, not to mention I keep falling off this site.
We have two colonies of chins at the zoo. Most of the info here seems to be right, so all I want to add is a word of caution about adding new chins. If you decide to get several, be really careful about adding animals to an established colony. We tried to add one of our young females to the other lot and they killed her. If you want more than one, get them at the same time or supervise them until you’re sure they aren’t going to fight.
I’ve had a couple as my own pets, and I really enjoyed them. They do tend to be a bit nippy, and shy, but once tame they can be very sweet.
I did a bit of research on the history of chinchillas in North America, and apparently all the chins here came from a colony of twelve brought here in the Twenties. They never imported any more, so all ours are related somewhere down the line!
Have fun with your new pet(s)!
ashy is lying in a crumpled heap of giggles and silliness over his computer desk, trying to get over ‘projectile pissing’
Oh, you ain’t kidding! My mom had one for about 10 years - he was a total hoot. One day he starts making this strange noise so we go over to check out what’s wrong and we see this… thing erupt from his midsection. We thought it was some sort of tapeworm parasite at first, then we thought his stomach had burst from overfeeding and his guts were starting to spill out. Oh no, not at all. :eek:
I felt so… inadequate.
Anyway - from the little I do remember about keeping chinchillas, get 'em a real big bowl - dog sized - and stuff that with newspaper. They’ll use that one for their toilet needs and it makes for very easy cleaning. Ditto on the fresh water daily and the alfalfa - those are the best things a chin could ask for. They absolutely love raisins but too many gives 'em the runs. One or two every other day will make 'em happy. (I used to get a laugh by holding the raisin just out of mouthreach, so he’d actually stick his paw out of the cage and try to grab it.)
Do not get two male chinchillas if you want your pets to have buddies. They’re pretty territorial and one or the other is gonna end up in a world of hurt. I don’t remember if two females is as dangerous a combination, though. Barring that, if you have a fairly friendly dog the chinchilla will have hours of fun driving it crazy by running around the cage and making the dog give chase.
And yes, do give your chins plenty of attention and handling. If you want to give 'em a room to play in, make sure nothing that’s dangerous to chew is within their reach because they will chew on it. And they dig hanging out on your shoulder, too.
cooool.
greystoke was my best bud. he would sit on my shoulder or snuggle in the rocker. they are so nifty. he loved fresh fruits and veggies
my second chin was the complete opp. she did not like to snuggle, she just wanted to run. she liked all her treats dry. loved her alfalfa.
in philly in the summer things got very hot. i would use an ice pack on top of the cage and of course air conditioning helps.
olentzero, you aren’t kidding!!! forget the joke about dogs, it should have been chins. they sure can, and certainly DO!
Wow.
I like to start threads and abandon them for several days to see if they go to seed, but wow.
Projectile pissing… o_0…good to know.
Many thanks for d’advice everyone. Can’t wait to have mah own chin wriggling in its dustie bath 
That is just so poisonously-cute-sounding. Anyway…if yas think of anything else smack it down on this board.
OH!
I asked a friend about chins and she said to get an abused one. I guess her neighbors mistreated theirs or something…they ended up just giving it to her. She already had one at that point, one from a pet shop, and she said it was amazing how much more docile and sweet the other one was as compared to her first chin. I am not sure how to react to this information.
I might as well ask:
Izzer any Dopers who own (previously)abused chinchillas? Whatcha say about em? BTW where would I get an abused chinchilla???
Who the hell would abuse a CHINCHILLA for crissake…:mad:
I honestly think that might have been an isolated case, because abused chins are prone to that projectile pissing thing and they will not be very trusting of you and other people. I honestly wouldn’t recommend it.
I don’t know where you would get one or who would do that either.