Pet Chinchillas

You may wish to consider a chinchilla as a possible pet. They are of the rodent family, (but it doesn't seem that way).

Also known as "chins" they have incredible velvety fir, and they resemble a chubby squirrel with Mickey mouse type ears. They are nocturnal, 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 to stink as many other types of caged animals can.

My first chins were a proven breeding pair and although they were sweet animals, I can't say they ever really bonded to us much. Chins usually have 1-3 babies (known as kits) and their pregnancy is 111 days which is incredibly long for an animal that size.

The babies are born really advanced for newborns. They are open eyed, fully furred and running around nearly within minutes of birth. They can also eat adult food nearly from that first day, although the majority of their diet is from nursing.

One of the funnest parts of being a chin owner is bath day. Take a bowl and put chinchilla dust in it. They dive in, roll, kick, swirl and is a delight to everyone who watches! They eat pelleted chinchilla food and should be given a raisin a day.

The real joy for us came as we kept one of the babies. She bonded really well with us, as she was handled a lot from birth on. She has been one of the BEST pets I've ever had (of any kind of animal). She is playful, friendly, never bites, when she "barks" it's a quiet, cute kind of bark. A whole lot of personality and character she is.

Chins are active, on the move pets versus quiet lap pets that will just sit there while you hold them. I would recommend if possible getting a baby over an adult however as it seems if they are younger, they bond better to their human owner than older ones.

Chins are great as pets also because they don't have nails or claws, but little soft pads on their feet so you don't get scratched. They usually are not good animals for small children however as a young child can accidentally hurt them easily.

The average lifespan is about 10-15 years, they do need to be indoors or climate controlled setting. They come in many colors but standard gray is the most common. The rare colors will usually cost more. Because of their long life span, be sure you are ready for the commitment.

I found when I was trying to sell the babies that most people had no idea of what a chinchilla was, or had even seen them. That made it a bit difficult to find good homes at times, although with such few babies, this wasn't a problem. The people who did come to purchase a chin had one thing in common: all of them had either owned a chinchilla previously, or had a close friend who did and had been around them before. That really says something about this type of animal for a pet.

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By Rachel Ray - It's so awesome to start to let our creativity flow, to calm down and get back to basics and simpler times. Too often we're out of balance on the whole work life balance , issue and need to calm down and play more.

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