Baby Chinchilla Help Please!

[bogart]

To summarize the whole story very quickly, my roommate and I had a "friend" who owned 3 male chinchillas. He decided he did not have time for them about 2 months ago and started to rehome them. He rehomed 2 quickly and had one left. Roommate and I went over to his house about 2 weeks ago and saw the awful conditions the poor chin was living in (the cage was filthy) and adopted him on the spot. Wilson the chinchilla is a little standoffish and we've been working with him to build the trust up. Well.....just got home from work 20 minutes ago and found out that Wilson is not a boy and we now have two baby chinchillas running around. Does anybody have a clue about taking care of them? Or know anyone in the western Pennsylvania/Ohio area that would want a chinchilla?

[Mikayla]

OH OH OH OH! Tis my expertise!!

Okay. First, if your cage has bar spacing bor than 1/2 inch by 1 inch then you should move your chins to another cage with that spacing, or wrap their current cage in hardwire cloth. It's available at most hardware stores. Babies can and WILL fit out of smaller and you won't find them.

And because it's late, and its Friday, and I'm tired, I'm taking a shortcut despite how excited I was over the fact that there was a question I could answer. Hmph. Follow this link: Caring for your kit(s) - Chins & Hedgies Got good info.

HOWEVER. I would not recommend joining this forum. These people are cold, cruel, rude, and just plain MEAN. It's got good info though. If you're on FB I can help you to a few groups that are lovely.

If you need anything, please, please ask. Without being pompous...I know quite a bit about breeding, and most people here will give you a very, very different perspective that I, and most US owners and breeders, don't agree with. So just shoot me a PM.

[LoveMyHams]

Ahhh nuts! Too far away, other wise I'd take a kit!

[bogart]

Thanks for the responses. As soon as I find the cord for my phone, I'll update with some photos of the babies. We *think* they're both males, but I'm not 100% sure. They seem to be doing okay. We fixed the cage so they couldn't get hurt. Right now they're crawling all over everything and trying to climb the walls.

As soon as we posted on Facebook that we had two baby chins, about 8 people responded saying they wanted one. Our close friend is going to take one of the babies for sure. Roommate and I are thinking about keeping the other baby and 5 people are arguing over who gets to take Momma Wilson. It's a relief to know we already have good homes lined up.

[September]

Hahaha, I didn't really expect you to be able to hold on to them for too long Chins are so cute!! I'd get one, but I don't have the room for a big cage like they'd need.

Kudos to you for saving momma chin from that 'friend'. Can't wait to see pics of the little family!

[bogart]

Baby Chinchillas! They wont' sit still long enough to get a good picture.

[LokiWolf]

I would so take Mama Wilson in a heartbeat, but I doubt my parents would allow me to take her in and I don't think we have room for a proper Chin cage. However I'd love to own a Chin one day, I've always been fascinated by them.