Chinchillas!

ABajaninCork

Can anyone tell me a bit about them? Things like:

• Housing
• Diet
• Lifespan
• Cost

Are they suitable as pets for children?

TIA

Cherry Blossom

Housing
As big as possible and with as small gaps in it as possible as they tend to rikochet off the sides of cages so needs to be of a type they can't catch their leg in. Mine had free access to the whole house most of the time though as long as I was home

Diet
Chinchilla pellets are better than the museli type, rolled porridge oats for treats

Lifespan
15 - 20 years

Cost
Minimal after initial setup costs

Are they suitable as pets for children?
No way, definately not for under 10s, and not interesting enough for over 10s :rolleyes:

Chinchilla's can't be picked up and cuddled, they may decide to come and sit on you but thats their perogative. The general rule is the more you ignore them the more interesting you are to them.

I miss my Chillas

Cherry Blossom

BTW initial costs depend how mental you are :rolleyes:, my costs included chinchilla proofing the whole house, roof to floor cat trees, a sandpit instead of a dust bath etc. :rolleyes:

One of my babies :

laurat

i have 14 chins and my cousins are 8 and 4 and there realy good with them when i told them how to handle them theres only certain ones they can hold it realy depends on the personality of the chinchilla and if the kid will get bord... ferrets mite be a good idea they chase strings and play and are more fun i have two but would only trust the male with a kid but the female one is so gentle

Cookie_Monster

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

One of my babies :

pic

awww

laurat wrote: »

i have 14 chins

:eek:

We only have one and can't believe the mess he makes 14 must be pretty epic to try and deal with.

laurat

ha its not too bad but we need to keep a hoover constintly in there room which helps.. the big clean out once a week is a nightmare takes hours atleast they dont smell.. but there worth it... my 14 is now 18 two girls gave birth

Cookie_Monster

Any pics?

Here's our little guy, Elmo is his name.

ABajaninCork

Thanks everyone for the help so far!:D I've found it very useful....

I love the pics! They look so cute, don't they?

laurat

i thought it would be a bit to much if i posted the lot :P
i duno how ta get the pictures up properly

Cookie_Monster

laurat wrote: »

i duno how ta get the pictures up properly

if you click on the attachement and open it and paste in the url

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=147355&d=1297293170

and put

[img ][/img ] around it

but without the space between G and ].

Its massive so not going to put it up

kimmyt1987

[img ][/img]35608_1762587227621_1327312546_1944212_2459487_n.jpg

167841_1750471124726_1327312546_1913396_6336808_n.jpg

Im new to owning Chinnies,
fell in love with little Gizmo who was abandoned by her mum.
As the runt of the litter and having a cleft lip she was taken away and hand fed daily. I had to have her, spent a small fortune on getting a cage and all the bits and bobs she would need. I ended up coming back two months later to buy her big sis who amazingly hadnt been sold yet. They have now been reunited and are two happy, healthy little monsters! They are both very different personality wise, Gizmo is very happy to climb on your hands and arms when you approach the cage whereas Dib is very skittish. Once they got used to being let out in a Chinnie proof bathroom they were happy enough to explore a little more and generally climb up onto my head and shoulders for a better view of their playspace!

Not really a kids pet as they generally don't like being handled too much but they are such amazing little characters if you are willing to put up with their chewing and mischief natures!

Cookie_Monster

nice little girls

Elmo went to the vet the other day and turns out he's actually a lady.
have to come up with a new name now...

laurat

Ha... that happend to me the first two i got the pet shop told me they were boys it was a boy and a girl... did you get yours from a petshop?

Cookie_Monster

yes, Petstop in Carrickmines after we went up to have a look at the fish :rolleyes:

She's called Daisy now

godtabh

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

yes, Petstop in Carrickmines after we went up to have a look at the fish :rolleyes:

She's called Daisy now

ot I know but there is better places to be getting fish other than Pet Stop

Asphyxia

I saw these in Petmania yesterday and fell in love :rolleyes: It might end up on my pet list

Cookie_Monster

godtabh wrote: »

ot I know but there is better places to be getting fish other than Pet Stop

Yes I discovered that fairly quickly. Only went up as I only found out it was there at the time, had a look at the fish, a lot of which didn't look too good. I wouldn't buy fish up there but it's still the handiest place for food and bits for me.