A Hard Decision...

[dayofhope]

I'm going to college this fall, and I have to decide what to do with my chinchilla... She is about 6 years old, lives in a Ferret Nation, and has a nasty habit of chewing her fur. Total sweetie, has never sprayed, and I just love her to pieces.

I need to decide whether or not to keep her... ):
If I keep her, she'll be at the mercy of my family's care until my sophomore year of college, possibly longer. I honestly cannot be certain they'll let her out enough (she's used to every night and doesn't have a wheel) or even how well they'll take care of her. I'd like to think she'd be fine with them, but I have no idea. There's also the fact I am about to enter the world of eating ramen noodles every night and being drowned in debt... And chinchillas are a bit expensive at times...

Or, I could rehome her. Which means, of course, she'd be gone and I'd have absolutely zero idea how well she is cared for. I'd definitely refer the new owner to this website and educate them on how to give proper care, but you never know.

Any advice?
I'm really excited to start college, but these decisions aren't too fun. I know I should have thought about this when I got her, but that was about 6 years ago and college seemed so far away at the time.

Sorry if this is the wrong board for this question.
& Thanks for any help.

 

[paula1101]

I think it depends on what you want. If you really want to know how she's being cared for and potentially take her back AND your family is willing to keep her for you, it seems to me that the best solution would be to buy her a wheel and hope they can get her out for play regularly but also know she has a means for exercise if they don't. And you know how your pet is doing and presumably that they can take care of her to your satisfaction.

A lot of chins don't get outside cage time and are fine, with or without a wheel, so I wouldn't think she'd have any difficulty adjusting to less free time with a good wheel in her cage.

 

[CrazyForChinchillas]

If you want to keep her, you could look for off campus housing.
Or get a wheel for her to use at your parent's house. You could give them a detailed list of how to take care of her.
Good luck. I would keep my pet, honestly, if it was me.

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

I would keep her at your parents' and get her a wheel. As has been said, at least she'll be safe with your parents and you can get her back. You can even see her on holiday breaks and summers!!!

 

[greychins]

I think the answer depends on how... enthusiastic... your parents are about caring for her while you're not there. I didn't have chins until I went off to college, but at some point, I could no longer afford the apartment and had to move into student housing, which meant no pets. My chins (much less of them at the time, maybe 4-5) went to live with my parents until I graduated (2 years). My parents said that they would care for them and make sure they were fed and cleaned, but apparently that was mostly good intention with not so much thought behind it. At first, everything was fine... but time passed, and I would come home on breaks to find the cages badly needing cleanings and food bowls empty. My parents said, oh, they just ran out of food.... but for all I know, they could have not fed them for days. Whereas I clean cages either weekly or maybe 1.5 weeks, my parents were waiting 3-4 weeks to clean the cages, until the shavings were literally soaked. Luckily for me, it didn't get this bad until shortly before I graduated, and at that point, I was coming home as often as I could to make sure they were cared for.

I have no doubt my parents had good intentions. They like animals well enough, but, in hindsight I realize they like being able to pet the animal now and then, but really don't want to have any actual "care" for it like feeding or cleaning up after it. In other words, they should go to a petting zoo every so often, but not actually have pets of their own.

Your parents could be completely different, I'm not saying that they would or would not take great care of your chin. I just know that in my situation, my parents were perfectly fine with caring for my animals when I originally asked them, and then, once they actually had to do it, the care degraded over time until, had I not been moving to a place where I could have the animals in 1-2 month's time, I would have rehomed them rather than had them all live like that.

I think what might have helped, in my situation, was create some sort of a schedule. I've always used food bowls that hold several days worth of food and several days worth of water, and maybe making a schedule of Mon/Wed/Fri fill water/food, Friday clean cage, that sort of thing, would have helped, in that they would have gotten into the routine of it. Maybe it wouldn't have helped, I can't say.

Personally, I don't like having anyone else care for my pets for any length of time, but that's because I've had really bad luck with both this experience and with several different people saying they'd look in on my pets while I was away and then that falling to pieces and them never coming over, leading me to come home to animals without food/water/etc. But.... I could just have poor examples of "good friends" and bad experiences. I hear people say their parents have cared for their chins perfectly fine while they were in college. But then, I also get in chins where the parents have gotten tired of them while the kid's in college, and the parents turn the chins over to the rescue. I just feel like it's hard to predict what will/can happen in your absence.

That brings me to another thought -- what happens to this chin in terms of vet care while you are not there? Luckily this did not happen with me, but I know that, currently, if a chin is injured, I rush it to the vet. My parents... not so much. Their view is they can replace it cheaper than they can fix it. Say your chin does need to go to the vet while you are gone -- if you are living on ramen noodles (and I'm not saying that negatively, I've been there), are you going to be able to pay for it? Are your parents going to pay and you pay them back? Are they going to spend as much as you might spend? I know I've gone above and beyond for some of my pets, I think I'm up to about $6k in caring for an abused rescue prairie dog alone over the past three years. My parents would never have spent over a few hundred. We're just of different mindsets about animals and vet care. So, if you're going to leave the chin under your parents' care, I think that's something that needs to be discussed.

Sorry for all the ramblings, hope this helps somewhat.

 

[Godofgods]

if u dont mind, what state do you live in?

 

[EBB]

I was very fortunate to have a few teachers who i loaned animals to for their classrooms for the years in college when i couldn't care for them. I am not sure whether or not that is an option for you, but it worked splendidly for me.

 

[dayofhope]

Thank you all so much for the replies and advice!

Right now I am really super busy with a school assignment due in a few days, so I'll be answering most of the posts after it is finished - probably this weekend.

But to answer Godofgods's question, I live in Missouri.

 

[dayofhope]

A lot of chins don't get outside cage time and are fine, with or without a wheel, so I wouldn't think she'd have any difficulty adjusting to less free time with a good wheel in her cage.

If I do keep her, I'll definitely shell out the cash to get her a wheel. Whenever I for whatever reason have to skip a day of playtime, she gets really anxious and runs around her cage begging to be let out. I really hope that even if I get her a wheel she'll be let out, just because I can't even imagine how bored she would be if she were stuck in her cage 24/7.

Freshmen are required to live on campus, unless there are special circumstances. My commute from my parents' house is way too far. I'll live in off-campus housing sophomore year, though.

I was very fortunate to have a few teachers who i loaned animals to for their classrooms for the years in college when i couldn't care for them. I am not sure whether or not that is an option for you, but it worked splendidly for me.

That's pretty cool, but I don't think it's an option for me. I've only known one teacher with a classroom pet, and they were turtles. And I don't think a chinchilla is the best pet to be housed in a classroom, anyway. Too chaotic.

Greychins, this is a pretty big concern for me. I think my situation would be similar - Good intentions but bored/neglected after a little while. Not exactly the best care. And my family thinks she's cute, but they don't really see her as more than just a rodent.
And I really don't know how I would handle vet expenses during my ramen noodle days. I've been fortunate with her health so far (knock on wood), but who knows about later...

But the thing is, I'll have no way of knowing how someone else would handle her, either. Whomever I give her to could do the same thing as my family - good intentions but then bored. At least if I keep her, then I'll know it's only a year minus breaks of possibly a bit neglected care? Who knows how long it would be if she had a new home. And I live in a poor area where most would rather shoot their sick dog than take him to the vet (I honestly don't understand how you could shoot your dog.) - so I'm not sure how much money anyone around here would spend on a chinchilla vet bill, even if they're not experiencing ramen noodle days. It would definitely be something I'd have to discuss with a potential new owner.

I'll have to discuss it with my family...
Obviously financially it would be best to rehome.
Best for her care is entirely unknown.
And best for me as an owner would be to keep.
I dunno.

 

[dayofhope]

Sorry for double-posting, but any other thoughts about this?

 

[Idgie]

I think that I would keep her at my home and see how it goes. If not well at all, then you could always try to rehome her at that time. But maybe it will go well enough. Unless I knew of someone who definitely would care for her, I would not give her up. And whatever decision you make now can always be changed or modified as new situations arise.

 

[dayofhope]

Good point! Maybe I'll just try to ask my fam during the week how often they're letting her out and such... c:

 

[Jenn]

I agree with Idgie. As long as your family is willing, I would keep chinnie at home and see how that goes. Maybe they'll find that caring for her isn't that big of a deal, and maybe they will enjoy getting to know her better. But, if after a period of time you find out that it isn't working out keeping her at home, you can then make the decision to rehome her. You will also learn, as time goes on, how feasible it will be for you to have her in the future. Plans, circumstances change all of the time. Hard to know today what the future will bring.

Good luck!

 

[dayofhope]

Thanks! I'm just not entirely certain how to judge if they're taking care of her very well... My family is the type to say something is "fine" even if the care isn't spectacular. /: But yeah, I think I will keep her. C: