Devilairy
Ship-Captain Sam
Hi all! My name's Sam, I live in NV (US), and I became a Chinchilla mom today.
This is my first Chinchilla but I do know what I am doing and I'm going to try really hard to be the best Chin mom I can be.
I have a 4 year old (neutered) lop rabbit mix named Cosmo, an 8 year old white parakeet named Oscar, a 2 year old (neutered) Chihuahua mix named Norman, and my new baby is a white mosiac (I'm fairly positive, still learning my color identification, correct me if I'm wrong please) Chinchilla: his name is Pirate.
All my pets mean the world to me. All are rescues (as well as all past pets other than 2 family dogs) except for Pirate.
Cosmo was a baby from an accidental litter of a lady on craigslist (did not know that her bunnies were of opposite gender). She was trying very hard to care for them all properly but just couldn't, which is why I chose her to help. Cosmo has some special digestive issues but other than that is now in perfect health and is a great bunny. He has free run of the house most days and is litter trained. He's more like a cat.
Oscar came to me when I was very young and was the first animal I actually nursed completely back to health (I was about 8). He had severe respiratory issues. But now he's 8, although you'd guess 3 or 4 (youth has been kind to him), and in absolute perfect health.
Norman is my dog who means absolutely everything to me and is my best friend. The rescue needed someone special to take him on as he was classed as special needs from his extreme fear of people. Now he just gets a little nervous around men and can do basically anything.
Now Pirate: we have a really great exotics pet store downtown. I really love them because they take such great care of their animals, make sure they go to great homes, and keep in touch/are available any time you need them as well as they get from professional breeders or breed them themselves. I, from a life of rescuing animals, really just wanted a break: to get an animal and have it be healthy, happy, and etc. It's different and new territory to me but I'm excited.
He costed 200$. His sibling which was another I was interested in was a pink white with striking blue eyes, really beautiful.
I was having a VERY hard time choosing which baby I wanted to take home. It was a tie between an Albino Hedgehog, a Degu, and Pirate. But as soon as I held Pirate it was basically a game over. He stole my heart entirely and I was/still am absolutely smitten with him. (There were also prairie dogs who were so extremely cute and fun but just too expensive and would probably ruin our house. My dad was totally in love with them even though he wouldn't admit it.)
At the moment Pirate's cage is a little small, it's an average Guinea pig/rabbit cage. He has a makeshift hammock, home made toys, and an igloo. This is simply his temporary cage. He is a bit small though and doesn't seem to mind. Its currently sitting on a shelf a little bit higher than my bed. I keep my room fairly cold (I'd guess close to 70) as I don't do well with heat due to medical reasons and I live in a remote desert. I put the cage next to my bed for two reasons: to keep him out of direct air flow and because he can see me. He likes to sit and stare at me through the bars of his cage.
My aunt is an exotic and dental vet technician and while she focuses on cat dental and exotic reptiles she's basically our go-to for any sort of medical questions that I can't already answer. Pirate is however going to have a vet appointment probably next week with our small furry animal vet just to make sure he's fully OK.
He likes sitting under the hammock, on top of his igloo, or on his beanbag (but mainly on top of the igloo). His beanbag is made from a winter beanie, filled with dry rice, and has two scraps of jean fabric wrapped around it. His favorite toy right now is simply a fabric ribbon/t shirt ring, he also likes a felt scrap ball I gave him, and random fabric toys I have laying around because I turn scrap fabric into random toys to keep my animals entertained.
We are starting building his actual cage tomorrow. It will be about 3x the size of his temporary cage with a spiraling platform set up with 3 initial levels as well as a few hammocks (I actually found 2 pirate themed hammocks) and I'm going to look into some bridges probably from the bird section. My dad builds things all the time, and I'm very creative, so this cage should be pretty awesome.
Pirate is extremely friendly and sweet. He doesn't like the initial picking up but once you actually have him up he's fine, and likes to sit on my shoulder quite a bit. Considering I just got him earlier today, I'm very impressed with his attitude. He nips a bit but it's not an aggressive nip, just an "I wonder if I can eat you" type nip.
I'm working on making my room 100% play safe, but for now he has a few areas that are play safe in my room mainly the area around his cage that he explored for about 15-20 minutes today. My rabbit is not aloud in my room because he likes to pee on my bed (and I just got a new mattress from that) so I haven't critter-proofed it for a while.
I named him Pirate because he is all white (other than a little bit of grey on the base of his tail and his nose and his blackish ears) except for a black spot above his eye that's shaped a lot like an eye patch. His middle name is, naturally, Sparrow. After having him for a few hours as well it just fits completely. His name is definitely meant to be Pirate.
I've probably bored you all with my blah blah blah-ing lol. I just wanted to put in all the info I thought was important to our introduction. But either way, thanks so much for reading if you did.
Both my dog and Pirate have instagrams: Norman's is @lovenorman1016_ and Pirate's is @diaryofpirate (if you would like to follow them or just look)
Pictures:
