Chinchilla or lemming? (How far have you seen a chinchilla safely fall?)

[grrrayson]

Gulliver is usually very agile and make very calculated and feasible jumps, but a couple of times I've seen him take a dive beyond reason.

In the main incident in question, he took a sudden jump off of the back of a chair up onto the wall and then went 4-5 feet down. Perhaps he thought he saw something? I was very alarmed but he didn't seem fazed at all and kept on going as normal. (That was weeks ago and he's fine, by the way.)

So–just out of curiosity, what's the farthest you've seen a chinchilla safely jump or fall?

 

[Tagna]

Just thought I would say I own a pair of lemmings and contrary to myth they haven't tried to fall to their doom. They are cranky critters though. HA!

 

[CJR]

At the most, I've seen my one girl jump down four feet (from a counter) or thereabout. Didn't seem to faze her, she'd just climb back up the counter and do it again. Chinchillas are pretty hardy in this regard.

 

[DevnChip]

Thank you for asking that one, Grrrayson, as I've been wondering that myself. I read somewhere not to allow a chinchilla any opportunity to fall more than 14". Then Chipper leapt off the toilet tank and riccocheted off the wall to the floor with an expression of glee! I eased up but was still wondering if I was taking an aweful risk. Isn't misinformation fun? Still, there's nothing over about 3 feet available to him in my bathroom. And my husband doesn't like him sitting in the tissue box on the back of the toilet anyway. ;p

Lemmings are cranky? How sad.

 

[RDZCRanch]

I've seen chinchilla's fall safely from 6 feet. Does this mean they should regularly be allowed to fall from such a height? Nope. If you can prevent your chin from jumping down from a high area onto a hard floor, please do. The main concern is if they happen to land on their heads, they WILL suffer from neurological problems and most often need to be put to sleep for it. Please be careful with heights.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

I know of a chin that broke her back and died because of a mishap with jumping

 

[Tagna]

Lemmings are cranky? How sad.

Cranky AND they like to bite. They can't break the skin 'cause they are so small but it does pinch. I have 2 girls and they bicker a lot to one another.

 

[AZChins]

I don't like for them to fall at all. Sure, they can survive the height and not get hurt...but sometimes they don't mean to fall and can't land properly. At that point they can break a bone or hit their heads or mess something up. Be really careful with falls. Even a relatively short distance could really injure them if they land in the wrong way. I've heard of chins really hurting themselves falling just from the top shelf in a cage...had to talk to a lady as her chin was having a seizure and she didn't know what to do and I had to tell her to go to the vet.

Oh...Tab already said this. LOL Be careful with chins and any distance they have to fall...

 

[ticklechin]

I think if they plan the jump they do ok most of the time, if they are doing it to get away scared there can tons more problems, JMO. I have not had (knock on wood) any injures with any chins so that is just what I think!

 

[grrrayson]

Just thought I would say I own a pair of lemmings and contrary to myth they haven't tried to fall to their doom. They are cranky critters though. HA!

How cute! I've never heard of keeping them as pets. I'd guess they need to keep cool more than chinchillas since they normally live near the Arctic.

I know the suicide jumping thing is just a myth...I loved the video game when I was a kid, though.

 

[grrrayson]

Thank you for asking that one, Grrrayson, as I've been wondering that myself.

I figured I'd be running a risk of getting some criticism and that it's something people might not bring up for the same fear. Gulliver loves to climb and jump so I can't imagine not even letting him on my living room furniture–I don't think he'd be happy with a sheltered life at all. How dangerous can a simple chair be? I've heard horror stories of even short falls, but then what do they do in the wild where's there so much more opportunity to be a daredevil?

I've seen chinchilla's fall safely from 6 feet. Does this mean they should regularly be allowed to fall from such a height? Nope. If you can prevent your chin from jumping down from a high area onto a hard floor, please do.

Of course! There were multiple easy ways to get off the chair in question...why he took the hard way, I don't know. I tried to catch him but he was too quick for me that time. Thanks for the response.

I don't like for them to fall at all.

Of course I don't either!

I think if they plan the jump they do ok most of the time if they are doing it to get away scared there can tons more problems, JMO. I have not had (knock on wood) any injures with any chins so that is just what I think!

I think this one was planned...he seemed to be peering at something, but there was such an obvious lack of anything to jump onto I didn't think he'd be considering it. I recognize that look now!

*knocks on wood for you*


Thanks for the responses, Everyone!

xoxo

Grayson

 

[3CsMommy]

One of mine went from the top of my head (5'8"/173 cm) to the floor, but thankfully there was a towel down or he could have broken a leg. The highest jump I allow regularly is about 18" onto carpet (from the bed to the floor), and I try to keep the gaps inside the cage in the 10" range. We can't always stop them from being daredevils, but it's definitely something to be cautious about.

 

[DevnChip]

I'd guess they need to keep cool more than chinchillas since they normally live near the Arctic.

I wonder if that's why they're cranky. Them bickering alot and biting sounds like my pigeons. Pigeons can't hurt you either and they're bigger than the chin. Darn good thing those birds are cute because some days it feels like I'm an under-appreciated servent.

The unexpected wall surfing from the higher points is exciting and its good to know that his planning it makes it more likely to be safe, but I try to keep the starting point below the tank lid. As I mentioned, Hubby doesn't want chin fuzz on the next clean tissue. Now that I think about it, that tissue box became a falling object with a chinchilla in it at one point. Chipper worked it half off the tank and then jumped up on the end that was hanging off. He didn't get hurt but he didn't mean to fall either. Both my husband and I grabbed for him as he went down and he shot up at us from the floor and stood there on the seat looking indignant. We laughed, but I sit on that seat while I watch him now so he doesn't hop up there and do that again. We got lucky and learned this lesson. Keep an eye on the moveable objects in the chin play area. Keep them low or move them out during play so the activity doesn't cause them to become a hazzard. Book or box surfing is only cute if it doesn't result in a fall.

Planned jumps, or falling with style. He jumps from the inside corner ledge of the tub up the wall. You can see his whole body bunch just before he goes up. He faces the wall and stands up to launch, gets a good three feet between him and the bottom of the tub, twists in the air, pushes off the tiles, lands on his feet in the tub and runs to the other end. He does this several times so it must be fun. I know it's fun to watch.

 

[Chintastic!]

This is a little off subject but I thinkit was NatGeo who filmed the video on lemmings. They put them of a rotating table then put the camera on them. When the table stopped rotating they all just kept walking and fell off the edge. Thus the myth was born. Think I read that on Snopes.