Ciao from Italy!

[jessucanoel]

Hello everyone!
I have been lurking this forum (and the old one) for a LONG time and thought it was about time to introduce myself. My name is Jessica and I have 5 chins at the moment. My "two girls" had triplets about a week ago! Everything is going great with them and they are gaining weight and all that. No kit fighting luckily! I think I will be keeping them all because I want to make sure they all have a good home and are spoiled. I must say I am VERY disappointed with the utter lack of information about chinchillas in Italy and the heinous crap that is being sold as chinchilla friendly. It was a mess when I bought my first chin, Olivia, from a pet store (I got here at a store because I have only heard of two breeders in Italy and have no idea about how good they are or if they are just hobby breeders, but they are all located far away from me anyway). The store owner (an idiot) sold me all sorts of dangerous plastic crap and ferret food for my baby! :wacko: Luckily, I am an avid internet researcher so I threw everything out and only feed them oxbow pellets and hay. I got my second chinchilla a "girl" from another pet store about 6 months ago, did the quarantine and the two got along great when I put them together.
Then I realized Olivia was pregnant and the newer chin was actually a boy! They are separated now while Olivia is tending to the little ones but now I have to figure out what to do and how to arrange everyone so they will all be happy. I have called at least 10 vets to see about getting my boy Fry neutered but now I am just looking for any vet that is willing to see a chinchilla for any reason, but I am finding most don't even know what one is. So I am feeling stressed about all of this.

Well I am rambling but I just wanted to say Ciao to everyone! And before finding this forum I felt so alone over here in a land where it's ok to throw your chin into a death ball and feed it ferret food and raisins :banghead:

Jessica

 

[Chinniechantel]

Haha, welcome!!! I am so glad you decided to join. I would be careful about neutering if you don't have a chin savvy vet, I would never get it done if the vet has no experience, bad things can happen. Are the babies boys or girls? Maybe you can keep the girls with mom and the boys witht dad? Make sure to separate the boys out at least at 8 weeks, so they don't get mom pregnant!

 

[jessucanoel]

Hello Chinniechantel! Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah that's the problem I am facing. I would never let my chin(s) have a surgery with an inexperienced vet. At this point, I think I will be lucky to even find one that has any basic knowledge of chinchilla. It's kinda scary because I worry about not having a vet that could help in an emergency. I will keep looking and hopefully I will magically find one.

As for the kits, I *think* I have 2 girls and a boy. I have been studying the pics posted on this site, but I am not 100%. But I will definitely make sure before I separate them out. I don't want any more precious mistakes happening. I don't think my heart could handle another litter. I swear I am stressed and worried about them 24/7. My husband and friends all think I am a crazy chinchilla lady as it is (no plastic, no bad treats, checking the room temperature, ect), but now that I am trying to weigh the kits and keep track of their gains with a graph I have officially gone off the deep end! I say I am just being a proactive pet owner. The chins are my kids and I only want the best for them. It just sucks that it's so difficult to do that here. Even mailing stuff from online costs an arm and a leg with the extra taxes, not to mention our mail system leaves A LOT to be desired.

 

[alli713]

Welcome to CnH!

My sister is living over in Italy right now! But it looks like you're quite a ways away from where she lives. She's down closer to Rome.

 

[tunes]

Welcome Jessica! Sounds like you had quite the surprise there.

If you have problems telling the sexes of the babies (and it can be hard sometimes, even for experienced breeders) try and post pictures of the genitalia and we can help you out with that.

I also agree with Chantel - If you've got a little boy there, I would just put a boy with dad and the girls with mom and call it a day. You can even give mom a little breathing room by letting the babies go in with dad for a little while each day, and that will help him when it comes time for weaning to accept his son back in with him.

 

[jessucanoel]

I think I will post some pics, that's a great idea! It would be nice to have some reassurance. I will try letting Fry (the Dad) interact with the babies more. I put one down on the rug with him and they sniffed each other and were fine. I am just taking it slow and be (overly?) cautious.

alli713-What town is your sister in? I lived in Rome for 2 years before moving up to Verona last summer (husband is Italian air force so we get moved around a lot). Do you know if she's a member of the Expats in Italy forum? Just curious if I might have bumped into her virtually.

Thanks for all the advice! It's very appreciated :thumbsup:

 

[alli713]

alli713-What town is your sister in? I lived in Rome for 2 years before moving up to Verona last summer (husband is Italian air force so we get moved around a lot). Do you know if she's a member of the Expats in Italy forum? Just curious if I might have bumped into her virtually.

She just moved there. Here husband is in the US Navy so they're stationed over by Gaeta. I always told her to see if she could find me some angora chinchillas while over in Italy, I always wondered if they have other colors being bred over there )

 

[jessucanoel]

Ooooh Gaeta is lovely! I would be surprised if she found a good breeder over here, people seem to be pretty clueless about anything that isn't a dog. But maybe there is a diamond in the rough *somewhere*.

 

[Sandi]

:welcome:
Jessica, welcome to the forum! It seems you have your hands full now with 5 chins! Good luck and congratulations with the 3 babies, please post some pictures of them when you can, we all love seeing babies over here. Just a little info, don't know if the babies have tried to escape momma's cage through the bars, you might want to keep an eye on that if the spacing is too wide.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Welcome! Kudos to you for doing your research and sifting through all the bad information that's out there. Good luck in finding a good chin vet!

 

[jessucanoel]

Thanks 3chinsowner! Yes I was worried about them escaping and being that the cage selection here is limited to ferret cages (with bigger spaces between the bars) we had a new, smaller, single level cage prepared with the wire mesh on the inside for when they were born. I looked EVERYWHERE for a baby proof cage but had zero luck The MacGyver cage seems to be getting the job done for now. They are climbing all over the place so I am glad we planned ahead! I will post pics soon! I think I have taken about 500 in the past 10 days :thumbsup:

Thanks for the welcome aznmexaggie and the well wishes, I need all the luck I can get in that area!

 

[Caitlin]

Welcome to CnH!

 

[Jenn]

Hi Jessica! Glad you decided to officially join our family and come out of the shadows! I don't think I could rid myself of the babies either. I know I would fall instantly in love with them. But the dilemna of how to house them all...It seems there are petstores worldwide that don't know a thing about the animals they are selling. So many newbies bring home a bunch of crap that they later learn can be harmful. I'm glad you did your research and are properly caring for ( and spoiling) your chins. This forum is so helpful. Good luck with your herd, and please feel free to post pictures (hint, hint!)

 

[Nancy S]

Welcome! You do have your hands full; but, a devoted chin mom like you will do Great!!
Lots of terrific info here-i learn something new every time. Our pet stores in U.S. sell
all the bad stuff too. I order -online- and look for best shipping charges. Congrats on
new babies!!

 

[moon]

Welcome Jessica! I lived in Italy for three years, and miss it terribly! I was at Aviano, north of Venice, and I loved it more than any other place I have ever lived. I would live there forever if I could have. . . now I'm jealous.

Anyway, like Peggy said, post pics and we'll help you to sex the babies so you can correctly pair them up with the parents and keep everybody "intact" so to speak.

 

[jessucanoel]

Ciao Caitlin, Jenn, Nancy and Moon! Thanks for the warm welcome. This is such a lovely community! I will post pics up, I just need to upload them from the camera (which is bursting a maximum capacity at the moment). I think I'll start a new thread though.

Jenn: I was born in Washington! Are you near Spokane? That's my hometown.

Moon: Aviano is an Air Force base right? I can imagine how you'd miss it! It's so beautiful up here! And being a short distance from Venice is awesome!

 

[moon]

Yes, my ex husband was stationed there for the time. I can't believe we left as I would have stayed there forever.

 

[Sasha]

Welcome to the forum

 

[kaykay]

Welcome!

 

[jessucanoel]

Thanks Sasha and Kaykay! Nice to meet you!