Cass C
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2014
- Messages
- 154
Hello everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself and tell you all a little bit about my chinchillas Roxy and Viper and explain how they came to live with me.
In 2009 my mom made the ultimate pet mistake. My sister (Age 14) and I (Age 19) had decided we wanted hamsters we had done a ton of research on them, and asked my mom for supplies only for Christmas. Hamsters seemed to have about the right lifespan for our ages, and we knew it was best if we picked out our own little friends. My mom had other ideas and brought home two chinchillas a few weeks early as an early surprise Christmas present for my sister and I. They were 8 weeks old and my mom had planned to keep them in a 55 gallon fish tank. I have no idea what breeder told her this was ok... The only thing my mom knew and had right was that they needed dust baths and couldn't get wet.
Luckily I am an all around animal lover and quickly started researching chinchillas. I was always the kid trying to rescue animals. Within a week I knew that we certainly had the wrong cage, the wrong food, and wrong type of house. If only I had found this site then I may have been able to do some things better. Also as it turned out the chinchillas were brother and sister, so I did the only logical thing I could think of and got the male neutered. He nearly died and I will never again neuter a chinchilla.
Fast forward to me moving out in 2012, and my sister decided she wanted to keep the chinchillas since we didn't feel right about about separating them. I decided to give her my chinchilla to keep the pair together. Late last year she got a boyfriend who is scared of chinchillas and decided she didn't want to take care of them anymore... I didn't know she had stopped taking care of them at the time. My brother couldn't just let them die and had been doing the bare minimum of feeding and watering them, perhaps with a biweekly dust bath. Imagine my surprise to find them living in a cage filled with chinchilla pee and poop that hadn't been cleaned in 4 months. I wanted to take the chinchillas out of the house at that second, but I was in an apartment with 2 cats and 2 dogs already and couldn't afford it. After a talk with my brother and mom I started making weekly visits to make sure they were taken care of. The beginning of December I bought a house and now have the chinchillas living with me in a critter nation look alike cage. They are both 5 years old and are really healthy for the situation they were in.
Since I am a recent re-owner of chinchillas I will probably end up with tons of questions. So thanks in advance. Pictures will come soon.
In 2009 my mom made the ultimate pet mistake. My sister (Age 14) and I (Age 19) had decided we wanted hamsters we had done a ton of research on them, and asked my mom for supplies only for Christmas. Hamsters seemed to have about the right lifespan for our ages, and we knew it was best if we picked out our own little friends. My mom had other ideas and brought home two chinchillas a few weeks early as an early surprise Christmas present for my sister and I. They were 8 weeks old and my mom had planned to keep them in a 55 gallon fish tank. I have no idea what breeder told her this was ok... The only thing my mom knew and had right was that they needed dust baths and couldn't get wet.
Luckily I am an all around animal lover and quickly started researching chinchillas. I was always the kid trying to rescue animals. Within a week I knew that we certainly had the wrong cage, the wrong food, and wrong type of house. If only I had found this site then I may have been able to do some things better. Also as it turned out the chinchillas were brother and sister, so I did the only logical thing I could think of and got the male neutered. He nearly died and I will never again neuter a chinchilla.
Fast forward to me moving out in 2012, and my sister decided she wanted to keep the chinchillas since we didn't feel right about about separating them. I decided to give her my chinchilla to keep the pair together. Late last year she got a boyfriend who is scared of chinchillas and decided she didn't want to take care of them anymore... I didn't know she had stopped taking care of them at the time. My brother couldn't just let them die and had been doing the bare minimum of feeding and watering them, perhaps with a biweekly dust bath. Imagine my surprise to find them living in a cage filled with chinchilla pee and poop that hadn't been cleaned in 4 months. I wanted to take the chinchillas out of the house at that second, but I was in an apartment with 2 cats and 2 dogs already and couldn't afford it. After a talk with my brother and mom I started making weekly visits to make sure they were taken care of. The beginning of December I bought a house and now have the chinchillas living with me in a critter nation look alike cage. They are both 5 years old and are really healthy for the situation they were in.
Since I am a recent re-owner of chinchillas I will probably end up with tons of questions. So thanks in advance. Pictures will come soon.
