I have a bit of a dilemma here ..

[avecat6906]

As some of you may know, I just bought my first chinchilla, Fonzie (standard, gray, male), about a week ago at a local PetSmart. He is the best pet decision I have ever made, hands down. I love him to death! He's such a sweetheart. Onto the problem ... There's another pet store in my area, which I will call Pet Store X for for now. This is a little independent store that is very well known in my area for selling a large amount of cats, dogs, fish, reptiles, birds and small rodents. Now that I know so much about chinchillas, I was absolutely horrified when I went in to look at their female chinchillas today. She is out in the open, where little kids poke at her all day and kick her cage. There is poop in her dust bath, poop in her food bowl and pretty much poop everywhere. Poop doesn't sit anywhere in my chins cage for more then a day before I sweep it out. I tried to talk to her and get her to come out of her little hut so I could see her (she's a white mosaic, which is what I would like to get eventually) but she just glared at me. Literally glared at me. Eyes half closed and she shoved her body as far from me as she possibly could. I didn't think a chinchilla was capable of glaring! My chin's eyes are always open and perky, unless I disturb him from his sleep, lol. Her fur is matted and shes got some sort of gunky yellow stuff above her nose, not on her nose, directly above it. I asked the employee working there if she ever gets any playtime and he said no I am in Store X ALL THE TIME because I own a mini petting zoo in my apartment (not literally, I just have a lot of pets :3). I feel horrible that I never noticed this problem before. I would really like to buy her and take her away from that nightmare, but as I am a new chin owner, I want to understand the risks of this before I jump into it. I plan on informing some sort of animal cutely organization in my area as well. My other problem is that I wouldn't even be able to use Fonzie to help her because he would probably try to mate with her which would just stress her out even more! I do not want to get him fixed just yet as I would like to breed (for my own pet purposes) sometime in the near future. I am so distraught right now, so please do not criticize me, I'm just trying to figure all this mess out. Thanks all *hugs*

 

[avecat6906]

P.S. I placed this in "Health & Hygiene" because it concerns the chinchilla's health and hygiene .. lol. Move it if you disagree )

 

[StevieP]

Pet stores are not known to keep chinchillas in optimal conditions. That is just the sad fact. If you were to purchase that chinchilla, they would replace it with another one. I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve a good home, because she does. Really the only thing you can do is to talk to management and state that the cage is in a bad location and is not cleaned.

Concerning breeding: You should never breed pet store chins. Generally they are not cream of the crop animals. They have unknown genetics which is frightening. It is not worth breeding them just to get free pets. Instead, there are plenty of chinchillas at rescues and ones that the current owner does not want. Give them a home before adding to the population.

 

[avecat6906]

Pet stores are not known to keep chinchillas in optimal conditions. That is just the sad fact. If you were to purchase that chinchilla, they would replace it with another one. I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve a good home, because she does. Really the only thing you can do is to talk to management and state that the cage is in a bad location and is not cleaned.

Concerning breeding: You should never breed pet store chins. Generally they are not cream of the crop animals. They have unknown genetics which is frightening. It is not worth breeding them just to get free pets. Instead, there are plenty of chinchillas at rescues and ones that the current owner does not want. Give them a home before adding to the population.

It's downright selfish of them to purely want to make money off of them and not care at all. Makes me sick. What is wrong with people? You'd think that if they opened a big pet store with so many animals that they would at least care enough to take care of them for the little amount of time they are in their care. Idiots ...

There are no chinchillas in rescues in my area. I searched before I bought Fonzie and couldn't find anything that wasn't a 6 hour drive away from where I live. There are no breeders in my area willing to actually communicate with me either. I contacted one TWICE and still never got any sort of reply, almost 3 weeks later. Yet I have seen them post on here .. odd I think, and not somebody I want to do business with. Maybe I will simply keep Fonzie purely for pet purposes for now until I have the resources to find a good breeder. Thanks for the advice StevieP )

Another question: Would I be able to keep them together if I got them both fixed?

 

[Siany]

Pet stores get on my nerves !!!

I understand not being able to provide all the things available because the pet is for sale but its no excuse to keep the poor chinnie in an unclean state (grrr) I think when you get an animal you start to notice the differences in the pet stores.

I have heard about people keeping a boy and girl together, but im only basing my knoledge on what ive heard and not sure if its right If they can go together your going to have to read up about introducing them to each other.

It always upsets me when any animal is mistreated but its amazing how much they can come out of their shell when in a new home.

 

[rbarile92]

You would be able to keep them together if you got them both fixed. There are several people on here who have males and females living together if they are fixed. It just takes time to let them bond together, though you will have to do this even if you have two males or two females.
I feel absolutley horrible about the poor little girl! My local Petco has almost the same thing but thankfully someone adopted him! Having two chins and being a new chin owner isn't as difficult as people might think. Of course this is my own opinion. I am a new chin owner for about four months now and I started out with two of them. I thought that if I got one then he would get lonely....
So if you did end up getting her, it will just be tough to get them to bond together. Other than that it isn't that difficult. I would go with the rescue option as well, but if there are none in your area then you don't exactly have that option.
If you feel you are up to get another chin so early I would say go for it! It cannot hurt, you can always just get them fixed soon. Then if you want to go into breeding you could always get another set of chins.
I hope this helped!
Again, everyone has their own opinions on this subject but this is just mine.

Like the post above me, petstore chinchillas become totally different when they are getting the proper attention from their new owner. A lot of pet store chins are very lovable and friendly in a matter of a month. My best friend got hers from a pet store and at first it was the meanest little boy and now he is a sweetheart!

 

[momenteller]

I agree with Stevie. The store will just replace that chin with another. You can ask to speak with a manager and politely voice your concerns about the cage conditions. It may or may not help. Ultimately the store is looking to make a profit, not to take great care of the animals that are there temporarily!

As for getting the chins fixed, I wouldn't pursue that unless you absolutely have to. Spaying is invasive. Putting an animal under can be risky. You may go through all of that and then find out she doesn't get along with your male! Not worth it IMO.

If you would like to eventually try a male friend for your chin, why don't you put an ad in the chins wanted section? Perhaps some forum members can direct you to a rescue or breeder in your area.

 

[starleomach]

I agree that you should not put chinchillas through unecessary surgery. It is a risk, better to get your pet store male a same sex cage mate as like stated above chinchillas with no background should not be bred.

 

[Laurie]

If a petstore was ever to let a chinchilla out for playtime I would be simply appalled. That sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Chins don't need playtime, if they don't have it they will not die. If you look in my cages you will find poops in the food and poops in the dust baths, again that is a fact of life with chins. The thing on the girls nose is worrisome.

You just have to remember not all pet store chins can be saved AND not all pet store chins need to be saved.

Spend some quality time with the guy you have if you aren't able to have 2 cages and have a male and female live separately.

 

[ticklechin]

Animal whispers chinchilla rescue has rescues last time I checked, they are in Jersey.


http://www.animalwhispers.bravehost.com/

 

[avecat6906]

Thanks everybody for all of your advice .. but you all seem so harsh. I never said I was going to have Fonzie fixed. I was just presenting it as a possibility. I wouldn't do it unless the female could be saved 100% which I now know isn't really possible .. sheesh.

If a petstore was ever to let a chinchilla out for playtime I would be simply appalled. That sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Chins don't need playtime, if they don't have it they will not die. If you look in my cages you will find poops in the food and poops in the dust baths, again that is a fact of life with chins. The thing on the girls nose is worrisome.

You just have to remember not all pet store chins can be saved AND not all pet store chins need to be saved.

Spend some quality time with the guy you have if you aren't able to have 2 cages and have a male and female live separately.

I understand that they won't die and I know I can't save them all, but seriously, you didn't see how miserable this poor little chin looked. It was really bad. I know I wouldn't want to sit in poop, eat out of a bowl with poop in it, or roll around in poop. There has been no poop, and there will continue to be no poop if i can prevent it. No animal should have to live with that.

Animal whispers chinchilla rescue has rescues last time I checked, they are in Jersey.


http://www.animalwhispers.bravehost.com/

I had seen that site, but at the time there was nothing there except for the "facebook" and "animal whispers" pictures!! Thanks sooo much, I will look into this )

 

[ErinsChins]

What I do sometimes is help the local petstores. I have volunteered to clean cages once or twice a week and that kind of stuff. Usually they are more than happy with that. The pet store owners aren't all bad, just usually misinformed.

 

[Siany]

ErinsChins, thats a good idea ive always wondered about helping out and maybe that way you can give advice

 

[avecat6906]

ErinsChins that's such a great idea! I didn't even think of that, thanks so much ) I'm in there all the time anyways so I guess it would work out on both ends.