Introducing Sunshine and Kiwi

[Winston_]

Hello, chinchilla lovers. I'd like to introduce the adorable hopping balls of fur that are living with my girlfriend.
here are some low res pictures, but the higher res versions are up on the imigur album at the bottom of the post. That way you can see every bit of fur in crisp focus (when the stupid phones auto focus was doing its job)



Kiwi:

Sunshine:

Sunshine is a bit of a lazy baby. When we first got here I was worried about her well being due to what I considered lethargic activity. I think it's just that she's not a evening chinchilla.

I find her irresistible to take photos of while she's resting after her free roam time.

Kiwi is a curious but cautious chinchilla. When she was introduced to her home she wouldn't move away from the back wall near the rooms corner. the cage is octagonal so there wasn't really a corner to hide in. She would bark for a bit every 5 or so minutes for about an hour before she started to relax and come out of the corner.

Sunshine, on the other hand, hopped all around the perimeter of the lower level for a bit checking it out before going to sleep. Neither one of them jumped on any of their shelves until probably the next day.

They had a 175 mile trip from Portland,OR to Bellevue, so I understand their anxiety and exhaustion. About half way up, Kiwi started barking. I thought there was a fight going on, so I was wondering if I needed to hold one of them for the rest of the ride up. I suspected the bumping around was causing them to lose their temper with each other. It looked to me like sunshine was squishing Kiwi, and she wanted space. She didn't continue barking, so thankfully, I didn't take her out.

Sunshine is a quiet girl, I've never heard her bark, but she does talk some times.

Here is Kiwi reaching out to see what I have in my hand, and then checking out Sunshine down below:

Despite what that first picture looks like, kiwi is smaller than sunshine. She is just peeking her head out to maker her self pretty. Her ears are also closer together and generally point further up. Sunshine appears to have a wider head.
http://imgur.com/gallery/ipsVB

 

[ticklechin]

What adorable girlies!

 

[chiaismypet]

Aww, cuties! They have such a good home!

 

[Saffron]

Very cute girls

 

[Winston_]

Thank you for all the kind comments!

I'm happy to say that we finally weighed the Chinchillas and Sunshine weighs 623g and kiwi weighs 665g. This was surprising, as kiwi visually appears smaller than sunshine.

 

[Chinmama]

Very pretty girls.

 

[LYChinchillas]

Sweethearts!

 

[Winston_]

Whoo, I'm out of the post approval cycle. To celebrate, here are some more chinchilla pictures I took yesterday:

I placed a fleece pillow into the cage. they hated the last one, I think it was too firm, and chinchillas don't seem to want to lay on top of soft things, they want to lay partially on it while on their side, like they would a with a cuddle buddy. She really seemed to like this one.

These two sure love to cuddle.

ok here is something strange: I've heard of chinchillas avoiding sunlight while they sleep to avoid overheating. Kiwi, however likes to sit in the small patch where sunlight can get in through the blinds. This patch is away from any of their normal sleeping spots, and this is the only time I've seen any of them sit in this spot, but Gabi insists that Kiwi enjoys sunlight. A cloud passed over head and she hopped away. The room was ~65°, I suspect if it was in the 70's she would probably sit elsewhere.

Of course I'm going to post the good pics here but here are some that WOULD have been really cute if only they were in focus:

Stupid phone camera doesnt know what it needs to focus on.

here comes the amateur photography rant:
This is really annoying. I think I need to bring a proper camera over. I'm thinking of buying a macro lens for my dad's DSLR to snap some better pictures. You pretty much need one for close range photography, because as soon as you get to the closest range your lens can focus at, they get curious and come even closer to inspect the camera or your hand. They also move a lot so I pretty much need to use flash/ high shutter speed to reduce motion blur. I cant imagine they like flash photography, but I've been doing it later in the day and they don't seem to mind as long as they're not sleeping at the time. I think I'm going to use a flash diffuser. I don't want to flash direct light into their faces all the time after all.

 

[tunes]

Very pretty girls!

And? I have no idea what you are talking about with a flash diffuser and DSLR, but it SOUNDS really good.

 

[Winston_]

Thats ok, you know more about chinchillas than i ever will. Dslr's are a type of camera. A macro lens is what is used to take super closeup shots. And a flash difuser is a piece of plastic that goes over the flash to make the light go in random directions. It makes the light softer and a diffuser paired with aiming the flash around 45° in the air would mean not shining direct lights at them 6 inches away.

Im not am expert, i promise. I just have access to the equipment and i ise it some times lol.

 

[cindyv3737]

Welcome! They are very pretty girls.