Keeping Chins in Los Angeles - help!!!

[Fatboyslick]

Hi everyone

Longtime chin owner but new to these forums.
I currently live in the UK with two fluff balls but moving to L.A to live next week.

We are planning on shipping our babies across the pond once we have settled into a house in October.

I am VERY nervous and scared about them being able to cope in the LA climate so reaching out to anyone in LA or California for advice and guidance on keeping Chins there.

I've tried to research the typical house heat we'll experience and worried that even with air con it'll either be too hot still or simply impossible to keep it on all day.

Please can anyone help as I don't want to lose my little fluffs

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dreamlite]

I know many chinchilla owners in CA. With air conditioning your chins will be fine. You can always get a window unit to use in their room to make sure they stay cool enough.

 

[Snickers]

Your chins should do well as long as you have an a/c. Window units are also good. Right now we are having a heat wave.

 

[Fatboyslick]

Thanks! What is a window unit, is it a portable AC that you have to sit in a window? Not sure it'll be ideal for when we're at work.

What kind of temperatures are there in a winter?

 

[Fatboyslick]

Also will AC need to be on all day and night?

 

[Dreamlite]

During the summer it will need to run constant. I'm not sure about the winters there. You can get window ac units at most hardware stores

 

[Smidgeyy]

I live in Pennsylvania and I keep my AC(window unit) in until November/December, and it goes back in as soon as temperatures reach 60.

While it's in, I have it running 24/7... You won't be able to just turn it off while you're away.

I imagine you'd need an AC all year round, but I'm not too familiar with California temperatures.

 

[Snickers]

You don't have to run the a/c 24/7. If the nights are around 65 you don't need to run it keep the windows open. My chins are outside which we call a barn cool nights we leave both doors open & 3 windows out of 4 windows open. We can't keep the other window open since our window unit is there. Winters are fine not using any a/c BUT you need to watch the weather since sometimes we do get into the 80's and 90's.

 

[Fatboyslick]

Thanks.
Been here a couple of days (without chins) and AC is needed for us, let alone the fluffs!

 

[tina000]

I live in Nc and the humidity in my room rises to 70 rh and the temp can get up to 80 degrees since my room is the largest in the house and our central air conditioning does not keep my room cool enough. Before I got my chins I bought a window unit and I keep it on 24/7 and keep my room at 68 degrees and the humidity at 50. You are most likely also going to need to buy a window unit just make sure to buy one that is appropriate to the square footage of the room or it will waste a ton of electricity. I also bought an electric thermostat to monitor the temps and make sure my ac is working. Some window units have an econ mode and they will shut on and off when the room reaches the right temp unfortunately my ac does not keep the room cool enough on econ and I have to leave it running 24/7 or my room will get uncomfortably hot for my chins. In the winter I just leave my window cracked because it gets super cold outside and keeps my room at 55-60 degrees perfect for my babies although I'm cold as **** and usually end up sleeping in my guest room.

 

[erinsamedi]

Hi! I live in LA and have two chinchillas. From the months of November to June, the heat is very rarely a problem. LA is pretty temperate and winter nights actually get quite chilly.

A Window Unit is a small air conditioning unit that uses less energy that cooling your whole house, it just cools one room. I live in a very old house that can't be set up for central air conditioning, so I use a window unit. (My roomie has a pet northern flying squirrel so when it gets hot in the summer we put the cages in the same room with the AC, but most of the year even my bedroom stays around 70 most of the time without much interference from me. It's basically August- mid October that you're gonna have to worry the most. The Chinchillas and the squirrel don't really even notice each other and don't come in contact with each other at all.)

LA usually has 3-4 weeks of relentless heat sometime between August and October that you have to watch out for, and occasional single days of heat spikes, but a small window AC unit in the room the chinchillas are in should take care of it. It's not very humid here so at least humidity isn't something you generally need to worry much about because the air is pretty dry the vast majority of the time.

 

[erinsamedi]

Oh, another thing I should totally mention. Depending on what part of the city you live in, some parts of the city are VERY prone to brownouts during the hot months. Especially the neighborhoods around the reservoir (Silverlake, Echo Park, Los Feliz). Luckily I have a really flexible job and if there's a brownout I can bring my dudes into the nice air conditioned office with me. But if you live up near the reservoir and you're at work all day with no one home, you might want to invest in some sort of cheap webcam you can access from your phone, just so you know if there's a blackout or brownout that shuts the AC off.

I also have our AC unit on a digital outlet timer ( $10 from Amazon) which turns it on during the day and off at night. (nights get cooler out here mostly so it's pretty rare I need to run it at night. Basically you just moved here during the grossest hottest part of the year, in the grossest hottest year on record. Sorry dude.)