Strangest Purchase you made for chins

[Dolyphinm]

I thought this would be a fun lil thread to have. What felt like the strangest or most random off the wall purchase you made for the sake of chinchillas?

This is stemming from the fact that I am not alone in purchasing a glass ash tray for a food bowl for my one foster boy now named Monroe. He has some issues on his left side so I wasn't sure if he really reach into a deep cup to pull out pellets from and the ash tray was the only thing I found that I wasn't nervous he was going to tip over and fling his food everywhere but he could still easily get into incase sitting up right is difficult for him.

So what's your most random thing? Was it picking up foot powder for a chinchilla or did you turn an ancient relatives glass vase into a dust bath?

 

[chinsNdobermans]

Every ash tray I come across becomes a food dish. They're so easy to clean! I have piles of them and I've never smoked in my life.

I have also been known to buy flower pots for hay holders - I have a black thumb so they're not for flowers! But they work really well for hay.

 

[ticklechin]

Chin mountain for me-a 6ft by 5ft plastic climbing mountain that went to a childs swing set.

 

[Sandi]

Definitely not strange for us chin folk BUT when I had to ask a few Home Depot employees because 1 couldn't lead me to the right direction, where I could pick up some random, imperfect pieces of tile/granite/marble, they all asked why? I told them they were for my chins cages to hold down the fleece... their facial expressions were priceless.

 

[aznmexaggie]

A tube of KY jelly for checking hair rings... that was an awkward purchase.

 

[AZChins]

hehe The trip to the drug store for KY jelly is something that just happens when one has chinchillas. It's bad when that's all you need and you can't hide it amongst other items.

It isn't that I made strange purchases most of the time, it's the way people act when I answer their questions about why I am buying so much of this or that. A good example is when I go to a freight company's terminal to pick up dust or other supplies freighted in. Why am I buying pallets of what looks like cement and having it trucked to me? Why am I getting a dozens of metal trays?

I'm sure that I have purchased a bunch of crazy stuff that I can't think of at the moment just for the chinchillas. I just don't know it's crazy because it seems normal to me!

 

[Zoaea]

A tube of KY jelly for checking hair rings... that was an awkward purchase.

Yea, I had to run to Walmart for some KY and disposable gloves. I got a weird look for sure, lol.

Its true about buying only one or two tiles at the depot store too. =P

 

[addictedtochins]

Love the answers! I love telling the fabric store people what I'm making with all the fleece. And I have to be very descriptive when calling people about buying a bale of hay. I have to take the truck, and it'll cost about $10 just for gas so I don't want a wasted trip. I tell them I want a really beautiful, weed and pesticide free bale that looks so green and good you might think of making tea with it, lol.
I can just picture a ashtray with chew sticks in place of cigarettes!

 

[javachin]

A tube of KY jelly for checking hair rings... that was an awkward purchase.

I completely forgot about this one! That is up there for sure.

One year, I was determined to buy a sewing machine on Black Friday with the intent of making nothing but fleece chin furniture. I am happy to say, I retaught myself how to sew because of that! Just don't ask me to make anything useful for humans...

It has been funny recently going hay shopping. Every time I ask about hay, the clerks will ask me how many bales I need and what I'm feeding. "Oh, just one," I say. I bet they're thinking, "wow, all those questions for one little dinky animal and one lousy bale of hay?!"

 

[3CsMommy]

A giant pasta bowl that I saw in the store and called a Dust Bath right out loud. Thankfully I was with one of my best friends in the world who realizes I'm obsessed and said, "And hey, it's only $6." not "Have you been smoking something?"

 

[tiffyskaar]

A filing box that you would typically use for all of your office and filing needs! I cut a hole out of it so that they could hop in and out for a dust bath that had a nice lid and is big enough for both!

OR

One of those small children's pop up tents on clearance at target for their playtime ha!

 

[Stackie]

That actual purchases weren't all that strange but...

when I bought tile for all my FN's, several employees asked me what kind of project I was doing and the looks I got when I told them were priceless.

Or when I had to go to Kroger at 2 a.m. to get infant's simethicone for one of my chins who I noticed acting like he was bloated. Cashier asked how old my baby was and gave me tips before I told them it was for a chinchilla....

 

[MyzarandGemma]

I don't know if this would count as strange, but I thought it was interesting.

My mother gifted me the cookie jar she bought for her very first apartment ever, a simple glass one with a metal lid and brown plastic top to pull the lid off. She had bought the cookie jar in 1977.

I decided to use the jar as a dust bath for my chins, but I wanted a second one in case they began to fight over the bath. I went in to Bookmans, a used book and semi-thrift shop, and I found the same exact cookie jar! Stranger even, the codes on the bottom were the same, meaning they were manufactured at the same time.

Both of my cookie jars are identical, made in 1977, and perfect for my boys. They love them and never fight over baths... though they do try to bathe together still, which is hilarious because they are *much* bigger than they were when we first got them!!

 

[Pookinaround]

I buy large jars of pickles just for the jar...sometimes I might eat one or two but in the end the $5 for pickles is still cheaper than a hidey house...lol

 

[greychins]

I bought a covered cat litter box to use as to hold the dust bath in the playpen. And then, the ky jelly for hair ring checks.

I think the thing I get asked about the most, though, is when I'm buying like 60' of wood. Which isn't a weird purchase, but it gets the most questions. I make shelves and houses and sell them, so I go through a lot of wood. When people ask what I'm making, I tell them "shelves" and leave it at that. I used to tell them shelves for a chinchilla cage and then get weird looks, so now, just "shelves." They can think I'm making shelves for my closet, but I really know I'm making shelves/ledges for my chinchilla cages.

 

[Sovay]

I feel like I'm always getting weird looks from the Home depot folks. Between the chin cage, the bird houses, the worm composting......I just love getting the question "and what do you need this for?". The looks on their faces are priceless.

 

[6Dusters]

Hay is hard to purchase. Think one large 50 pound square bale for my chins.
Or two smaller.

So I find a broker of timothy hay on the net and did research on the hay they offered for sale. Such as cut, storage, chemicals, etc.
Company was located in Pa. Add says they drop load as far as Florida for those with Thoroughbreds, Shires and so on.
Now keep in mind I'm off Interstate 95 heading north to south. Wow!! That's me I say. With a brilliant plan, I am going to call and meet a driver at the rest area and offload a bale.
Called the company and told him this was going to be an odd request. Before I could tell him how much I needed, he asked how many horses I had, what my storage capacity was, informed me my farm hands would have to off load the trailer. What size bales he had tied and lastly where in Virginia was my farm. He had to make the most of his runs and too far off I95 would be expensive unless he was making another drop near me and I didn't need the whole trailer. Lord! He didn't take a breath for me to stop him.:hilarious:
So I tell him it is for chinchillas. Now I have to explain its rodents not horses and the whole nine yards. Then AWKWARD.... ( the crickets have begun to sing)
I can't sell you a bale he says. Wait I say, and explain I will be at such and such rest area an hour before the driver calls as not to slow him down heading south. Now he wants to know why I called him about hay. Being a nice guy and curious, I explained I used to work for a breeding and racing farm of thoroughbred horses and know the importance of a good hay.
So he says for even two bales and my paying more than asking price, would be too difficult for a driver to pull down. I thanked him all the same.
What we do for chins sometimes!!
I did not find any good local hay and just ordered from Oxbow until I found Standlee. However I still have to plan ahead for two bales. I'm running low right now and I'm not going to buy last falls stored cut. I'll keep checking the feed store. 2013 should be hitting the shelf soon. Right now it's 2012's cut.

 

[Pookinaround]

Today Goodwill was selling TV's for a DOLLAR and they had a really nice Sony Wega 32" HD Ready flatscreen... It isn't full blown HD and it was a 2005 model but heck for a buck I bought it for the chins... For some strange reason I also thought of this thread...lol

 

[Morganpanda]

I bought a huge box order of Apple orchard twigs. My roommate saw the order and the price and was like, "You PAID for sticks?"

I guess it's strange to someone who isn't a chin-owner.

 

[Godofgods]

My strangest purchase, and most definitely unexpected and expensive, would have to be a new refrigerator.

Ive mentioned it a few times before on this site, but i had taken in a female chin as a companion for my male. When i went to pick her up i found out she was still actively living in a cage with another male. So when i got her home i kept her separate for a much longer period of time in case she was pregnant.

And during that time she showed several symptoms of pregnancy. She looked a little bigger and she was making little nests with the litter. (She was only about a year or so old. At least thats what i was told form the owner, who was told her age from petsmart when she got her. Yea, i know..) I watched closely over the months, but after 3-6 months, nothing ever came of it.

Eventually intros were made between chico (male) and Sophie (female). And they ended up living together. I watched for any mating activity, but never saw any. (To my discredit, i was not as well informed as i should have been.) After a long enough period of time, i started paying a little less attention to it. She also never showed a single sign of pregnancy at all.

Until one day when i had my ferrets out to play...

When they come out, they get a large area to freely roam. The refrigerator was as old if not older then i was. Around 20+ years or so. So the bottom front cover had long since came off. And there was an opening down there. My ferrets would often go under it. I didn't like it, but there was no way to block it off at the time.

One day when i had them out, i suddenly heard a very loud squealing from under the refrigerator. My ferrets never make that kinda sound, so i was in a sudden panic. Realizing my girl Zoey was under the fridge, i hit the power breaker to shut everything off. (And since i had no idea which one the fridge was on, it was a guessing game till i hit the right one.) Once it was hit, the fridge shut off.

I got down on my knees in front of the fridge to go see what was wrong, when i saw Zoey walk out the other side. She looked completely fine and unaffected. Just kept going along with her business. I was just about to get back up when i figured 'heck, I'm already down here. Mine as well take a look.'

Now after so many years, its fairly dirty under there. And very dark. So you couldn't rly see much. But i laid there looking (which considering my back injury, was quite painful.) But after my eyes started to adjust a little i could just barley make out what looked like a little face and whiskers...

First thought was maybe its a mouse. Since that wasn't completely uncommon around here. But it was not acting like a mouse. And it was staying put, not running away. Part of me thought it looked to be the same color as Chico, my male chin. But it was so dark, i couldn't come close to being sure. But the more i stared at it the more it started to slightly resemble a mini chin face. Then it did the famous chin movement. He lifted his hand and swiped it across his nose, in a fashion that only a chin ever does. 0.0

I freaked out a bit. I also noticed that both my chins in the cage (which was only a few feet away) where extremely worked up and paying attention to my every single move i made. The trouble was, there was no way i could get him out. And with my injury, no way i could move the fridge. I was also home alone at the time, and it was like 9-10pm or so.

Fortunately my friend was able to come over and help me. He got the fridge out a bit, and was able to tap on various metal parts to coax the little guy out. He was so unbelievably small. And i had no idea what to do with him. (Being in a panic didn't help my thought process either.) I grabbed a towel and made a bed in a small animal carrier i had. With a little bit of food and water, tho i didn't think he would touch it. He stayed in there for a few minutes while i calmed down and stopped shaking lol. Then i watched him walk right through the bar spacing on the front like they wernt there. Then it all started coming into focus... lol

I put him back with his mom a few minutes later. Figured he needed her and was probably hungry, seeing as i have no idea how long he was out of the cage. But i hadn't seen him all day (or ever for that matter) so i figured it was quite a while.

I took him to the vet the next morning. Everything checked out, and he seemed healthy. Unfortunately the same could not be said for my refrigerator. When the breaker was turned back on the fridge started up. But it never functioned properly again. There was no real cold coming from it at all. My fridge gave its last ounce of life in saving my baby chinchilla. :'( So i decided that if the chin was a female i would give her the name Amana after the fridge that saved him. But he was a male. And given the very fitting name Houdini. Which he lived up to many many times after that. And his sister several months later, who was almost his identical twin, was named Ameena. (A variation of the fridge name. But thats a whole nother story on how that came to be lol)

Needless to say I had to by another refrigerator. So that was about $1k. Definitely the most expensive purchase regarding a chinchilla i ever made. But i grantee you it was the first time one of those salesmen ever had a story quite like that! The look on there face was quite amusing as they stared in disbelief lol.

If it doesn't count as a strange purchase, it was most definitely a strange experience. And a mistake i never ever made again!