Thinking of getting two chinchillas..Advice please!

[madisonjinx]

Hi all,

I was hoping that I could please pick your very wonderful brains about owning Chinchillas!

After years of renting and only being able to keep rats I have just brought my own house and am loving the possibility of having more animals! I grew up in a house full of animals and I missed not having them.

So currently I have 4 rats and 1 young rabbit (soon to be two rabbits as soon as he is old enough to be bonded).

My rabbit is a house rabbit, free range of the house at all times with his own crate in the dining room. My rats have the spare bedroom which is rat proofed and pretty much have free range of that room every evening/night (it then turns into the bunny playroom whilst I'm at work in the day). At no times are the bunny and rats allowed free range time together.

I have always been fascinated by Chinhillas and would love to own two, but I'm wondering about the implications with the other pets. I would think about keeping the rats and chinchillas in the spare bedroom, different cages ofc and ensure that the chinchilla cage was suitably off the ground so the rats could not climb all over the cage and stress the chins (and risk having their little toes bitten!). I could then supervise the chins of an evening to have their free range time (ovbiously whilst the rats are safely tucked away).

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with keeping multiple species at the same time? Whislt all my animals use the spare room as play room (it's full of cardboard boxes and tunnles they all use) I do clean up after them everyday. (Bunny is litter trained but unfortunately the rats are not!) But I heard that Chin's can catch diseases from other animals? Also in an ideal world, how much exercise time would the chins need everyday?

I know it sounds like I do have quite a few pets (don't even get me started on the idea of getting Degu's too, I'm a sucker for little critters) I do have the money to look after them all. I made the decision a while ago not to change from my well paid job to work with animals but to enjoy my pets in my leisure time.

Honest advice is welcomed! Without sounding too pessimistic my rats are about 18 months old now so I'm wondering if it would be best all round to wait until they have gone.

Thank you for reading my long post!!

 

[ticklechin]

Two chinchillas means you have to be prepared to have two cages and set ups, chins can turn on each other at any time for any reason and will need to be separated forever, if you are lucky you see the signs of issues before they kill each other.

 

[javachin]

People keep many types of animals, including chins. You would really just need to keep the chins away from both the rabbits and rats since I believe both can carry an illness chins can get.

And as Dawn said, be ready to get a 2nd cage if necessary. Sometimes having a pair doesn't always work out.

 

[lilacamy931]

If you go via a breeder they can usually bond or have bonded pairs for you. Having a separate cage can be a good idea though depending on opinion not necessary. They can turn on each other anytime though it appears randomnly at any time over the years and no guarantee it will or will not happen.

In relation to rabbits or rats passing on diseases, you may need to research into if they carry something you wont know about that could be passed on or if it is dependent on them developing/picking up a disease and passing on. It could be the same risk as them catching an illness when we are ill (have read they can catch variations of human cold). So weigh up the pros and cons.

In relation to the runs, if the above contamination aspects check out ok, I would vaccuum between any species using the room and deep clean every so often and some of the stuff can be in the feces. Chins need supervised play and little and often better (though again this is very debtable from person to person), it can be agreed though not to give them free run for too long as they can exhaust themselves, though they love their playtimes.

 

[Amethyst]

When I was a kid I had basically a pet zoo, rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, chinchillas, umm... oh yeah and an rabbit for a little while, all at the same time so no judging from me on too many pets lol. You do have to be careful though about keeping each animal in there own play area. As already said rabbits and rats both carry stuff that the chins can catch, so no playing in the same area and wash between handling. Since you allow the rats free roam of the room you plan to have shared with the chins you might want to think about waiting on the chinchillas, just one less thing to worry about. Also as said with two chins together there is always a chance they will for no apparent reason decided they hate each other. They can live peacefully for years, then suddenly turn, or could live forever in harmony, you never know. Personally that is one thing I love about the double unit ferret nation cage, if they need to be split one day I already have two cages, just put the middle level back in (if it's been removed, which mine is) and close up the hole. No need to buy a whole new cage. Oh and please don't get sucked in to the idea that you need a male/female pair, some pet stores are convinced you can't do same sex pairs (no idea why) male/male pairs work and female/female work, and no issues with babies.
Ideally, once the chins are over 6 months, about an hour a day (or as much time as you can do or the chins want, lol) of playtime is good, but not essential, spending time with them bonding (sitting with them, talking to them, ect.) is more important then having play time every single day. Another thing to keep in mind you will need an a/c for the chins, heat and humidity needs to be kept low.

 

[ashleynicol3]

I have two hamsters and an iguana and I'm getting a chinchilla at the end of the month! I don't really let the hamsters free roam because I'm afraid they'll hide under something and I'll never be able to find them! The iguana is still a baby, so he doesn't free roam either (yet). The chinchilla will stay in one room (the hamsters too, but always caged) and the iguana will stay in another! I'd like to get a rabbit too, but I'm running out of room.