Question:
Hi there everyone!

I've been a happy owner and breeder of Fancy Rats for over 5 years now, and am very familiar with most non-exotic small animals. I've been living with my fiance for about a year and five months now, and he owns a small chinchilla named Baby. I believe we have had her for a little over six months, maybe shorter than that. My fiance bought her from a local petshop, bringing her home without knowing anything about her, simply falling in love with her the moment she looked at him from the cage.

I've read all I can for beginner owners on Chins, and as far as her everyday enrichment and health we are doing fine. But so far, we have kept her alone. When he brought Baby home, he had no idea of the amount of space she would need (being familiar with smaller animals like the ratties). We've been offered a used Martin's Cage, that he will be modifying to better suit the chin than the previous owners' rats.

My questions are these:

What cages are good? We understand the setups needed for chins.. wood ledges and whatnot. But the spaces between the bars on the Martin's are over an inch squared, is this too large?? Also, the cage is galvanized metal, and Baby tends to chew a lot. So far we've attributed this to her cage not only being better suited to smaller animals, but also that she may be stressed living alone.

Introducing two Chins: I'm aware of how to introduce adult and baby rats, but have no idea how to introduce two chins. We have no idea how old Baby is, and I'm not sure if she is considered an "adult", and wether this will cause problems with introducing her to a "baby" chin.

Are their quarantine measures that have to be taken? I normally assume that any petstore animal should be quarantined for three weeks before being introduced to any of our animals, but do chins catch colds and whatnot as easily as rats? Or is quarantine not necessary for chins?

More or less hyper?? Baby is a pretty strung out Chinchilla. She is a wonderful girl that loves being tickled and pet and scratched like a doggie. But the longer we have her the more stressed out she gets, running rampant around the room and biting the powder coating off of all the bars of her cage and beating her little paws on it trying to get out. We are getting her into her new, larger home by the end of the month. But does this seem like a lonliness problem to any of you? With the rats, companions are the best answer, but are Chins as social? If we get a new baby, will she help to calm this behavior, or simply add fuel to the flames?

Any help that you could give to any of these questions, or to introductions in general would be wonderfully helpful.

Thank you so much,

Tess Miller
The Dumbo Tree Rattery
www.thedumbotree.cjb.net


Answer:
I noticed, with all my chins, they do better in pairs. It isn't guaranteed an introduction will go smoothly and the new chin will get along with the current chin and vice versa. I always use the "smoosh" method to properly introduce two chins. I take a very small cage, one that is so small the chins can barely move (if the cage is a little bigger, you can place towels in it to take up some of the room), I place Vick's vapo rub on their noses and their bums, (just a dab will do), and put the chins in the cage for an hour or so. I like to introduce chins during the day when they are not active. Once you take the chins out, it is good to put them in a neutral cage. If you don't have a neutral cage, take all toys, accesories, etc. out of the cage that has Baby's scent on them. This will deter Baby from being territorial just in case. You want to watch them carefully. Some scuffles are likely and as long as the chins aren't biting each other's necks and the scuffles aren't aggressive, you are okay. A good sign is when they groom each other. Another thing you can do is let them take a dust bath together after you put them in the cage.
Galvanized steel is the only way to go when you have a chinchilla. Chins are too destructive for anything else (as you have found out). My cages have an inch space between the bars.

You want to quarantine a new chinchilla for at least a month, in a separate room. Make sure to always wash your hands when handling one chin and then another. A change of clothes is also suggested.

I can't think of anything else but if I forgot something or if you have any other questions, please ask.


Answer:
i am new to chins too at first but i just started to read this fourm and i learned a lot from the ppl here. so umm if i were u i would just ask as many questions a possible. umm and really lisnt to wut they are saying,also u may think that the ppl here are being mean,but really they are just telling the truth.so ya. umm other wise i donno wut to say. exep congrats.


Answer:
Denise has covered just about everything, however there is a couple of things that come to mind only because you mentioned that he bought the chin from a pet store.

I would suggest you get a chin the same sex as I would not breed a pet store chin because you do not know it's background and the second is it's my understanding that the pet stores normally get the chins when they are approx. 8 months old, however you could ask them and they should know.


Answer:
Denise and Karen have covered very important things, so I would like to touch on cages....I am not a fan of the Martins cages because they have wire floors and ramps.

Chins are agile creatures and would rather jump then walk up a ramp...I have also had bad experience with wire floors...chinny feet getting stuck in them.

Take a look at these two sites

www.qualitycage.com

www.kkcritters.com

both of these companies make EXCELLENT chin cages...I have both kinds and LOVE THEM...

With baby being hyper in her cage, several things can change that...adequate space, several wood toys to chew on, and in my opinion a friend does help with calming a chin down, but like Karen said SAME SEX compainoin...

Another thing you might want to look into is gettin Baby a wheel...on Quality Cage they sell two very high quality and totally chin safe wheels, the flying saucer and the Chinspin 15" A wheel will give her something to do and draw her attention away from destroying her cage.

If you have any other questions PLEASE ASK!!!! That's how you learn!! oh, and post pics of the little sweety, we love pics!!


Answer:
Oh don't worry, I honestly have my hands full with the Rattery, and don't know enough about Chins to even consider breeding for many years to come.


Answer:
I normally am more of a DaMars fan myself when it comes to cages, but like I said the Martins is free and will be modified. Aaron is already cutting the wood for the replacement flooring and will be getting rid of the ramps altogether.


Answer:
I hope we answered all of your questions.