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Pet of the Day: Chinchillas

June 11, 2013

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Today we are going to discuss Chinchillas which are a squirrel-like rodent that has been domesticated. Chinchillas originally lived in Chile and Peru but due to their domestication, if you found one of them in the wild you would be considered very lucky. Chinchillas can be obtained through a licensed breeder.

As you can see in the picture above, Chinchillas may have cute faces, but they are more than just that. Chinchillas are a lot of work to take care of due to their many needs that are normally fulfilled in the wild. For example, they require their teeth to be worn down as the teeth continuously grow. This can be solved by introducing them to wooden sticks and chew toys.

Chinchillas cannot be bathed in water. Instead the correct health solution would be to bathe them in a special dust made out of pumice. It can be found at your local pet store. Warning: Chinchillas cannot be bathed in water as the moisture cannot exit their fur causing fur rot and/or fungus. Furthermore, a special diet may be created for a specific chinchilla or you may purchase premade food from your local pet store.

dustbath

A good pellet is usually hay based. It is recommended that you leave some timothy hay on the side as well as water for them to eat and drink over time between meals. Temperature is a very important aspect in taking care of most small animals. In order for a Chinchilla to not overheat, the room temperature must be under 25°C as they do not have the ability to sweat. A sign of heat stroke in chinchilla is red ears. This is done as a way to remove the heat from the body through their ears. Lastly if Chinchillas are well taken care of, they can live up to 20 or more years. If you considered all the responsibilities involved in taking care of a Chinchilla and you still want to get out, I challenge you to do a bit more research and possibly adopt one!