fuzzy wuzzy critters
We picked up an adult female chinchilla and two babies from the SPCA on Sunday. The funny thing is, the adult is probably not the mother of these guys. These two young ones were running amock in the general population so the shelter staff, having no way of knowing who the mother might be amongst the dozens of female chinchillas, just stuck the two youngsters in with a random female and they got along fine, so they left it at that. The little ones are eating adult
food and look like they are thriving so all is well. Here's a pic of one of the babies, Fernando:
As a size comparison, below is a pic of the adult, Cecilia, behind Fernando.
As you can see, Cecilia is quite large.
We normally let the chinchillas take dust baths in one of those big round four-litre ice cream containers, but she just barely fits in so we're going to have to find something bigger to put the dust in. Cecilia is quite shy still but we're working on making friends. Chinchillas are not as skittish as, say, mice or hamsters, and she'll eventually become more outgoing if we spend enough time with her. Fernando and his brother Ramon aren't that concerned. They are already to the point where they will hop onto my hand when I put it out for them, and it'll be no work at all to make these guys completely tame.
Chinchillas are athletic little things that act more like bouncy rubber balls than rodents. They love jumping around and will ricochet off the walls for the fun of it. Unlike rabbits and guinea pigs, they don't always have much patience for cuddling so they're not really an ideal pet for children. They are also more fragile than rabbits or guinea pigs.
Anyway, we have out three little guests in a nice quiet room for the time being, and we'll continue to work on making friends. The two little guys will only be with us for a couple of weeks, and then since our female is likely pr
egnant, we'll keep her here and wait and see if any more chinchillas appear in the cage.
I'll put up some more pictures soon if we get any good ones.
food and look like they are thriving so all is well. Here's a pic of one of the babies, Fernando:As a size comparison, below is a pic of the adult, Cecilia, behind Fernando.
As you can see, Cecilia is quite large.
We normally let the chinchillas take dust baths in one of those big round four-litre ice cream containers, but she just barely fits in so we're going to have to find something bigger to put the dust in. Cecilia is quite shy still but we're working on making friends. Chinchillas are not as skittish as, say, mice or hamsters, and she'll eventually become more outgoing if we spend enough time with her. Fernando and his brother Ramon aren't that concerned. They are already to the point where they will hop onto my hand when I put it out for them, and it'll be no work at all to make these guys completely tame.Chinchillas are athletic little things that act more like bouncy rubber balls than rodents. They love jumping around and will ricochet off the walls for the fun of it. Unlike rabbits and guinea pigs, they don't always have much patience for cuddling so they're not really an ideal pet for children. They are also more fragile than rabbits or guinea pigs.
Anyway, we have out three little guests in a nice quiet room for the time being, and we'll continue to work on making friends. The two little guys will only be with us for a couple of weeks, and then since our female is likely pr
egnant, we'll keep her here and wait and see if any more chinchillas appear in the cage.I'll put up some more pictures soon if we get any good ones.
posted by Mark at 9:38 p.m.
1 Comments:
Aww, they're so cute, with their big ears. I wish I could foster some :(
Hopefully you'll still have them next week... I thought I'd bring puppy over sometime after he arrives, so I could see them then ;)
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