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DarkSteven -> RE: help with a chinchilla name (8/27/2009 5:07:52 PM)
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I've kept chinchillas for five years. They are very good little pets, very quiet, gentle, and cute.
Never let them out of the cage unsupervised. They will gnaw anything imaginable and then some.
Never buy food or hay at the pet store. They charge a couple of dollars for a pound of hay. Go to an ag supply store and get a sixty pound bale of hay for six bucks. Chinchilla feed runs about fifty cents a pound there as well.
Be careful of mixing genders in the same cage. They can reproduce at maybe six months of age, produce two litters of two kits each a year, and live to about 18-20 years of age. Google "Fibonacci" to get an idea. The younguns are very cute, but... that's a LOT of chins.
I give mine chin dust anywhere from once a day to once a week and they do fine. I should change their litter once a week but sometimes it goes two weeks.
For a real treat, I give them broken taco shells or corn chips. If you have old bread, let it get hard and stale and then give it to them.
Get a heavy duty vacuum cleaner if they're on carpet. The litter/hay combo is hard to vacuum up.
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