Chinchilla 'Tails'
& Talent |
Transitional Introduction of two males
My First Experience- 2 young males both newcomers
For a while I had looked at and admired chinchillas
but was unsure if they were the pets for me because of the time one needs to
dedicate to them. I looked at gerbils, mice, rabbits etc but even then I knew
my heart lay with chinchillas. Why? I
do not know, I mean we hadn’t even been formally introduced!
I read all the leaflets I could find, most of the information was at
the least confusing, contradictory or down right wrong! And from the very little
I had found out and could believe I knew with chinchillas it was very important
to get it right.
Luckily I noticed Roger’s book in a local pet shop,
bought it and read it cover to cover several times. And from there on in fell
in love with the fluffy little rodents. After reading the book I decided that
I would keep two young males, there would be no way I could part with babies.
I bought everything needed to keep a happy healthy chin and prepared for my
life to be changed.
Then one Saturday afternoon last August I purchased
my first chin, Zig a blue grey little fellow, then aged 18wks old. I settled
him in to his new home and went to collect Zag; a beige chin then aged 3mths
old. On advice from his owner I put a small dab of perfume ** on both chins
so they both smelled the same. I left Zag in the ‘carrier’ cage and placed it
next to Zig whilst I went to prepare a room for them to run around in and meet
each other.
There was an initial skirmish as Zag entered their
new home as this was obviously deemed Zig territory by now, but it was nothing
serious and after a few minutes things settled down and both chins went their
separate ways as they cautiously continued to explore their new surroundings.
Luckily they bonded straight away and cuddled up to
each other to sleep and rest, they would also occasionally groom each other.
Little spats occurred i.e. pinching or fighting over each others apple twig
or treat, but all in all they had formed an easy going and equal friendship.
They were a pleasure to observe and all three of us enjoyed their nights
out.
Unfortunately Zag passed away in May of this year,
(but that is another story- many thanks to Roger, Rachel and Janet for advice
and support.)
Zig quickly adapted to life as a solo bachelor, I had
been worried he might pine especially after reading the article on ‘self inflicted
suicide.’ Because of my concerns I made extra ‘time out’ for him. (The poor
chap was probably desperate for a night in by himself.) And also purchased more
‘toys’ for him to help beat the boredom factor.
Even though Zig seemed quite happy living on his own I know just how important it is for chinchillas to have company, so in preparation of finding him a pal I purchased a new cage and accessories as I anticipated a new relationship would take longer to build and require much patience. Especially as by now Zig appeared to be thriving in his ‘refurbished all mod-cons deluxe chinchilla bachelor pad.’
Finally on the 11th of this month (July) I collected ‘New boy’ another blue/grey chin, then aged 3mths old. I placed in him in his new home next to Zig and so began an eventful and interesting introductory period, this one lasting about 12 days. I had them out around 9 or 10 nights in that period.
For the first three nights I let Zig out on his own for an hour then put him back in his cage and let ‘New boy’ out for 30 mins or more. Unfortunately on the first night whilst Zig was out I had opened ‘New boy’s’ cage to put in some extras, Zig obviously very interested in this new chin came into the cage chased poor little ‘New boy’ who shrieked a lot then nipped poor Zig’s nose and let out the ‘trumpet’ warning sound, which sent Zig retreating back to his cage tail between his legs, sore and confused. Both chinnies were very unsettled. And for the next couple of nights although both eager to be out they were both unsettled and wary.
After three nights of them being out separately I decided it was time to let them both out together! There was A LOT of fur flying, shrieking and defensive urinating as poor ‘New boy' was chased by Zig each time he ventured out of his cage, this happened several times the whole time they were out’ and then both would retreat into their respective cages for a rest, before it all began again.
It was at this point that I phoned Roger, who reassured me that with time and perseverance everything would work out. Plus other tips as mentioned in his article. It was on the sixth night that they started warily to explore each other’s cage checking out the accessories. (In between spats!) On the seventh night there was definitely less fur flying though Zig did get nipped again! I thought this might cause a set back, but relations began to improve.
Then on the eighth night there came a turning point, they were more interested in just sniffing each other, Zig did this from a safe distance, they chased each other but there was no shrieking or fur flying. They explored each other’s cages less warily, even eating the food and drinking the water. Then lo and behold they both retired to Zig’s cage where they groomed each other for about five minutes, then they lay in the nesting box for a few minutes before coming out to play again with occasional grooming sessions all led by Zig. It was a joy to watch.
On the ninth night after playing they both retired to Zig’s cage so I decided it was the right time to house them just in one. I put in ‘New boy’s' nesting box and a few of his accessories, they appeared very curious once the cage door was shut but they soon settled. But to be on the safe side I took the cage into the spare bedroom and spent the night there with them! Well I had to make sure nothing too serious happened! It was a noisy night but they were just playing etc and when I awoke it was to find them cuddled up on one of the shelves. Beautiful!
Then after a couple of nights I took out ‘New boy’s’ box as it was only Zig’s that seemed in use. And so we come to the end of my experience of introducing these two males. It was a pleasure to experience this and I feel very happy that I made the decision to find a pal for Zig.
Many thanks to all at CCL I couldn’t have achieved this as confidently and calmly as I did without the advice given on your website.
From Sue, Zig and ‘New boy’ (not yet decided on a name for him, I thought of Sid as in vicious because he bit Zig, but he isn’t vicious really, then after watching him several times he does appear to like adventure just like Indiana Jones. I’ll wait and see what type of character he develops.)
By Susan Allen
** Please note that although using perfume seemed to help in this instance, CCL do not recommend using human scents on chinchillas as this could cause an allergic reaction. Roger recommends mild talcum powder such as Johnson's baby talc.
MOSES
This
is the story of Moses who came to us one cold Friday night in October. I got
a phone call from our local vet to say someone had found what he thought was
a very young chinchilla kitten under a bush in their garden.
I was shocked when the young boy brought her round, she was literally a few
days old and very cold. I slowly warmed her up and for the next 4 weeks fed
her every 2 hours. She is now thriving and is at full strength, though she does
occasionally have fits due to her poor start in life.
Moses is now 6 months old and looking very healthy.
A
motorist whose brakes failed was told by a mechanic that a chinchilla was gnawing
at the car's hoses. Geoff Sweetman, 49, consulted mechanic Dave Webb who said
yesterday: "I could see the fraying when suddenly I spotted this nose and whiskers
twitching. It was bigger than a rat."
Geoff a lecturer at South Devon college, Torquay , said: "It was very frightening
when the brakes just went." He has no idea how the rodent got at his Volkswagen
Golf.
The Story of Bombo
For
some time I have been meaning to write to you about the miraculous recovery
of my chinchilla Bombo. You may remember he was very ill - not eating or drinking
- losing weight of course - a very poorly chinchilla. The local vet did his
best - Bombo's teeth were not a problem - and fortunately Bombo recovered from
the anaesthetic well.
I was feeding him with honey and water via a dropper and the vet gave him an
injection of vitamin B12 which perked him up a little. I was on the brink of
having him put out of his misery, when the local pet shop said they had contacted
a Cambridge vet who recommended liquid feeding with probiotics. I purchased
AVIPRO from VETARK who advertise in the Bristol House Rabbits Association magazine,
and on further information from VETARK I also purchased Critical Care Formula.
Both the above are soluble powders and I fed them in solution to Bombo using
a dropper and slowly allowing him to drink. After some time he started to take
a little food without being fed with the dropper, a little lettuce, apple, dry
porridge oats, dry biscuit etc.
Over the weeks he gradually put on weight and very slowly recovered. He now
is back to normal - a miracle indeed, he is fed on Charlie chinchilla dry food
now with hay and a little apple etc.
All good wishes and grateful thanks for your work to further the welcome of
our little pets.
Yours sincerely,
Barbara from Lincoln.
Record Breaking Bouncer
Bouncer
is now a officially a world record breaking chinchilla, and has a certificate
to prove it. He is the world's oldest chinchilla. Bouncer was 27 years old on
the 1st July! I think this now makes him the oldest chinchilla on
record ever, as the only other one was recorded in America and died at 26.
Three cheers for Bouncer!
Bouncer was born on 1st July 1977 on a chinchilla ranch in Nottingham owned
by Mr. Sweeney, we purchased him when he was 12 months old. He has had quite
an uneventful life ( perhaps this helped towards him living to such an incredible
age) He has moved house with us twice and coped well with the upheaval, and
he has never been to the vets. This caused us some problems with his record
attempt, it was difficult to prove his age as no vets had any details of him.
Bouncer is not so fast on his feet as he used to be and no longer lives up to
his name but apart from a cataract he is still fairly healthy. His secret to
old age could be down to the fact he has never been overly pestered or over
fed, he eats his routine pellets and hay and gets a treat of a couple of raisins
most days. He has always been very good natured and handles well too.
Chester The Bionic Chinchilla
One night Chester was put into his cage with his friend, as normal. The next morning I immediately noticed something was wrong, his back leg was sticking out at an angle. After an x-ray if was discovered he had fractured his femur, we were given three options,
Have pins put in to support the bone
Have the leg amputated
Have him put to sleep
We
opted to have his leg pinned, it is the most difficult of the three but would
give Chester the best outcome. The whole treatment would take six weeks and
a lot of hard work. Once his leg was pinned he would have to go for x-rays on
a regular basis. This would mean a lot of anaesthetic which can be very
hard on these little animals. Five days into the treatment I noticed both pins
were sticking out further than they should have been so it was back to the vets
for more anaesthetic and x-rays. It was decided that Chester should stay at
the vets until he had finished his course of antibiotics.
On the tenth day after treatment I brought him home into a very small cage.
This was essential so as to stop him causing any further damage to his leg.
It was very difficult to see him in such a confined space, as he had to live
in it for six weeks. All was going well until I noticed the skin around the
pin was becoming red and inflamed, Chester was obviously in some discomfort
and spent most of his time lying down, an infection had set in so we went back
to the vets for another course of antibiotics. After the first course he improved
considerably though I continued to give him the antibiotics until week five.
I couldn't handle Chester much in these first few weeks so I would give him
his medication whilst cleaning his cage out to minimize the risk of hurting
him, but would always treat him with a little bit of honey afterwards to take
away the bitter taste of the medicine.
Once the pins were taken out Chester's movement still had to be restricted for
another 2 weeks, he also had a small open wound which meant he couldn't bathe
as the sand would have been too abrasive so I got round this by carefully rubbing
him with some unscented talcum powder. At times he looked so miserable and unhappy
so I spent a lot of time just stroking and talking to him. Chester had to take
antibiotics for quite a while after the op and with this comes the risk of enteritis
which can be fatal, so an antidote was put into his water daily.
Six weeks later and Chester was fit enough to be let loose, he thought all his birthdays had come at once. I thought there may have been a problem reintroducing him back with his mate after such a long separation but luckily it was still love and they bonded back with each other easily. Even with a vet's bill of £250, I only have to look and Chester now and know I made the right decision.
Liz Smith (Advisor Midlands)
Jasper & Daisy
We found Jasper sat in a pet shop without a friend or any access to reasonable exercise. He had been there twelve months and we decided to take him on. Although our studio flat was not ideal it had to be better than where he was. He was very shy when we first brought him home but he gradually became braver and would come out when we opened his cage when we got home from work.
After a while we started to notice that things had been moved in the flat, cushions were on the floor, hair accessories from the dressing table were moved whilst we were out. Suspecting Jasper of the crimes we called his bluff. We walked to the door out of sight of his cage and pretended to go out. We peeped around the corner and within minutes Jasper was pushing himself through a very small hole and out to freedom. We then pretended to come back in and like lightning he had squeezed himself back in and was sat on his perch waiting for us. For safety sake the hole was blocked up and he was let out when we were at home.
We moved home and refurbished the spare room for Jasper, with his own pond full of sand. Then we decided it was time to get Jasper a mate, so along came Daisy. It took a while for them to accept each other, Jasper got sprayed a few times but eventually they warmed to each other. But then Daisy started to become withdrawn, she grew bigger, ate and drank more. We thought nothing of it till we walked in one night to find three tiny ‘heads on legs'. Two weeks later Jasper went to the vets to be castrated, it took a while for Daisy to accept him back as she now had babies to protect and he smelt of surgical spirit. We decided to keep the heads on legs.
All was well for three months then once again Daisy become withdrawn and grew bigger, she attacked one of the babies nearly biting her nose off. Both were taken to the vet, Daisy was once again pregnant and was trying to clear the nest for the new additions. The baby had no serious damage just to her looks, she was too young to withstand an operation to remove the damaged skin so she would stay as she was with a character nose. We slowly introduced mum and daughter again and her nose has healed to perfection. Eventually Daisy gave birth to two more ‘heads on legs’ Daisy began to tolerate the older babies and now harmony reigns. We put a huge bowl of food down at night and they all sit round and eat together, and during the day they all squeeze into a large postage tube. Happy families.
Hannah Caiger
How Far Will You Go For A Chinchilla?
We spoke to you a while back about our chinchilla, Charlie who had to
be put down, and for the good health of our male Muffin we decided to replace
her. Muffin was not the same chinchilla without Charlie to boss him around they
had spent most of their lives together. So we started to look for chinchillas
that needed re homing. The closest match was one owned by the RSPCA in Halifax
and had been fostered out until a family could be found.
The RSPCA take adoption of animals very seriously and normally a house visit
would be in order, unfortunately we live on the Isle of Arran in Scotland and
this would prove difficult to arrange. We spent a lot of time on the phone and
sent photo's of the home we could provide for Inca the new chinchilla, and so
eventually our adoption was approved. I travelled down on the Monday night
and stayed with family and on Tuesday morning went to the home of Inca's
foster carers, sorted out the paper work and then we were on our way.
Initially Inca lived in Muffin's house much to his disgust but after a few days
we let them both out together. After this they both went back and slept in the
house together. Initially Muffin was a little boisterous with Inca but she soon
put him in his place by peeing on him. They now live happily ever after and
each night sleep snuggled up together in their home and both seem very content.
A chintale with a very happy ending
Neil and Caroline Isle of Arran Scotland
Spike
The first picture is of a chin I rescued, he is male and about 5 months old now, when he came to me in August 2004 he was suffering with fur fungus, on his ears, head and neck, this is shown in image 1.
Anyhow after I got him I carried on with the Hibiscrub but only used little amount in warm warm and a cotton bud and just wiped the areas that were sore, and then gave him the laced raisin. But after a week of doing this I could see that really he was not improving as well as he should be so I decided on stopping the scrub and giving a dusting of athletes foot powder every other day in his dust bath. Oh my he went nutty, little terror he loved every moment in his bath and after about ten minutes of him constant rolling in his dust he had no choice but to get out as all the dust was on the paper on floor. So as quickly as I could, I removed the the bath and paper and let him run around. Oh my goodness! I have never seen such a nutty chinchilla. He was racing around everywhere, jumping, climbing and leaping onto everything (including my cats who were not impressed)
Karen.
Here is the Talent part of the website for all you artistic people out there. If you fancy drawing a picture of your favourite chinchilla, writing a poem, joke or a short story then please submit them to me and I will show them on this page.
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge!
Drawings & Paintings
This fabulous drawing is by Maria Brett
Here's a cheeky chinny drawn by Kerry Watterson of Plymouth
The following picture of Chiz-Whiz is by Mark Stewart of Plymouth
Jemma
Thompson is responsible for this gorgeous line drawing of Cara
Jokes
If you have any animal - especially chinchilla, related jokes please submit them to Rachel. Keep them clean please and the more original the better. The following snippets of mirth are all original jokes by our Founder, Roger Whear. Enjoy!!!!!
What is a rabbit's favourite T.V programme? Starsky & Hutch!!!
What is out of place at an underwater nudist convention? A DRESSED crab!!!
What sea creature has an aim in life? A PORPOISE!
Which animal makes the best Accountant? An ADDER!
What animal is unreliable? HARE today, gone tomorrow!
Which creature is ideal in a cold house? A GIRAFFE excluder!
What engagement ring is favoured by a female rabbit? A 24 CARROT gold one!
What animal dines in Uncle's restaurant? An ANTEATER
Which sea creature is a cross between a wasp and a light beam? A STINGRAY
What university scholar opens a door? A DONKEY
Two sheep in a field. One is me. who is the other one? EWE
What animal is the leader of a town council? A MARE
What pet costs over a pound? A GUINEA PIG
Which sea creature has odds against survival? A SEAHORSE
We don't know who wrote the following joke, but it's a good one!
There was an American woman who brought up three sons on her own. In later years the sons became highly successful and independently very rich. All three being extremely fond of their mum decided to buy her a gift. The first son bought her a large and expensive house, in a lovely up market area. The second son bought her a custom built Rolls-Royce, with her initials embossed on the doors. The third son knowing how religious his mother was decided on a parrot, which he sent to a monastery to have it taught the entire bible, this cost lots of money.
After awhile they visited their mother for a meal, after which she turned to her sons and said "The house is beautiful, but really too large and takes me ages to clean. And the second gift...the car is indeed fantastic, but far to big and costs a lot on fuel."
The third son glibly smiled..."What did you think of my present mother?"
The mother's reply...."Son you really know your mother...THE CHICKEN WAS DELICIOUS............."
Q: What animal gets cold in the Far East?
A: A Chin-chill-a
(Taken from a crossword puzzle)
