Advice on taking care of Chinchillas appreciated.
Offline I've got three of them to take care of for a couple of weeks (they belong to a sibling), and I don't think I'm doing a very good job.
The problem I'm having is that they don't seem to get along very well (one in particular enjoys hogging all of the food to itself and snapping/barking at the other two), and whenever I attempt to 'mediate' a dispute (they don't like being grabbed around the back, so I've been doing that - not forcefully, but firmly enough that the animal immediately retreats to another side of it's cage) by attempting to correct the aggressor, he gets really upset (hops over to his perch, balls-up, starts shaking and sniffling; tonight he started, essentially, crying) and doesn't appear to associate the corrective action with his behavior.
Moreover, my goal isn't to get the animals upset.
Does anyone have experience with these animals, by chance? If you do, have you dealt with disputes before? How did you handle them?
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
- Login to post comments
Three chinchillas in one cage? That must be one damn big cage. What sex are they and are they neutered? You could just put out a massive pile of hay to get them to stop fighting over the food. I know that probably sounds wasteful and expensive but it's biodegradable and they have a tendancy to go to the bathroom in their food anyway so you're going to be tossing out food regardless.
We tend to eat them......and use the fur for hats or gloves, only thing I can recommend is check these sites out
http://www.huggablepets.com/huggablepets/chininfo.shtml
http://www.chin-chillas.com/chinchilla_care.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_3033_care-chinchillas.html
shell: Uh. Well, it is a large cage... I'm not sure it qualifies as 'damn big', though.
What size of cage is typically recommended? They're not my animals, so i'm not going to buy a bigger cage for them, but I'll let my sibling know if the cage is too small for three Chinchillas.
EDIT:
Thanks for the links, latincanuck!
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Well Kev, I am also a member of a "nontraditional" pets forum that has a general section for mammals. You might find something there.
http://www.reptastic.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=128
=
At an absolute minimum, perhaps a 48 inch square - 4 levels... I'm actually more of a rabbit expert but many people that have rabbits have chinchillas. I actually used to work with this one lady who had 2 chinchillas and 2 rabbits living all living together in a decent sized bedroom. The rabbits were litterbox trained but the chinchillas were - uggh! If they weren't so soft I'd never understand why anyone would want to undertake that sort of cleaning effort.
Short of buying them a larger cage, you could let them exercise in a room. Preferably a bathroom or kitchen assuming you have carpet in the other rooms. You could also toss something in the cage to distract them. Perhaps you have a spare telephone directory? The agressive one might prefer to rip that apart - especially if he's not used to seeing one. If not, you could use a cooregated cardboard box. Cut a hole or two in it so it's more like a tunnel or house.
so how are they doing?
Blender?
They're rodents o_O how do you have emotional attatchment to them?
What Would Kharn Do?
They're doing more or less the same; I figured-out an effective & benign technique for dissuading them from getting into trouble (blowing on them), but aside from that, they remain fastidiously squabbly and timid.
Ah well. They'll be back in their owner's home soon enough.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
I guess i can be constructive now that i've had my shot at the rats
3 rats, fight over food dish... simple solution 3 rats, 3 seperate food dishs, scattered in seperate areas of the cage... if the 2 runt rats are to stupid and weak to go to another damn dish... then i re-issue BLENDER comment >.>
What Would Kharn Do?
Sheesh, snake food for a pet. The things people keep....
Anyhoo, my brother used to own chinchillas. I never really paid them much attention, except to watch them do their volcanic ash bath thing which looked like the cartoon of the tasmanian devil in motion. But I do remember my brother saying something about them being territorial and needing to get acquainted with one another. He would put new ones in a seperate cage which sat against the bigger cage. Said something about them getting used to each others scent that way. He would also put the newbie in the main cage for short supervised periods so they could interact. I don't know how long he did this before letting them share a cage. I can call him tomorrow and ask if you like.
By the way, if you put the dust in one of those round fish bowls and let them bathe in it, it looks hella cool.
It takes a village to raise an idiot.
Save a tree, eat a vegetarian.
Sometimes " The Majority " only means that all the fools are on the same side.