It's truly amazing how much our rescue continues to grow.

In the past couple of weeks, four chinchillas have been adopted. It is bittersweet every time we see another of our fuzzbutts go off to a new home. The difficult part is saying good-bye to critters we've cared for, some of whom came to us out of less-than-ideal situations. But it is a joy knowing that they are now part of a family that will love them just as much as-- or even more than-- we have.

And on the subject of adoptions, we have recently been pleasantly surprised. Three more families are scheduled to come visit our Menagerie this weekend, each looking to adopt chinchillas. Even with all of these adoptions, however, we still have many more chins who need homes. Check out the Adoptions page to see who is available. (Note the page may not always be quite up to date.)

These adoptions are coming just in the nick of time. A while back, a family of six chinchillas came to us. The father, mother, and baby daughter had all been kept together in one cage, with an older sister/brother pair from a previous litter in another cage. Unfortunately, both the mother and the older sister were pregnant when they came to us. Sadly, the first kit did not survive.  a few days later the second female had her own kit who is doing nicely.

It is very difficult to tell whether a female chin is pregnant. Chinchillas of opposite genders, unless spayed or neutered, WILL breed. It is only a matter of time. We only adopt out chinchillas as same-gender pairs, or for a same-gender cagemate. Our adoption contract requires that an adopted chin, male or female, will not be put in a situation where a breeding is possible. We encourage all chinparents to practice responsible pet ownership and do not house male and female chins together.

With all that said, we would like to give a huge thank-you to Brian for his generous donation to the Menagerie. Because of that, we were able to purchase some additional bandwidth for the website, and will be able to keep it running strong. Even so, we still appreciate all donations, which go towards the care and upkeep of the Menagerie, so we can continue to provide a safe haven for chins in need.

Hello friends.

Recently, we came across a notice from Webs (our free website hosting service) that our website is over the bandwidth limit. Because of this, the Menagerie's website is in danger of being taken down-- permanently.

 We need your help. With the budget tight as it is, it will be difficult for us to pay to upgrade our account from a free site to one with more bandwidth. At the same time, we desperately want to keep the site up and running so that we can be found more easily by those with chins in need, or who are looking to adopt.

So we're asking for all of you to help us keep our website. You can do this by donating through PayPal. There is a button on the Donations page where you can do so. It will cost at least $20 to keep the site running for a year. Every little bit helps.

A warm thank you to everyone who helps keep our website going strong.

Success!

The two lonely single boys who came to our menagerie have been successfully introduced! Bucky and Buffalo Bill were both nervous fur chewers who desperately needed a friend. They came here out of concern by their former owners who intuitively knew their little guys needed some form of intervention.

We were worried that they, being older boys who had not been with their own kind, would deter the possibility of a bond. However, after several months of watching and whiskering behind the safety of the side by side cages, these two boys are now fast friends.

The first meeting was adorable! Bucky in particular was thrilled to have a new friend to groom. Up until the meeting with Buffalo Bill, Bucky would snuggle with a variety of stuffed toys including a hedgehog and a beanbag bunny. Buffalo Bill has a ....buffalo beanie baby! But it's quite obvious that the two chins now prefer the company of each other better than their forgotten toys.

Check out this video of their first official introduction:

What a fun and exciting update today!

Last year on the college campus, in the Fall of 2009, we came across the biggest, most bright green caterpillar we had ever seen. We took it home with us to find out more about this unique critter as a potential science project. As Whimsy says, "We homeschoolers are a curious bunch." After researching on the internet, we discovered that the little guy we found was a Polyphemus Moth caterpillar. It is a type of silk moth, and in the same family as the Luna Moth (a family favorite).

In our research, we also found that the caterpillars of this type of moth go through 5 different molt stages (or instar), and our caterpillar was in its final stage! It must have been wandering around the campus looking for a place to build its cocoon. So we set up a terrarium for the little critter, and within hours it had created a cocoon. 

Months later, it still hadn't hatched from its silk cocoon. We were beginning to think that perhaps it wouldn't hatch at all... until today.

We had nearly forgotten about the Polyphemus caterpillar when Whimsy pulled out the terrarium that it had been housed in. There it was, sitting in all its splendor, a full-fledged moth. 

After refreshing our memories with a bit of additional research, we determined that our now grown moth is a female. (Males have "bushier" looking antennae, whereas females' are thinner; females also have larger abdomens.) Adult Polyphemus moths do not eat, and therefore only live less than a week, during which they find a mate and lay eggs.

Polyphemus moths are not an endangered species, but certainly are rare. We intend to return this beautiful girl to the campus where we found her as a caterpillar, so that she can hopefully attract a mate and carry on the "circle of life" as nature intended.

To learn more about the Polyphemus moth, check out the Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_polyphemus

...16, 17, 18, 19!! We have 19 chinchillas looking for new homes! It's been an incredibly busy month here! Just this weekend alone, eight more fuzzbutts came in. The sad thing is, none of them were abused or neglected. ALL are much loved pets whose owners, whether it be life changes, allergies, or unemployment, simply could not keep their beloved pets any longer. These guys and gals need the same loving attention they received previously. Most of our available chins are paired in same gender groups of two. We also have some singles, who just don't play nicely with their own kind. We even have a trio or two. Check out our "Chins for Adoption" page to see some of the chins that we currently have available for adoption. Won't you consider opening your heart and home to a few of these? :)