I'd like to take this moment to share with our visitors just why we so strongly believe in responsible chin ownership. A brother/sister pair came in last week in pretty rough shape. The previous owners were told both were boys, but when one of them started having kits, they realized the mistake. Unfortunately, chinchillas go into heat immediately after giving birth, so without separation, chinchillas continue to breed indefinitely.

This is bad for several reasons. In this case, the mated pair of chins were directly related. This weakens the offspring which makes them more prone to health related issues, not to mention just a reduced quality overall. PLUS, breeding back to back takes quite a toll on the mommy chin. It takes quite a bit of energy to carry kits. Imagine how stressful it is to nurse a litter and be pregnant at the same time! By being put into a constant state of pregnancy, this could very quickly wear down the mommy chin. In this case, her condition (and that of her brother mate and remaining kit showed obvious signs of stress in that all of them were pretty severely fur-chewed.

The following video shows a chinchilla birth gone bad. View with caution.

Please people, be kind to your pets and consider carefully the massive numbers of unwanted animals who already need homes. I hate having to tell people who breed their pet chinchillas that the offspring will most likely end up in my shelter within the next couple of years. *sigh*

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:

A while ago, we took in a chinchilla who had excessively chewed his fur. When he came to us, in fact, he had chewed off every bit of fur that he could reach-- in some places, down to his very skin. We constantly commented on how he looked-- like half a chin, like a kangaroo, and so on. We dubbed him Buffalo Bill.

Now, three months later to the day, Buffalo Bill is beginning to show his improvement. He enjoys hanging out near the boy chin in the next cage over. He has stopped chewing his fur and you can see it's growing back in tufts. This pattern of fur growth is completely normal. In just a few more months, he will look like a regular, fluffy chinchilla again. Check out how he's coming along!

We had a very interesting case come to the Menagerie this past weekend. Another owner, concerned with her chin's fur chewing, contacted us. Stephanie and her vet tried everything they could think of to make this little guy happy. The vet determined his fur chewing was caused by stress, so he perscribed Prozac! Obviously, it didn't work. :P Anyway, he's joined our little sanctuary and seems to be very interested in the activity here. He's shown a good, healthy, non-aggressive curiosity toward the chins in adjoining enclosures. We're hoping to introduce him to Bucky once the quarantine period is over. As an aside, we've been referring to him as "Buffalo Bill". Can you guess why?

We have had such an exciting couple of weeks here at the Menagerie!

About a year ago, one of our hamsters, Oreo, had a litter of babies, who were eventually all adopted out to loving homes. One of Oreo's babies, dubbed Moomoo, was adopted by Sammie. Due to life circumstances, Sammie contacted us about returning Moomoo to the Menagerie, along with a Campbell's Russian dwarf hamster named Hammy. Both of the little guys receive plenty of attention by the Menagerie's youngest helper, Flowerbud, and are doing swimmingly. See if you can identify Moomoo's younger self at the bottom of the Adoptions page. ;)

Last Sunday, we were contacted by Elena, who was looking to surrender her two chins, Doby and Chip. She was very relieved to have found our rescue. The two boys have now settled into their new home. Sometimes, when we have two male cagemates come into the Menagerie, it is necessary to separate them because of the scent of so many females in the same room. Doby (Mosaic) and Chip (Standard), despite a minor early scuffle, do not have that problem, and are still best buds as ever. Once their quarantine/evaluation period is passed, these guys will make a wonderful pet pair for someone.

A while back, we heard from Holly, who had concerns about Bucky. Holly said that he had developed a fur problem. It was a while before Holly was ready to give Bucky up, but he eventually made it to our little chin-sanctuary. Bucky came to us along with his huge cage and toys, and we immediately put together the entire setup as to allow Bucky the easiest transition into his new home. As it turns out, thankfully, Bucky does not have fungus as Holly suspected. Instead, he had been chewing on his fur as a sign of stress.  We have put a fun chinchilla wheel in his cage, and treated him to tasty apple branch sticks and chinchilla cookies so that he will not chew on his fur. So far, our efforts seem to be working. After his quarantine period, we're hoping to introduce him to a new same gender cagemate. 

Bucky has the absolute sweetest personality of any chin we have ever met. He loves skritches under the chin and behind the ears, and he even smiles when his tummy is scratched. It is obvious that Holly took wonderful care of him. He is quite the spoiled little boy. ;)