Why chinchillas? (I would have had a pet chinchilla but I couldn't find a place to keep it in the house where it would have a large enough enclosure and not having an enclosure was not recommended)
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Chinchillas evolved at high altitudes, so they are very heat-intolerant, *and* their lungs are super sensitive to impurities.
aug 27, 2025, 12:57 pm • 1 0 • view
Got it. I can see the heat intolerance with all that fur, but they feel SO GOOD
aug 27, 2025, 12:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah, they can't sweat, so will die of heat over about 84°F. Also, they can't get *wet*, because their fur is so thick it won't dry out properly, and it'll get moldy.
aug 27, 2025, 1:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Also: they don't require a large enclosure. They like to climb a bit and run around, but we had a single-storey enclosure, and they were happy. When we moved to Beaverton into a huge house, we got a very large enclosure (about the size of a good parrot cage).
aug 27, 2025, 12:59 pm • 1 0 • view
I thought they needed the VERY large parrot cage size and I didn't have a place (or ability) to have one of those at the time I was looking into pets. I ended up with gerbils. At least Ireland doesn't often get that warm.....
aug 27, 2025, 1:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Our first enclosure was about 1m by .5m by .5m, and they were fine with that. We gave them a spinny wheel, and a couple of houses to hide in, and a wooden pedestal halfway up, and that was for 3 (although soon 2) chinchillas. Oh, also parrot chew blocks.
aug 27, 2025, 1:10 pm • 1 0 • view
If they're in a small enclosure, I *do* recommend letting them out for enrichment. We had a fence that could be set up at about a 1m diameter, and put some toys in there, and they'd run around a bit, but basically just... chill.
aug 27, 2025, 1:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Like kittens, their days are full of brief bouts of running back and forth, and then just sitting and chilling. As I said before, they *loved* sitting in their enclosure and watching us watch TV. They'd just sit at the food dish, grabbing a pellet to chew, while watching us.
aug 27, 2025, 1:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Also, Tom Friendly and Polly *played*: she'd poke through the cage, and he'd run away at high speed. Then he'd run back, and they'd repeat this for an hour or two at a time.
aug 27, 2025, 1:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Maybe I will sometime so... I did SO love them when I got to hold them at a thing in the UK. If YOU get some again, I will camp out near the enclosure and just sigh
aug 27, 2025, 1:16 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm unlikely to get some; we're all in on cats right now, and that's enough. If I got a caged animal, I *might* get some kind of gecko.
aug 27, 2025, 1:20 pm • 1 0 • view
Rats (also, you could get rats.....no... sigh)
aug 27, 2025, 1:27 pm • 0 0 • view
Also, of course, the cutest thing about chinchillas is when they give themselves a dust bath.
aug 27, 2025, 1:21 pm • 1 0 • view