General things
Chinchilla is from South America, the Andes mountain chain.
In the XVI century, Chinchilla was hunted for its fur.
In 1923, engineer Mathias Chapman received permission to capture and export chinchillas.
He founded a group that dealt with the raising of chinchillas so that, in the 60's, their number has increased significantly, since then they are kept and as pets.
Room temperature
If room temperature exceeds 25 ° C then you should take precautions to protect animals. If it's warmer and more than 30 ° C, then you are in a mess.
You need to do certain things: to put into operation the heat if you are lucky to have him, if you get above 25 ° C, then good, not lower the temperature further.
If you have a cooler room, move the cage there.
You can give chinchillas a bowl of ice cubes. They will nestle there to cool. Make sure though that may not fall into the bowl.
If you tried anything to cool them, but note that they do not behave normally, not waking up as active and are more likely to wake have thermal shock which often can be fatal.
No need to install fans because chinchillele not sweat. Fans cool people that induce cooling is for us a process of evaporation of sweat. Chinchillele not transpire and, therefore, the fan should blow air at room temperature for them. In chinchille ears are pink when they are overheated. Many animals have large ears compared to the body (eg elephants) is cool with it. I do not think a fan would be inconvenient for a chinchilla, but I did not do well.
Cage and equipment
Metallic zinc cage minimum L = 40 cm, L = 40 cm, h = 40 cm.
Meshes not be greater than (1/2)" * (1/2)".
We manufacture custom cages. For more details click here
Wood for decoration
Will be used for decorating the cage, fir and sallow
It is advisable to chew dry sallow or BCA (pure, without impurities).
Food
Special food for chinchilla - for more details click here.
Sand bath
An absolute necessity is sand bath daily. The sand must have small grain, to be zeolite or perlitic.
For more details click here
Supplements
As a supplement can be used slices of apple, one, two raisins a week, a walnut kernels.
Sheets
For sheets is using pine talos.
To understand the behavior of a chinchilla
When chinchilla trusts you, it bears a certain way:
It climb without any problems and it will allow you an easy scratch behind the ears and, especially, it get in your lap on his own initiative.
Never catch a chinchilla tail, because its tip can break!
The best way for you to handle chinchilla is place your thumb at the base of its tail and use the other hand to support it below the abdomen. Try to keep a closer to you, that feels so safe.
Don't shake it too hard, because it can bite or break its ribs.
If frightened while it is in your arms, covered his eyes with one hand and hold it closer to it, so the animal feels safe when it is hiding.
It is important to note, however, chinchilla do not like too much contact with people.
They are very curious by nature and loves to have the necessary freedom to explore.
It will close on its own initiative when they need attention.
For health problems should consult a veterinarian.
How train a chinchilla
Initial, it is preferable not to change too much place. Adapting to the new house and the owner is quite stressful for it, so it is better that any move to make only if absolutely necessary. Of course, you can not give up activities such as feeding and cleaning chinchilla cage, but you have to make sure you do it in as unobtrusive a way for the animal.
The movements have to be as slow, otherwise the animal can be bewilder. If you frequently submit to stressful situations, it will be very difficult to adapt. After you clean the cage and fill pots with food, it's time to give them to animal daily snack.
The best thing is to take all these evenings, when chinchillas are very active. After several weeks, your chinchilla will get used to, so you can try to provide some food in your own hands. The next step is to accustomed them to the attacks. Remember that may be intimidated by the "giant" in front of it, so give them time to adjust.
It is better not to allow the animal access outside the cage, if not yet formed a close relationship between him and you, because otherwise you'll have to "hunted" to bring it back in the cage.
In such cases, the animal will lose confidence and will have to resume the process of training.