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[chicosmama]

My Chico is a pet store chin but I feel maybe if I classify him I wont have it hanging over my shoulders that the reason I bought from a pet store was to get the chin OUT of that crappy glass home.  . I love him, he's so full of personality! But, I feel maybe breeders will look at me like I was stupid for buying from a pet store  . He's a standard, below is his picture. My only question really is if he is light, medium, dark. I think, just guessing, that he is a light.

[Sweetnessheart]

Don't beat yourself up over buying Chico from a pet store!  You bought him because you wanted him and it was right for you!

To me Chico looks like he is light to medium.  But of course lighting from camera flashes can make them look one way and natural light another.

[chicosmama]

Don't beat yourself up over buying Chico from a pet store!  You bought him because you wanted him and it was right for you!

To me Chico looks like he is light to medium.  But of course lighting from camera flashes can make them look one way and natural light another.

He seems reaaaaaaaalllly medium up top and then gets very light on bottom. So yea, he's probably light-medium. Thank you!

(Can pet store chins ever win in a competition?)

[BrightEyed]

he looks medium in the picture.

you never know where he came from. pet stores get them from different places. I asked Pet Smart where they get their animals (rats, gerbils, chinchillas) and they told me 'Sun Pets'. I asked another smaller store and they said a local pet distributor. Some breeders work with pet distributors and basically get rid of what they don't need or what isn't 'high quality'.

For example.. some breeders keep standard females and breed them with a mutation males.. so they might not keep the male standards as often because they really have no use. And if they have a mutation that didn't turn out very well (like a rusty color beige, or dirty bellies) they may decide to send those too.

I think Sun Pets breeds animals specifically for pet stores and chains (like Pet Smart) and send them out across the country. I don't think they sell them any other way- but I could be wrong.

So you never know where your little one originated and how they got picked to be sent to a store.

If you wanted to enter him in a show and see what they have to say about his quality vs. the other animals it wouldn't hurt anything. You never know. It would be fun.

[chinclub]

I think Sun Pets is a distributor.  I know several large breeders who sell to distributors and you would be amazed at the quality!!  So yes it is very possible to get a show quality animal from a pet store.  If you give a few more pictures we can let you know how your chinchilla might do in a show.  You want a chinchilla with lots of space between the ears, no dip in the neck, and the shoulders to be about as wide as the hips.  Males are judged harder than females because most ranchers breed one male to many females.  One bad male can ruin the babies of many girls so they are always judged for herd improvement.

If you want to get a better idea of chinchilla quality I wrote an article which is now on my site here: http://www.huggablepets.com/huggablepets/0804pair2.shtml  Its really about how to evaluate and pair your chinchillas but I think it will give you a good general idea.

[Abby W.]

How do you find the pedigree for a pet store chin? 

I actually just came into possession of two "rescued" chins.  Fortunately, they were not abused or neglected terribly, so both are in good condition and pretty well-socialized.  One is a hetero-beige male with good size and a beautiful coat, the other is a dark standard male, a little on the small side, but still very good looking with a great coat.  I have been debating about whether to breed either one, since I don't have their pedigrees.  Both have been checked out at the vet's and are in good health. 

Usually I wouldn't think twice about it...I always tell people not to breed un-pedigreed animals...but I am just in love with these boys....

Any thoughts?

[chinclub]

You can't get a pedigree for a pet store chinchilla and no matter how good a chinchilla looks I would NEVER suggest breeding it.  Malocclution can be found in wonderful looking chinchillas and since you can't tell if a chinchilla has it until it shows the signs you could get a ton of litters from a sick animal.  Then ALL of those kits would be carriers.  As tempting as it may be ts simply not responsible.   

[Abby W.]

*SIGH*  That's how I've been leaning...I may have a line on where they came from, so I might possibly be able to track down their information...but for now, I guess they'll just have to be added to my (ever growing) collection of "house chins" 

It's really sad to think that these gorgeous, sweet-tempered boys may end up ill in the end... 

[chicosmama]

Oh I wont be breeding my chinchin. I am already in the verge of raising a crested gecko to bred with a gargoyle gecko which can take up to 20 years. It can also be very dangerous and it is difficult to think of what can happen via mutation wise to my baby but it is only to bring another beautiful breed easy for reptile owners to take care of. The crested gecko is almost extinct, or was thought to be. They thrive on a little Canadonian(sp) island.


I just thought he was gorgeous suprisingly... for being a pet store baby. I dont think he came from Sunpets as the woman who was caring for him knew a lot about him. She knew he had two owners before as well, the breeder and then a man who had him for a day. Usually you dont get that out of someone.

[chicosmama]

I think these might help. Let me know if you need me to get more... for some reason my mom forgot to get the tail in every picture >.>

I will have a fine tooth comb, no less than #2 here shortly in a few days. Its not the professional chinchilla comb but I am probably never going to make it to a show so it will be enough to get the excess hair off of his body.

[chinclub]

He looks little.  Did they know how old he was?  If he is as young as he looks he still has a lot of growing to do.  Nice white belly. Good Space between the ears.  I can't tell about his neck or his blockiness from the pictures.  You can tell that pretty easy though.  Look down at him from above and notice his shape.

Triangle shape where his shoulders are smaller than his hips is bad for show:



Block shape where his hips are the same(or about the same) as his shoulders good:

[chicosmama]

He's 7-8 months old. He was 6 months old when I got him.

[Jo Ann]

My first two chinchillas were pet store chins ... before I knew better. 

In some pictures it looks like a long thin nose ... BUT ... in one of the pictures that is almost a profile, he looks to have a fairly blunt nose, which would be good.    

His fur is nice, his ears are placed well and his eyes look bright and clear.

He appears to have a pretty white belly ... I'd love to see a picture of him from the side ... in one picture it looks like the gray/white line on the side of his belly is nice and straight, but in another picture you can't see the white from the side at all.

Do you have any idea of his weight?

Compaired to most normal "pet store chins", he looks very nice. 

I've seen some that are beautiful, BUT ... things like malocclusion, seizures and heart murmurs may not show up in a chin until it is 3 to 5 years old or older.  Like Jamie said ... he could father many kits and pass that on before you found that there was a problem.  Just think of all the chins that would also suffer his same fate.

Knowing what I do now, I would never breed a pet store chin, even if he/she did do good in a show.  

Abby, unless you get the pedigree for them, find and talk to the breeder, and get some back ground information on them, you would only be asking for trouble to breed a chinchilla that is "unknown".  You never know what might be 'lurching' around in their past ... with the big beautiful cage you were given with them and the exercise wheel, I would just enjoy them or find them a good home.  Them and their cage, wheel and all cost you nothing ... it's not that much to feed two more little mouths.  Just love them or give them to someone that has the time for them.     That's what I would do/tried to do.

   Jo Ann

[chicosmama]

My first two chinchillas were pet store chins ... before I knew better. 

In some pictures it looks like a long thin nose ... BUT ... in one of the pictures that is almost a profile, he looks to have a fairly blunt nose, which would be good.    

His fur is nice, his ears are placed well and his eyes look bright and clear.

He appears to have a pretty white belly ... I'd love to see a picture of him from the side ... in one picture it looks like the gray/white line on the side of his belly is nice and straight, but in another picture you can't see the white from the side at all.

Do you have any idea of his weight?

Compaired to most normal "pet store chins", he looks very nice. 

I've seen some that are beautiful, BUT ... things like malocclusion, seizures and heart murmurs may not show up in a chin until it is 3 to 5 years old or older.  Like Jamie said ... he could father many kits and pass that on before you found that there was a problem.  Just think of all the chins that would also suffer his same fate.

Knowing what I do now, I would never breed a pet store chin, even if he/she did do good in a show.  

Abby, unless you get the pedigree for them, find and talk to the breeder, and get some back ground information on them, you would only be asking for trouble to breed a chinchilla that is "unknown".  You never know what might be 'lurching' around in their past ... with the big beautiful cage you were given with them and the exercise wheel, I would just enjoy them or find them a good home.  Them and their cage, wheel and all cost you nothing ... it's not that much to feed two more little mouths.  Just love them or give them to someone that has the time for them.     That's what I would do/tried to do.

   Jo Ann

I need to find an exinexpensive scale to weigh him.

I will never breed a chinchilla. Im not good with losses and thats why I gave up my sugar gliders before they lost a baby. I gave them to a more experienced breeder.

I dont think he has any health problems. Ive checked his teeth, his poop, etc.

I do need to check his weight.

I think I can try to get pictures once more. I need to groom him and I have a steel needle brush coming ina few days to do so. My mother wasnt very helpful taking pictures as she was too busy trying to figure out how to hold the camera for a good angle shot.

[Abby W.]

Oh no, I am not going to breed them unless and until I can find out their backgrounds...just wishful thinking is all.  I have at least been able to find out what store they came from, and have a call in to the store owner to see where he gets his chins from. 

They are both very sweet boys.  The wheel was nice too, of course; it gave me one extra that I was able to set up in their playpen area, so everyone can take turns running during playtime (in addition to the running they do on th wheels in their cages).  Unfortunately, I didn't have a car big enough to take the cage, but I figure the old owner can sell it and get back some of the money they paid for the chins in the first place...

I just can't help but think when I come across chins like these, very sweet-tempered and good looking, too, how nice it would be to pass that on to the next generation.  But not if it will create unnecessary risk for future chins...
Such is life, I guess.  I am glad I was able to help them and their owner.  She was on the verge of donating them to a high school biology classroom...not a good thing.