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[KilalasMommy]

Hi!  I'm new to the board and I signed up mostly because this question has been bothering me for a long time and I wanted to talk to other chinchilla owners about it to see if they'd have a solution.  I know it's most likely been discussed before, but I wanted to explain my entire story first so that you would understand where I'm coming from.

In 2002 I adopted a female chinchilla whom I named Chichi.  I was thrilled to finally have a chin of my own to play with.  My science teacher that year had a few of them, and I would stay after school to play with them until I finally convinced my parents to buy me a chin of my own.  Just a few months later and Chi gave a birth to a little boy whom we named Zel.  We had no idea she was pregnant when we got her, and I think the reason she only had one baby was probably due to the fact that she was moved from the pet store to a new environment while she was pregnant.  We also handled her a lot and had no idea she was expecting, so I do believe her other babies may have died or never developed properly.

Either way, when Zel grew older we decided we wanted to try and breed him.  We adopted a little girl named Kilala, who sadly didn't get along with our boy.  She did, however, want to become friends with Chichi, but Chi had other ideas.  She would try and nip at Kilala whenever they came in contact.  After Kilala almost got bitten we decided to keep them separated as much as possible.

In 2006, both Chichi and Zel died, one month after the other.  The vets told us that the chinchilla book and pet store had been telling us to give our chins the wrong food.  It had said to give them a mixture of hamster and parrot food.  The vets told us it caused blockages in their systems which killed them...

Currently, we only have Kilala.  We do have other pets (4 cats), but no other chinchillas for her to play with.  She's a very sweet little girl, and she's always trying to communicate with my dad and me.  A few weeks ago when I let her out for a run, she found one of my cat toys, and I think she might have thought it was another chin, because she was making noises at it and sniffing it.  It broke my heart a little bit. 

My question is; do you think she's lonely?  Sometimes I get the feeling that she is.  I wonder if getting another chinchilla would make her happier, or if it's just better for her to be alone.  If I got another one, would I get a male or a female?  What do you guys think I should do?

Thanks in advance!

[LindyLu]

I realized my guy was lonely when he started acting depressed. He wouldn't play with his toys...he didn't care if I re-arranged his cage. He would just SIT on his hay tunnel/bed and "pout" all the time. He stopped running in his wheel, and when I'd let him out to free run, he'd go under my bed and stay there (until I tapped the bath house...he loves to dust!) He basically lost interest in everything he once loved (except his dust bath). He was eating, drinking, and pooping fine. Looked very healthy...  just bummed.

Does your chin get excited over new toys, or re-arranging her cage set-up? Does she stay active and seem curious? If so, she's probably fine. But if she's losing interest in things and spending a lot of time just sitting doing nothing...she might be lonely. Chinchillas ARE very social creatures. Unless you WANT to breed, it'd be better to get another female. I had tried getting a male for my lonely male...but they never learned to get along. I have a female friend for him now...but they are in separate cages next to each other until female is mature enough to have kits. In the meantime, my guy has perked up just having her around. He watches her and makes little sounds like he's talking to her. They kiss through the bars and he has been running  in his wheel again. When I let him out, he bounces around the whole room (showing off for her). So I think it's working out well for us.

Hope that helps!

[KilalasMommy]

I realized my guy was lonely when he started acting depressed. He wouldn't play with his toys...he didn't care if I re-arranged his cage. He would just SIT on his hay tunnel/bed and "pout" all the time. He stopped running in his wheel, and when I'd let him out to free run, he'd go under my bed and stay there (until I tapped the bath house...he loves to dust!) He basically lost interest in everything he once loved (except his dust bath). He was eating, drinking, and pooping fine. Looked very healthy...  just bummed.

Does your chin get excited over new toys, or re-arranging her cage set-up? Does she stay active and seem curious? If so, she's probably fine. But if she's losing interest in things and spending a lot of time just sitting doing nothing...she might be lonely. Chinchillas ARE very social creatures. Unless you WANT to breed, it'd be better to get another female. I had tried getting a male for my lonely male...but they never learned to get along. I have a female friend for him now...but they are in separate cages next to each other until female is mature enough to have kits. In the meantime, my guy has perked up just having her around. He watches her and makes little sounds like he's talking to her. They kiss through the bars and he has been running  in his wheel again. When I let him out, he bounces around the whole room (showing off for her). So I think it's working out well for us.

Hope that helps!

Aww, your boy sounds very cute!!  I could just see him hopping around trying to impress his new mate.  That's adorable!

Kilala sleeps most of the time.  The only time she's out of her wooden hut is to eat or when I take her out to have a run.  She watched television with my dad and I, and she talks to us.  She doesn't really seem depressed, she still has spunk in her when she bounces and stuff.  I just wonder if she'd be more happy with someone to play with, or if she's fine like she is.

[LindyLu]

I think sleeping a lot could also be a sign of depression. She might enjoy having someone around to play/cuddle with. How much time do you spend with her? I only have a few hours in the evening to spend with my guy. I have to work early in the morning, so I go to bed fairly early at night. So we spend a bit of time together between like 7:00-9:30... otherwise all he had was the TV to keep him company (which I usually turned on at 5:30 and left on till 10:30). But he had stopped watching TV. He'd just sit in the corner of his cage.

Yeah, now he's all spunky again. He jumps up onto my bed and tries to balance on the round bed posts. He runs into the attached bathroom and jumps up onto the toilet...then to the sink...then runs back down again. He also LOVES to stairs! He'll run up and down the stairs for hours! About 2-3 times a week, I put the cat away and let Dewey have run of the house for awhile. Otherwise his free run in only in my bedroom.  But he's a good boy, doesn't chew anything, and knows to use a litter pan to pee. So I trust him in the house.
Chins are so fun.

If you get another chin, I'd try a YOUNG female. I've read, and so far experienced that they bond better with younger ones. Last Summer I tried to get 5 yr old Dewey to bond with a 2 yr old male...didn't work out!

[KilalasMommy]

Kilala's cage is in our den where I spend the majority of my day on my laptop.  My dad is in here whenever he has free time watching television.  Lala is usually awake at night watching TV with us, but some nights she isn't as active as others.  I sit by her cage a lot and talk to her, and people like to scratch her tummy for her and watch her smile (she really likes that).

She doesn't get out much, to be quite honest.  It's a hassle with my house, seeing as there's so much furniture in here for her to squeeze her way under.  We have an L shaped couch that she likes to get underneath, and once she's under we can't get her back out without taking the ENTIRE couch apart.  She can also get behind the television cart...To add to that, my cats are constantly coming downstairs (3 of them live upstairs because the cat we have down here has leukemia and they have to be separated).  The room that her cage is in isn't fully closed off, there's an open window dividing our den (where Kilala lives) from our living room, which the cats can freely jump right through.  I would worry if I didn't lock all of the cats up, which can be a hassle sometimes seeing as it's hard to catch them.

For the past few times that I've let her hop, I've brought Lala upstairs into the hallway and shut all of the doors, locking the cats out.  Lala likes to run up and down the hall as fast as she can, but there isn't much for her to play with there except for the cat toys.  Seeing her interact with that toy mouse really got to me.  I wish she could have another chin to play with, but I have no idea if my dad would want another one (our dog of 15 years recently had to be put to sleep).

[LindyLu]

Is Kilala a Hawaiian name? It's so pretty! Do you have a bathroom that she can run in? Maybe she would be excited just to get out more. Sorry to hear about your dog. I think for some people losing a pet makes them withdraw from other pets... and for others, it's easier to deal with the loss of 1 pet by getting a new one! I guess that's more of a personal decision, (to add another pet or not). Decide if the new chin would be for lala, or for YOU.

I just feel like it's not fair to "return" or "re-sale" pets that don't work out - so make sure you're prepared for another chin even if it never gets along with Kilala. Either that or have a back-up plan (like a family member or friend who is willing to take on a chin). I got Daisy at a local pet shop that has specific employees for each group of animals. They take good care of their chins there (not like at Petsmart where they're just in an aquarium with plastic igloos). I asked the chinchilla guy (who has chins of his own at home too) if I could bring Daisy back if she stressed Dewey, and he said yes. I normally wouldn't return an animal I brought home, but this particular pet shop and chinchilla guy were obviously very sensative towards their chins, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it if things didn't work out.

[KilalasMommy]

Kilala's name actually comes from an Americanized version of a Japanese name.  I'm planning on majoring in Japanese, and I'm very much into anime (Japanese animation), and that's where the name came from.  Her original name was going to be Kirara, but we felt it was too rough sounding for her.  The r's in her name change to l's when switching languages (the Japanese language doesn't have l's, so their l's are changed to r's).  I simply reversed the process to come up with her name!

I've never really thought about letting her hop around in the bathroom.  All of ours are smaller than even the hallway I let her hop in right now, plus there's more for her to chew on.

I've always wanted another chin ever since I lost the other two, and I am kind of lonely now that my dog is gone.  But I honestly live for my cats and Kilala, and I don't like upsetting the balance in our family.  I've had every kind of pet imaginable, so I've gone through this many times before.  It's just different now because my father is still recovering from a recent heart attack and I don't want to stress him out by asking him for a new pet.  I'll have to discuss it with him, but the new chin would mostly be for Lala.  I'd really love to see her with a friend since she was shunned by my other two chins.

[Jenova]

I think in your heart you won't be happy until you get her a friend.

Bonding chinchillas is hard. Very hard. There is a lot of advice on this forum but it can take months and lots of effort. And you do have to let them fight a little as they have to establish dominance. Bit it is worth it in the end to see them snuggled up together.

Also what food are you feeding Kilala now? I was also given the wrong advice on feeding mine so I know what a horrible situation that it.

[KilalasMommy]

I would imagine it would be well worth it.  I know how tough it is, since I had to get my cats to bond with one another...I wound up getting my cat Aura two baby brothers after we lost her twin brother at the early age of 2.  She hated her new brothers for months before she finally accepted them.

Right now we're feeding her timothy hay pellets (meant for chinchillas) along with some timothy hay.  The staff at the medical emergency office told us that's the proper food for chins.

[LindyLu]

Alfalfa is also good for chins. You might want to offer her some Alfalfa hay.
I feed Mazuri pellets. They have alfalfa in them. They're very good for chins.

[KilalasMommy]

I used to buy her alfalfa cubes!  But I haven't seen them around the pet store lately...I'll have to look for those as a treat for her!  Thanks for reminding me!

We give her raisins periodically.

[cusunfireguy]

I would consider finding a friend for her that is young.  They tend to accept young chins quicker than older ones.  Good luck
Steven

[KilalasMommy]

I would consider finding a friend for her that is young.  They tend to accept young chins quicker than older ones.  Good luck
Steven

I told my dad that, but I haven't been able to have a proper discussion with him about it since we have other issues going on right now.  I really hope we can find Kilala a friend around here.  Maybe I'll start doing research.  We've kept the other chinchilla cages we used for my old chins, so that won't be a problem.

Oh!  I just remembered I had a video of Kilala running in the hallway if anyone wants to see it.  http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v504/bbnrae2gthr4evr/?action=view&current=Video5-1.flv  Don't mind the talking, I was on skype with some friends.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Darn windows 7 won't let me watch it, I bet it's just the cuttest.
yes get her a baby, she'll think she's the Mom.