Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[brown8sm]

I am a college student and I was just looking at getting a chinchilla.  I'm at school for 9 monthes and then back home for 3.  Will this moving be too hard on the chinchilla or will he be able to adapt to his new surroundings since I am in each place for an extended period of time?

[Sweetnessheart]

Personally, I think your chinchilla would be okay with the moving, but I don't know about college life.
Do you live in a dorm?  I know the dorm I lived in wasn't a place I would want a high strung critter.  Chinchillas basically need to be kept at an even keel.  They don't like loud noises or a lot of people in and out.   
I would think long and hard about a chinchilla as a pet, especially being in a school atmosphere.

For example: 
I had friends that got a kitten in a dorm room.  The poor kitten was paranoid its whole life.  It never turned out to be a loving cuddly cat.

[brown8sm]

No, I don't live in a dorm (I'm a junior at Central Michigan), I live in an apartment with 3 other guys, it's almost always quiet and we almost never have loud parties, I think that the chinchilla would be fine with noises and sleeping during the day (since we're almost always at class) but I was most concerned about me moving back and forth, I am in each place for a substantial amount of time but I was just wondering if the moves would make him so stressed that he never felt at home anywhere (since I heard that they don't travel or adapt to new surroundings very well).  Would I need to (for lack of a better term) "break him in" every time I moved?

[Jenova]

Perhaps get a cage that folds up and then you can bring his home with him.
Or get two chinchillas so they can keep each other company and reassure each other.

How far would you have to travel?

Also read this post:
http://www.chinchillaclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,671.msg6912.html#msg6912

[brown8sm]

It's not too far, maybe an hour or a little more, but anyway I think that I would probably be able to move the cage from home and then to school, especially since making an investment in two different cages would be such an expense (since I heard that you want to get as nice and big a cage as possible), and also do you think two chins would be a better bet since they would have to travel in the car for an extended period of time?

[Jenova]

If it's only an hour I would think they would be okay, people take their chinchillas to shows all the time. Having two could mean they would travel better as they have company.

It should be pretty easy to get a cage that folds up. You'll want to replace the wire mesh shelves with pine ones as soon as you can because it's better on their feet but you can get some very cheaply on eBay that attach with wing-nuts so they can be taken out very easily. I take mine off every week to clean the cage.

Chinchillas love schedule so as you are travelling at regular intervals they should get used to it and hopefully you will get some laid back chinchillas. I would go for two females as they are best together but I have been told that if you get them at a young age - four months - then two males are fine as well. The best place to go is a breeder because pet shops often don't know how to look after chinchillas properly and they can get very stressed and have health problems from being fed fresh fruit or rabbit food, and if you say to the breeder that you will be travelling maybe they could give you the kits of parents who travel well...?