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[Stephanie_Ritchie]

  Hey everyone   My name is Stephanie, and my family and I recently adopted two female chins, one a standard, one a hetero beige.. They are 19 months old, and very well behaved. The standard is named Yami, and the hetero beige is named Hikari. Just wanted to introduce myself on the boards. Hope everyone is having a pleasant day

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

Welcome! From where did you adopt them?

[GrayRodent]

Welcome to the board and congrats on your new pets. Do you have a photo you'd like to share? We'd like to see it.
Did you name the chinchillas? Are they named after Manga characters?

[Stephanie_Ritchie]

Hello,

 

I adopted them from a woman locally who told me she had allergies, although I seem to remember reading somewhere they were hypoallergenic. I have posted several photos of them, in the user galleries.

http://www.chinchillaclub.com/forum/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=309

I did indeed name them. The standard is named Yami, which means dark, and the hetero beige is named Hikari, which means light.

[GrayRodent]

Some people do have allergies to the chinchillas but usually the culprit is the hay they eat. There are ways to minimize exposure but it depends on the severity of the allergies.

[Stephanie_Ritchie]

I thought so. Anyhow, they are very wonderful little creatures. I live out in the country and have access to a large variety of safe woods and plants for them. I have harvested blackberry, strawberry, mulberry, dandelion, mint, rose.. I know where there is some rosemary, wanted to see if they like it. I do know, everything in moderation and a slow introduction. I give them one raisin per week, and not even that. They seems to prefer the timothy hay and mulberry twigs over sweets. I try and stay away from process foods for them as much as possible. (lol all the plants and woods here are untreated, and I do boil, soak and bake everything) The person who owned them before me didn't socialize with them at all, so they were untamed when they came into our family. They are slowly beginning to trust everyone here. I can finally get kisses from them, and they also respond to me when I tell them it is time to go into their cage. <3 They are so cute :3

[GrayRodent]

That's great. Taming chinchillas can be a lot of work. After you've had them for a couple of weeks I recommend training them them to be held. I've done this with my first chinchilla and was successful after he was tame enough to be touched an petted.

 Also looking at your photos I noticed you have one of those wire hay ball feeders. I strongly recommend you remove this as soon as possible. I know of chinchillas that get their heads stuck in these and sometimes they don't survive.

[Stephanie_Ritchie]

Omgoodness, I did not know that. I'll be taking those out ASAP.. How scary. Thanks for the warning, much appreciate it

[GrayRodent]

No prob. It's a shame too because they work so well to dispense hay. I just put my hay on the floor and about 2/3 of it gets trampled through the wire.

Wire mesh ramps or shelving is another common dangerous thing that I often warn about because I've seen numerous reports of chins getting their legs or feet in the mesh when they jump off the edge and when they fall forward off the shelf it snaps the bones in two. Wire flooring is good though just not in the form of an elevated ledge.

[Stephanie_Ritchie]

Yeah, I don't have mesh ramps or shelving in their cage.. Good to know though.