Print

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

[wolverine_05_]

I've recently purchased a 4 week old female chinchilla and have yet to make it feel completely comfortable in its new home. I've researched everything to do to help it but it seems like there's something different about this one. Everything I've read says that it won't let you pet or hold it until it gets used to you. It also said they will still run around and such but limit their interactions with you. Mine however, will let me pet it all day and it even lets me hold it. I took it out of the cage and set it on my lap and it just laid there; contradicting everything I've read. Even when I leave it in a room by itself it just sits there. It never hardly moves. Every time I've tried anything with it was in the evening so I don't know what else it could be. Any ideas?

[GrayRodent]

Are you sure it four weeks old? Did you get it from a breeder? If your chinchilla is four weeks old it is not close to being weaned yet and could be dying. Please call the person you got it from ASAP.

[wolverine_05_]

I bought her at a large flee market in Ohio and the lady claimed to be a breeder. She had probably 10 other chinchillas there for sale varying of age and sex. She said it was 4 weeks old, put it in my cage, then gave it alfalfa cubes and said it would be good. There were other breeders with her and they all agreed.

[wolverine_05_]

I could possible be wrong about its age. The woman that was with me said she thought the lady said 9 weeks. It was with its mom when I got it though.

[GrayRodent]

9 weeks is fine and is actually an ideal time to start raising a pet chinchilla. You are blessed with that opportunity because they are very malleable at that age. But also be very careful for next few months because they are also very fragile and can be seriously injured if dropped. Relocation is always stressful for chinchillas and sometimes it takes a couple of weeks before they behave normally. It might be a day or two before she comes out of the shock of being relocated and because she is used to being around so much activity giving her attention is a good thing. I see no problem with interacting with your pet as long as she is not being stand-offish like many tend to be before they learn to trust you. Usually chinchillas are going to be more active at night and can be pretty groggy and slow during the day so keep that in mind and baby chinchillas can have extremely varying degrees of activity throughout the day. That is how it was with mine and I got him at 14 weeks.

[mojito]

Is she eating and drinking okay?