Hello everyone, great to be a new part of this wonderful forum. Sort of interesting how I ended up back in the world of Chinchillas and this forum, so here's a bit about me and my pet history if you will
I used to have two chinchillas years and years ago when I was in my late teens (I moved out when I was quite young) and the internet was just being born. In fact back then the big thing was BBS systems and such, and it was a fellow BBS owner that got me in to Chinchillas. I started with a beautiful standard named Marley and a few months later picked up an ebony friend for Marley and I can't for the life of me remember his name. Anyhow, perhaps a year later I ended up moving around a lot, wasn't stable and gave both my chins and cage to a friend of a friend and that was about it.
Fast forward to now and I am divorced and remarried, have a wonderful amazing 10 year old daughter and have since rescued 2 german shepherds, was a sponsor family for a Mira Foundation guide dog puppy and currently have a 5 year old wolf hybrid who is my timid little chicken trapped in a wolf's body. Outside of my love of dogs, a year and a half ago I purchased my first rodent, my rat Whippet. I'm not ashamed to say that I fell in love with Whippet instantly and she became my tiny shadow. We ate breakfast together before I would go to work and she was on my shoulder or at my side as soon as I was home until bed time. She was honestly one of the most amazing pets I've ever had and I was absolutely devastated when I had to put her down due to a huge mammary tumor that the vet wanted $550 to remove. I bawled like a broken hearted child for days and it took me 2 weeks before I could even clean out her cage.
Whippet was my first rat and I had no idea going in that they had so many health problems, including the huge risk of tumors and their very short expected lifespans. So, while I ADORED my rat and per personality and just everything about rats, I just can't handle going through this kind of heart break every 2 years or so, I'm a big wuss like that I suppose.
So after a few weeks, I started thinking about getting a new furry baby, but something that would be closer to a rat but with a much longer lifespan. My regular dog vet suggested a ferret as they make an amazing companion animal and a lot of what people say about ferrets is absolute nonsense or grossly exagerrated. I started looking in to it when the one consistent thing I saw on forums was people asking for ways to get rid of the ferret smell that was in their house. My wife has a sensitive nose so this put up all kinds of red flags. While I researched, I started thinking about getting a Chin again... from what I could remember, I knew they're not really at all like rats, but were very sweet, playful and of course don't stink in the slightest.
My wife and I visited a local pet store that had some young ferrets in stock and sure enough, she HATED the natural smell of the ferrets, which of course gets stronger as they get older, not to mention when you have a cage in the house with one. Personally I didn't think it was that bad, but she most definitely did NOT like it and I knew the Ferret was a no go.
As we're getting ready to leave, I noticed in one of the displays there was one of those ceramic chin baths so I took a closer look and sure enough, there was an adorable young standard chin maybe 3 months old staring back at me from his ceramic hideout. I couldn't help myself, I asked to hold her and see how her tempermant was. Now I know from lurking on this forum for a bit that you can't expect a chin to jump in your arms until a lot of patient handling has been done, but I seem to remember my original two always loved being held. Well, I completely fell in love and 45 minutes later I'm driving home with my wife with a new chin in her lap and several bags of supplies in the back.
It's been 2 days since Peaches has come home with us and I am stunned at how this little girl is behaving. I open the cage door and she jumps right out within a few seconds in to my outstretched hands and loves to be petted and scratched all over. If I put her down on the floor, she explores, comes back for a quick rub down and a kiss and scampers off again. I can hold her in my arms and she sits there and lets me hold her for as long as I want or hops up on my shoulder for some nice kisses.
The best part was my daughter came over today (This is my weekend with her) and had no idea what was waiting for her. I should mention she is obsessed with animals of ANY kind and was also extremely upset when whippet passed away. So I had her calmly open the cage door and see if Peaches would come sniff her hand, only to have her come and basically jump in to her arms! My daughter was grinning ear to ear, it was awesome.
So now comes some of my challenges, mostly due to a shoddy memory... what can I say, my early 20s were pretty busy lol! I have a lot of gaps in my memory about my original chins so I am coming here in hopes to get some answers and of course participate. In fact I wish I could post some pics but I am on my ipad atm so I'll add some later (ipad with a Bluetooth keyboard lol!). I just can't remember several things so I am hoping to find out some tips on the following:
1. Peaches poops constantly... I mean when you pick her up, she's defecating almost every 20 seconds as you hold her. It's honestly not out of fear as she eagerly jumps in to my hands, but she seems to just be going all over the place all the time. Is this normal and is it because she's just a youngling? I don't remember my chins pooping all the time. Thanks god they're easy to clean lol!
2. I can't for the life of me remember what I used for the litter/beddng at the bottom of the cage back then. I am currently using those recycled newspaper pellets "Yesterday's News" which I had left over from my rat. The Chin was actually using that at the pet store and the lady who took care of the rodents told me YN was fine. Peaches isn't eating any of it, but worried this isn't the best option.
3. She bites a LOT! Inside the cage, she will constantly nip my fingers... not enough to break skin but enough to hurt my daughter. I'm assuming she is just learning what is edible and what is not and will eventually learn that my hands aren't edible. I know chins use ther mouths to feel everything out, so I assume this is completely normal. Is here some kind of correction I should do when she nips or tests my fingers to see if they're ready to eat? Outside the cage she does it a lot less... again to me this is very normal. I think I just got used to rats, which never bite whatsoever even when alarmed.
Those are really my main concerns at this point... I'll be continuing to hunt through the forum as I look to upgrade the cage as she gets bigger (I am using the 3 level rat cage for now), ideas for toys and such for inside the cage and for top premium food suggestions. I tend to believe that food found at pet stores tend to be inferior. My hybrid's dog food comes from a holistic pet food store and is made fresh in Canada and is grain free... up until this year you could NEVER find premium food like this at a regular pet store.
See? Told you guys I like to type lol! Anyhow, nice to meet all of you and look forward to chatting with you all in the future.
Talk soon!
Dan
