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I have gotten a lot of questions over the years about breeding chinchillas. Is it easy? Is it profitable? Is it worth it? I can't answer these questions for everyone, but I can tell you my story and what breeding chinchillas was like for me.
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Let me back up and tell you how it all began. I was about 13 years old when I saw my first chinchilla in a pet store. I begged my daddy to buy it but after one look at the price tag he put his foot down. Looking back on it now it was probably for the best. With what little knowledge there was then it probably wouldn't have lasted a week.
Years later I was married to my animal loving husband and stuck inside with a brand new baby. We lived on a farm and I was going crazy having to stay inside away from the animals. I spent a lot of time on the computer and happened to find a chinchilla website. I was reminded of that pet store visit many years ago and decided to do some research. Everything I read about chinchillas sounded great so we decided to get one. That brought about a problem because there were no breeders anywhere close to us. That is when we found out we would have to ship and the cost of shipping one was the same as shipping 20. My husband and I are extreme animal lovers and decided that since I couldn't be outside on the farm I might as well bring the farm inside. We found a small herd that was for sale and had them shipped to us. I was so excited I didn't sleep the entire week before they arrived. Finally the day came and we brought our new pets home from the airport. Now the excitement begins.
The cages had come a few days before by UPS and they were all set up in what used to be our dining room. My husband and I gathered around the travel cages and my husband opened a door and stuck a hand in. This giant rodent stood up on its hind legs and began screaming a loud barking sound at my husband! He quickly slammed the door of the cage and picked up the phone. As soon as the breeder answered my husband asked how the heck we were supposed to get these vicious things out. The breeder laughed and said just grab them then he hung up. My husband thought for a moment and went out to his workshop coming back in with a huge pair of leather work gloves which he wore as he moved these little monsters into their new cages. To this day I get tears in my eyes I laugh so hard at how inexperienced we were. What a site we must have been that night!
I got back on the Internet and found some helpful breeders who taught me how to properly approach and handle my new chinchillas. After about a week I had finally gotten to know my herd and just when I thought I was getting the hang of it the trouble began. It turns out the breeder we bought our herd from was less than reputable. We began to notice that a few of the chinchillas weren't eating. My husband tried several times to call the people we got them from but they just said they couldn't help. We soon realized we were on our own. I got in touch with a wonderful lady named Alice Kline who helped us discover our chinchillas were suffering from malocclusion. We ended up having to put one to sleep and take a few more out of breeding.
Our next major episode came with our new births. Nothing I had read had explained to me that chinchillas can get pregnant at two different times and deliver one full term baby and one premature one. It turns out one of our girls was prone to this at almost every delivery. She delivered a set of twins and one died two days later. Here I was a new mother myself and already completely emotional from that. When that poor chinchilla died I cried for 3 days! You'd have thought it had been my own.
After that I slowly became a little tougher about not getting attached to the babies until they were older and I knew they were going to survive. Then I fell head over heels in love with the little fur balls. Finally the day came for our first babies to be old enough to sell. I knew this day would come and had already created a website to advertise my babies. Surprisingly the first one sold within the week. A nice couple came to the house and bought my baby chinchilla and as soon as they drove away I was in tears again! My husband decided I wasn't cut out for breeding chinchillas and threatened to sell my herd. Again I had to learn the lesson of not getting so attached to my babies.
Over time we learned that most of the chinchillas we had bought had been over bred. They began fur biting and having difficulty with their pregnancies. Many took on weight that didn't go away after the babies were born. Others wouldn't eat and got very skinny when they were pregnant or nursing. We ended up retiring almost the entire herd and replacing them with young, healthy chinchillas from reputable breeders with strong bloodlines. I read everything I could get my hands on and made some wonderful friends who had been breeding for years and shared their knowledge with me. I even found a large breeder in a nearby state that invited me to visit and gave me incredible books and information.
We bought a building for them that sat right outside the back door so that we would have more space, which we quickly filled with more chinchillas. I was hooked. I grew my herd to 60 animals and they became my whole world outside of my own children. I've had people ask me how long it takes to care for 60 chinchillas and I couldn't tell them. For me it took an entire Saturday from sun up to bedtime to clean all the cages and wash all the bottles. I would have to hug and kiss each of my "babies" as I cleaned out their cages and gave them fresh bottles. I probably spent almost half an hour with each chinchilla. I was fascinated by how different each of them was. I knew everyone by name and each one of their personalities as well as I knew my own children. It was a lot of work keeping up with that many cages but I enjoyed every minute of it. I loved walking to the chin building each night and smelling the chinchilla dust in the air. I loved seeing the little noses sticking out through the bars waiting for the treat they knew I would be passing out. What a gift these little animals were to me.
One day my husband came home from work very troubled because he had been told he had to transfer to a new city. We tried to find a new place that would allow us to keep all of our animals but they transferred him right away and he was having to drive 2 ½ hours to work each day and 3 hours home at night with traffic. It was exhausting for him and I knew he could never keep that up for long. Together we made the decision to move closer to his job without having found a home yet which meant we couldn't take any of our precious pets with us except our dogs.
I agonized over the fact that I must give up my herd and I began to look for a buyer. I had a few inquiries that wanted to know the bottom dollar price and no one was interested in who preferred raisins to dried papaya or who required a little extra attention each night. I turned down a few offers and was beginning to fear that no one would be able to care for my babies the way I did. Finally I found someone in a nearby state that wanted my herd. She was very interested in the animals themselves and I felt good about them going to her. Still it was going to be one the hardest things I ever had to do. I spend extra time with each of them that last week. Memorizing their little faces and whispering to them how much I would miss having them with me. The day came when I would have to say good-bye for the last time. I went out to feed my babies and as I sat in that room with my herd I thought about the journey I had taken with these wonderful animals. Some of them had arrived in that very first group and had been with me through it all. How was I going to be able to say goodbye? These beautiful creatures had become my family and breeding had become a way of life. It was time to close a door to something that had been such a wonderful joy and intrust my family to someone else.
It has been almost 4 months since I sold my herd and not a day goes by when I don't feel an emptiness without them here. I know that I made the right choice in the person who now has them. She keeps in touch and lets me know how everyone is doing and who has given birth. I get pictures of the babies and I am so glad to be able to keep up with them, although its not the same as being there to hold that new little life in your hands.
Is breeding chinchillas easy? After long hours of cleaning and care, burying the ones that pass on, and saying goodbye to the ones that are sold I can honest say "Not at all!" Is breeding chinchillas profitable? After buying our herd, buying a building, putting every dollar made back into food and equipment and new breeders I can honestly say "You'll be lucky if the herd supports itself." Is it worth it? Looking back down the long and bumpy road I took with my herd I can honestly say it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life! I will treasure the memories of each one of my chinchillas forever.
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