Belated Christmas pics + update (microphthalmia chin, for those who haven't seen one)

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Amphy64

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
Messages
224
Hi, here's some late Christmas pics of my lot, Henry (standard), Anna Maria (black velvet) and no-longer-so-little Charlotte (standard)! Linking to the Photobucket album directly because it drives me mad faffing around shrinking them:
http://s55.photobucket.com/user/Ampharos64/library/Chinchilla Christmas 2016

As you can see in my pics of Charlotte (now one year old, will be two at end of June), she was born with microphthalmia (her mum was pregnant when I got her), very small, not fully developed eyes, with cataract on one. The other eye unfortunately doesn't stay open at all (vet said it's too small so not enough pressure to keep it open) and was initially prone to infection, but has seemed Ok for some time now so fingers crossed. She is most likely fully or almost entirely blind, but gets around very well, the only difference that's really noticeable is that she's easier to catch and can get disorientated in new areas. She's an odd chin, a character, it's hard to tell with chins because they're usually bats anyway and she's only my third and each differ in their own way, but I have wondered if there's something else going on with her, it's hard to pinpoint and maybe it's actually just she moves subtly differently because of her vision, but she seems a bit 'off', but happy with it. Maybe it's that she lives with her mum but she still seems like a baby sometimes - I caught her trying to fit upside down underneath Anna Maria the other day like she did when she was tiny, which didn't work very well! If she finds something fun, popping in and out of the cardboard castle, climbing up me as she's just learnt to do, she tends to want to do it again, and again, and again. :confused1: Henry can be pretty focused on a toy but he wouldn't have the attention span and is just too nosy to stay put - it can look oddly repetitive by what I'd considered usual chin standards (haha, probably there is no such thing, all of mine are nutty in individual ways), though maybe her vision issue encourages her to stick with what's in front of her or has already worked out is there rather than venture off to search for other amusement. All three enjoyed Christmas but she was utterly thrilled.

She has beautiful fur now she's an adult, your hand just bounces off it (she is from show lines though obvs will never be bred), but while basically friendly tends to grumble at me if I touch her now, not sure all the treatment for eye infections as a baby helped get her used to handling.
 
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