Aloha!
Guess I'll introduce myself before I start asking questions. My name is Tina and I'm about to get my first 2 chinchillas. I live on the Big Island of Hawai'i. My chins are coming from a breeder in Honolulu. I've wanted chinchillas for several years now. I've been voraciously reading everything I could find online about chinchillas and I've watched a gazillion YouTube videos over the last 14 months. I consider myself a fairly crafty person and am planning on making quite a bit of my own wood and fleece items. I grew up on a farm, raised livestock, and was a 4-h member. I have raised and shown English bulldogs and toy poodles.
Let me introduce my chins... Joey was born 5/13/16. She is pedigreed and is considered a Standard Sc 50% RPAc. She's a gorgeous little girl with a wonderful disposition. If I lived on the mainland, I would be showing her. These pictures were taken at 5 weeks old.
Her cage buddy will be Kira. She too is pedigreed and she is a dark Ebony. As with Joey, I'd be showing her if I could. Everything points to her being as wonderful as Joey, but that could change as Kira was born 7/25/16 and is only 2 weeks old. This photo were taken that first day.
My girls will be coming home mid-September when the weather has cooled off and Kira has been weaned. My 1-story critter nation arrived yesterday and my 2 add-ons should be here next week. So that means I'll have a 3-story to play with. Until they each weigh about 300 grams, they will only have 1-story to explore, expanding to 3-story when they get a bit bigger. I'm planning to set it up so no one can fall more than about 6". I have pine shelves, ledges and a hidey hut. In fleece, I have hammocks, a cube, some tunnels and my cage liners (I think I probably went a little overboard here, heh). I have a 16-inch super quiet, solid metal wheel, but it won't be offered until they gain some weight as well. Because I live on lava rocks, I thought I'd take advantage of that and am planning to custom make a rock "zone", something with tunnels and caves to explore. I'll scrub, boil and bake my rocks before putting them together with a non-toxic glue. I want to make sure they can't move the rocks and have an accident.
They'll be in my room as that's where I spend most of my time (I telecommute from home) and I have an air conditioner in here to keep it about 70-72°. I'm going to feed Oxbow (which is what they have been on since birth) with a second-cut Timothy hay and a few alfalfa cubes. Treats will be oatmeal, rose hips, goji berries, bite-size unfrosted shredded wheat and Cheerios (max of 1 "something" a day). I did get some raisins which I plan to cut into thirds and will only use them for training. When they are older and bigger, their play area will be my room. All my wires have been hidden (either run in the wall or moulding put up to cover them), and I've ordered a waterproof type blanket to throw on my bed while they are out. My bed sits on the floor so they won't be able to get under it.
And finally, I've added quite a bit of chin-only first aid items to my animal kit. I believe having everything I can think of that I might need to cover any incidents or ailments on hand before they are needed. I started my animal kit nearly 10 years ago for my dogs. As I get a new animal, I add whatever is specific to them. I've since added cat and chicken stuff... It's amazing how many things can be used cross-species. I mark expiration dates on everything and replace as needed to keep current. I have made sure my local vet has seen chinchillas before... Living isolated on an island doesn't give me many options but she seems to be knowledgeable about my dogs and cats so I think she'll be ok. I'm fairly competent taking care of most things at home and while she's not here, my cousin is an exotics vet in Arizona so she's available 24/7/365.
I'm a bit OCD (can you tell, heh) and am more than excited for my girls to be coming home next month!! Until then, I keep searching for sites I haven't read yet, re-watching videos, questioning and confirming everything I *think* is right! My hobby is photography so I expect I'll be sharing lots of images with those questions...So... That's me and my Chinnie girls. If anything I've written sounds off, please, please let me know!!
I'm really looking forward to meeting you all here. The forum seems to be fairly active. I've found a few other forums, but they seem to be mostly inactive with just 1 or 2 still reading and answering posts. Have met some nice people for sure, but living on an island, I'm really looking for a community - somewhere with other Chinnie-loving people!
Mahalo,
~ Tina
Guess I'll introduce myself before I start asking questions. My name is Tina and I'm about to get my first 2 chinchillas. I live on the Big Island of Hawai'i. My chins are coming from a breeder in Honolulu. I've wanted chinchillas for several years now. I've been voraciously reading everything I could find online about chinchillas and I've watched a gazillion YouTube videos over the last 14 months. I consider myself a fairly crafty person and am planning on making quite a bit of my own wood and fleece items. I grew up on a farm, raised livestock, and was a 4-h member. I have raised and shown English bulldogs and toy poodles.
Let me introduce my chins... Joey was born 5/13/16. She is pedigreed and is considered a Standard Sc 50% RPAc. She's a gorgeous little girl with a wonderful disposition. If I lived on the mainland, I would be showing her. These pictures were taken at 5 weeks old.
Her cage buddy will be Kira. She too is pedigreed and she is a dark Ebony. As with Joey, I'd be showing her if I could. Everything points to her being as wonderful as Joey, but that could change as Kira was born 7/25/16 and is only 2 weeks old. This photo were taken that first day.
My girls will be coming home mid-September when the weather has cooled off and Kira has been weaned. My 1-story critter nation arrived yesterday and my 2 add-ons should be here next week. So that means I'll have a 3-story to play with. Until they each weigh about 300 grams, they will only have 1-story to explore, expanding to 3-story when they get a bit bigger. I'm planning to set it up so no one can fall more than about 6". I have pine shelves, ledges and a hidey hut. In fleece, I have hammocks, a cube, some tunnels and my cage liners (I think I probably went a little overboard here, heh). I have a 16-inch super quiet, solid metal wheel, but it won't be offered until they gain some weight as well. Because I live on lava rocks, I thought I'd take advantage of that and am planning to custom make a rock "zone", something with tunnels and caves to explore. I'll scrub, boil and bake my rocks before putting them together with a non-toxic glue. I want to make sure they can't move the rocks and have an accident.
They'll be in my room as that's where I spend most of my time (I telecommute from home) and I have an air conditioner in here to keep it about 70-72°. I'm going to feed Oxbow (which is what they have been on since birth) with a second-cut Timothy hay and a few alfalfa cubes. Treats will be oatmeal, rose hips, goji berries, bite-size unfrosted shredded wheat and Cheerios (max of 1 "something" a day). I did get some raisins which I plan to cut into thirds and will only use them for training. When they are older and bigger, their play area will be my room. All my wires have been hidden (either run in the wall or moulding put up to cover them), and I've ordered a waterproof type blanket to throw on my bed while they are out. My bed sits on the floor so they won't be able to get under it.
And finally, I've added quite a bit of chin-only first aid items to my animal kit. I believe having everything I can think of that I might need to cover any incidents or ailments on hand before they are needed. I started my animal kit nearly 10 years ago for my dogs. As I get a new animal, I add whatever is specific to them. I've since added cat and chicken stuff... It's amazing how many things can be used cross-species. I mark expiration dates on everything and replace as needed to keep current. I have made sure my local vet has seen chinchillas before... Living isolated on an island doesn't give me many options but she seems to be knowledgeable about my dogs and cats so I think she'll be ok. I'm fairly competent taking care of most things at home and while she's not here, my cousin is an exotics vet in Arizona so she's available 24/7/365.
I'm a bit OCD (can you tell, heh) and am more than excited for my girls to be coming home next month!! Until then, I keep searching for sites I haven't read yet, re-watching videos, questioning and confirming everything I *think* is right! My hobby is photography so I expect I'll be sharing lots of images with those questions...So... That's me and my Chinnie girls. If anything I've written sounds off, please, please let me know!!
I'm really looking forward to meeting you all here. The forum seems to be fairly active. I've found a few other forums, but they seem to be mostly inactive with just 1 or 2 still reading and answering posts. Have met some nice people for sure, but living on an island, I'm really looking for a community - somewhere with other Chinnie-loving people!
Mahalo,
~ Tina
