Adopting from craigslist?

[~Alex~]

I was just curious as to what you guys think about adoting CL chins? Especially if you know you could give them a much better home? I saw one today, a boy who seems to be in a very small cage with terrible plastic shelves! His fur seems in fine condition...what do yolu guys think? I know shes asking way too much for him at $300 especially for a petstore chin and he comes with everything which I would throw away knowing me (especially the death ball!)

http://tucson.craigslist.org/pet/2876316486.html heres his post.

What do you guys think about adopting CL chins? She says he is only a year and that she is moving so needs to get rid of him...breaks my heart!

 

[Raisinggrace]

Personally, I think of it as rescuing some chins. I got my second girl just recently off of Craigslist and while she is in good health everything she came with was just all wrong. Plastic shelves, death ball, yogurt drops and terrible food. However, she has the best personality ever and already is settled in and making herself known. i wouldn't trade her with anything and she is already best friends with my previous girl and it only took a little over a month for them to bond. I won't look back and now she is in a healthy happy home and is on a correct diet. That person asking 300$ is way overpriced, in my area are standards on cl including everything run from like 60$-125$. Best of luck and hope you can help that poor chinnie!!!

 

[~Alex~]

I was considering it...She said if i would go to $250 it would be a deal. I know if I commit to this it will be a little hard because he will have to be kept in a seperate room for 30 days which is no problem really but I would definitely have to invest in a better cage. That wouldnt be too hard to arrange though...then I would see if I could introduce him to my beige boy...$250 is still very expensive! I can afford it but its just sooo much for a standard.

 

[Crys12065]

My Delilah was from CL. I got her last May and she was my first chin. She is also my sweetest chinchilla and loves scritches and attention. She also came with all the wrong things, but her family meant well. They just went by the Chinchilla handbook and even gave it to me to learn all about chins, lol
I would not trade Delilah for the world, she is the best!

I thin the chins on CL deserve to have good homes and as long as you quarantine for the appropriate time then I see no issues.

The price is really high though. I got Delilah who is a mosaic with her cage, dustbath and everything for $75. Of course I had to modify the cage because it was full of plastic but it was usable.

Maybe you can talk them down on price? Good luck! He looks like a sweetie!

 

[Crys12065]

I was considering it...She said if i would go to $250 it would be a deal. I know if I commit to this it will be a little hard because he will have to be kept in a seperate room for 30 days which is no problem really but I would definitely have to invest in a better cage. That wouldnt be too hard to arrange though...then I would see if I could introduce him to my beige boy...$250 is still very expensive! I can afford it but its just sooo much for a standard.

If that is not the chin you want then you should pass. I know we want to save them all, believe me I do! But if I took home every chin on CL I would have 25 chins by now!

Follow your heart.

Also depending on the kind of cage he is in you may be able to just modify it with wood ledges and stuff without spending more money on a new cage right away.

 

[~Alex~]

I am definitely trying to I will be willing to do 200 to give this guy a new start even if I will be getting rid of 90% of everything he comes with...I have a spare bedroom in my house which will be perfect for him to be quarintined in though it is just very secluded so I will try to keep him company as much as possible before he moves into my bedroom.

I brought up the point that he was only a standard colored chinchilla and that I thought 200 was fair since he came with everything and I would take him off her hands as soon as possible. hehe I dont think my mom will be too happy but she will get over it especially if he is a sweetheart <3 she loves ernie even though she wasnt crazy about me getting him

 

[Dreamlite]

Most people on craigslist seem to over value what they have. Just caus ethey paid 150 for a standard at a pet store of unknown backround and age, doesn't mean they can resell it in cl and make back what they spent. Most of my rescues come from cl people who finally realise they can 'sell' them and give up on waiting to find good homes. And its not like they are sending a large nice cage with tons of extras. Its a used cage. You can buy them all day on cl for 20 to 50. Ask if she will sell the chin seporate if you really like him. If she's moving she's on a deadline, so she will either drop the price or she will have to take him along.

 

[kerri101]

I don't think there are to many that will give 300 now for a standard chin so chin probably wont go fast...I am sure they will find that out....maybe they will drop the price then ....I can def relate to wanting to take an animal out of a awkward situation though....If are able to do it thats really sweet

 

[~Alex~]

Yea, if she says no then playing the waiting game is the best bet. I will just let her know I am still interested if she decides to drop the price and to email me back if she decides to. I tried to ask for just him but she said she doesnt want the supplies either so he has to go all together.

Or I could just get unlucky and some idiot with totally drop 300 for him...which would be terrible...

Exactly on the used cage. I got this wonderful big huge one from susan for 45 with Ernie...so we will see how this goes.

 

[AZChins]

You can adopt with Craig's List...but you don't have to if the chin isn't what you want. A lot of people really overcharge for chins and cages and things on there. I'm sure that I will have someone here that would work for you, and it wouldn't be anywhere near $300 for one...that's just crazy money.

 

[~Alex~]

Haha I know susan your chins are great And yes that is crazy money! She hasnt emailed back so now I doubt she will be doing so at all. I have no doubt you have someone special that will be great for Ernie and for me but I almost have a save the world attitude. I think a lot of us on here do! It's a little sad just to know you could give the chin a better home but not for outragoues prices! I could buy like 4 chins from you for that kind of dough! haha

 

[meiying]

I once considered adopting a chin from Kijiji, a standard grey male chin, the owner didnt list how much she wanted for, so i text her and she wanted to sell it for $200, then i text her back and said it was too much for a chin plus i did not need any cage, accessaries and toys because I had everything, she text me back and lowered it too $100, i did not reply, then she text me again and asked "How about $60?" I said I would think about it.

At the same time, a couple wanted to give their chin away for free with everything, emailed her and she seemed very sincere to find a good home for her chin. Saw the pic of the chin and it looked fine so i decided to adopt him. The night before i adopted him i looked up some chins pic online, saw the same chin pic that the owner posted on Kijiji from other web sites , turned out she just found a pic online and posted it as her chin's. I had a bed feeling about the adoption. SO when i saw the chin in person, i was shocked but not surprised: half of his fur was gone! He looked nothing like the pic on Kijiji!!! (Duh) He had a serious fur-chewing problem, he smelled like baby-powder, half of the plastic bath house was chewed away, his poops were dry and small, he had no hay no fresh pellets, no toys.....etc It was horrible..... But the chin was so cute and full of personality, was a bit aggressive but he is getting better. I have no regrets of adopting him because I knew it would be extremely hard for him to find a good home.

Oh there are so many chins waiting to be adopted online

 

[ChinnyMom]

my Guss was free from kijiji, which is a more popular online classified here in Canada than craigslist. he came with nothing but a small bunny cage that we used for transporting him here (i didn't have a carrier with me, since i was 'going to look at him' the day he came home. yeah.... we all know how that works! lol.

i totally hear y'all about chins and their crappy supplies being horridly overpriced on craigslist, etc! when i first saw Guss's ad, they wanted something like 200 for him, his cage (actually a decent one, the FN look-a-like but with only one side of doors opening), and a boatload of plastic crud. it's actually good that i talked the seller into just giving me Guss and selling the cage separate, because everything but the cage itself would have been thrown out as soon as i got it all home, and the cage would have needed some major revamping to make it nice (it had wire ramps and metal shelves with gaps all around the edges, ugh).

if you feel in your heart that this chin is meant to come home to you, and you have the resources to care for two chins, then go for it!

 

[Lillybabe]

I'd also like to mention if you're going to get a chin from CL make sure you have a good exotics vet and the money to spend on one. Any chin can have health issues but one from an unknown home found on CL is going to be more likely to have them. Also, I worry how well someone took care of a chin if they only had them a few months. Most petstores here sell chins when they are like 3-6 months old, way past the age many breeders sell them at. To me that implies they are chins that were bred that the breeder couldn't get more for or could not sell themselves, or possibly didn't *shudder* make good pelt material. I do not know if this is 100% but I question chinchillas that aren't even placed in a store until they are nearly full grown. One of the places here had a chin they wanted 179.99 for that looked to be a year old. He was also in an aquarium with only a plastic igloo, water bottle, bedding, and what looked like a bowl of the "bulk" chinchilla feed you can get from the bins. Yes we want to save them all, but we can only do so much. If we tried to save them all we'd end up trying to feed ourselves and our chinchillas while living in a cardboard box somewhere...

 

[Jenn]

I got my beautiful mosaic girl, Tinkerbell - many of you have seen her - and her cage and supplies for $100 3 or 4 years ago. I think you just have to be smart about any purchase you make, including on craigslist. Some people will try to rip you off and others are honest people who need to rehome their pet for one reason or another. My girl was separated from a group of 6 because she didn't get along with the others. The owner was moving long distance, and made the decision to part with this chin. I got a beautiful and healthy chin and all of her supplies for very little money.

 

[momenteller]

I have adopted my beige girl off of CL. She came with a FN and I talked her down to $200. Honestly, the cage wasn't in great shape, and the chin wasn't either, so I'm still kind of irritated about the whole thing. Not that I regret giving Cleo a great home-- I don't. But it bothers me that I gave this girl more money than she deserved when I could have given the money to a worthy rescue.

If I had Susan nearby, I would certainly be headed there!

 

[AZChins]

Alex - I just don't want you to have to spend an absolute fortune on the chin. There are a lot of people that overcharge for chins and really you'd just be helping out someone with your hard earned money. We're talking about spending $200 or $250 on a chin that doesn't have any history.

I want you to do what makes you happy, but bear in mind that on April 1st I have a leeeetle baby boy grey that will be ready to go. He was raised with love and care and happy parents. I'll tell you the price some other time...I don't want to unfairly influence your decisions.

 

[Pooky125]

I got my boys off Craig's List. They were free, with cage and all supplies (death ball included!) The cage was on the smaller side, but not unbearably so. They stuck with it for a few months until I could get their real cage put together. They came with ok quality orchard grass and some crappy Kaytee pellets. No fruit included though! The owners were genuinely sweet and wanted what was best for them. I still have their number in my phone, they made me promise to call them if I ever had to give the boys up. I will. The situation wasn't perfect, but it certainly wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories I hear out there. They were healthy, though a bit on the thin side. I've taken care of that quick enough. I don't regret it for a day.

 

[~Alex~]

Yea all of that is very true, I dont want to regret spending the money on a chin..(not regret the chin I would never haha)

The no history thing is a very big thing to me too. For all I know he could have this huge family history or malo or any other genetic thing that can happen (even though malo isnt really genetic...) and I would have no idea of it until like 2000 dollars later in vet bills....

Haha oh susan you always know how to sway me too. Not to mention your expecting mothers as well do you ever breed ebonies? Just tell me on Sunday when I head up there Ill be able to meet him then too. haha you have the cutest babies <3

Well on him all I can really do now is just hope he ends up with someone who actually knows what they are doing! Poor boy...I love seing all these stories though about CL chins who went to all you wonderful people just wonderful.

 

[AZChins]

See, that's the thing. I want all the chins to have good homes so much! Once they are here, they are safe and nothing bad is ever going to happen to them. Out in the real world away from my fuzzy little happy world I can't control what happens! Those chins need good homes, it isn't their fault that they are on Craig's List. Then again, if they really need to go, people can always call me and the chins can come to live here.

I'm always conflicted about this type of thing. I want people to get a good deal on things but I also want all the chins to have happy homes.

And, Alex, yes, sometimes I have ebonies. I'll just tell you on Sunday and show you some of the chins here.