Thank you for the advice! I decided to just get one chinchilla. I don't think I have room for two cages at my current address but I am looking to move so hopefully I'll move into something roomier.
You already mentioned having a cage for the chin, but just as an example a Ferret Nation cage (which is very popular with a few alterations) is also nice because you can block off the second floor access point if need be, and you suddenly have two cages.
Those are my two Ferret Nation cages if you haven't seen one before. You can see the cut out spot to the second floor in the front left. You can cover that up, and it becomes two cages.
Out of curiosity, what would happen if you left the dust bath in the chin's cage all the time? And what happens to chinchillas that don't get dust baths?
If you leave sand in all the time, or if you give it to them too often, there skin can become very dry. Theirs probably more to it then just that, but i don't recall atm.
I read on here how to tell the difference between sexes and it looks pretty easy. I visited the pet store today to see the chinchillas and buy a few things and the people told me they can't sex animals for legal reasons. The girls were very hesitant to touch the chinchillas, they acted like they would break the second they touched them. It made me wonder if one got hurt being handled in the past. At least they were being gentle though, I respect that. I've seen people whip ferrets around like it was nobody's business and it's aggravating.
It can be harder then you think sometimes. When my girl had her second litter, i myself mistook the sexes. I though they were males. Since i had separated all males and females to avoid any more babies, i was intro the kits to there father and brother. I had posted a pic on here about it, and im glad some ppl pointed out that they were in fact females. That would have been a disaster otherwise. But now mommy has some company in her cage, so im happy about that.
As a ferret owner my whole life, as an animal person, heck even as a decent human being, let me say i wish those ppl had the whips taken from them and used on em instead of the pet. Thats horrible.
On the other side, i don't even see what they were trying to accomplish. You cant rly train them very much.
As for the delicate handling of a chin, there actually is a good reason for that. They are in fact very delicate. They also have a floating rib cage which can be injured from too tight/hard a grip on them. - When you hold one you will see how smooth that fur is. It makes it much easier for them to escape your grasp, even if you have a good one. Most ppls initial reaction to to grip harder. Thats where some danger can come in. You can do some serious damage of your not careful and grip to hard.
LOL You're so funny, I'm sure it wasn't that bad =D
oh, in there defense... it was lol.
My comp was lagging up a lot. So i would type a few sentences and the comp would be trying to catch up. As a result it would type part of a sentence, then part of a different one, then part of the original, then part of yet another different one. It got bad. That combined with my less then stiller grammar and spelling.... it looked horrendous.
Ideally I'd like a young chinchilla, maybe not an eight week old baby, but young. How old should I shoot for with 1 inch bar spacing? 6 months or so? Thank you!
Its more a question of size then age. And i don't have an exact answer for that. The trouble i came across with my kits growing up was as they got bigger and could no longer fit between the bars, they would still try. And they would get themselves stuck.
One time my girl tried and got her head through but couldn't get her body through. And she started panicking. So glad i was right there at the time to help her, or she may have seriously injured herself.
That being said, i would guess 6 months is likely a decent age to not worry. But it depends on the chin and there size rly. (Its been about 3 years since my youngest's were at that age.)
