Biggest mistakes

[InkedupTara]

Oh man, I had a tiny cage, and a hay ball. I had not so bad treats, but they are not good ones either. I had the death ball but never used it. I had even taken him to visit people because I didnt know it would stress him out, so like a puppy he went to visit family with me. Thankfully, I found these wonderful few forums I belong to!

 

[jess32247]

I got my chin from my friend who got her from another friend (who got her from yet another friend!!), and really only had a full day to research about chins because it was a unplanned event getting her. (Literally my friend called me and said her sister couldn't care for her, next day we were picking her up!) When I got her, she came with a tiny little cage with a wire ledge attached to the cage, one actual wooden ledge, and a tiny 12" wire wheel. Luckily the bottom of her cage was wood, so she wasn't walking on wires all the time.

My friend (and the people before her) didn't take care of her too well, they never let her out and put her into a death ball once and a while to run, gave her a little bit of hay, ect. But my mistakes were, not chin proofing my room enough, I had to buy my mom a new $200 shark vacuum a few months ago along with a new pair of head phones for me. I was also giving way to many treats (like 4-5 rasins a day!), now she gets only a half a rasin every few days. Also getting her a mixed food (was mostly pellets, but had a lil bit of mix to it) VERY bad choice!!

 

[tcraighenry]

I did a fair amount of research before I got my first, but my biggest mistake was trusting the person I got them from! Not only did I believe her that they were both BOYS, but I also didn't bother to check for myself before taking them. Although I'm not sure knowing would have changed anything, but it would have been nice to know I was getting a male/female pair ahead of time :\

Me too

 

[~Alex~]

But my mistakes were, not chin proofing my room enough, I had to buy my mom a new $200 shark vacuum a few months ago along with a new pair of head phones for me. I was also giving way to many treats (like 4-5 rasins a day!), now she gets only a half a rasin every few days. Also getting her a mixed food (was mostly pellets, but had a lil bit of mix to it) VERY bad choice!!

I can relate to the headphones! I made the mistake of leaving mine on top of Ernie's cage and he completely shredded the wire...haha Other then that...I think my only mistake so far was getting overly excited and bugging him way too much in the first week that I had him. Although it probably wasnt anything too terrible I think it may have stressed him out more because of that. I did tons of research before I got a chinchilla and this site definitely helped as well as Susan, who I got him from.

Or maybe forgetting his ledges was a mistake too...haha I forgot them at susan's house but she brought them to me. He was sooo happy when I put them in his cage and he wouldnt stop jumping! hehe <3 I think ive done pretty good for a first time chin owner though which Im really proud of. A few weeks before I met ernie I almost bought a chin from a petstore and was listening to all the guy's terrible advice...and I was going to get him a cage which would have been much too small! So glad I didnt waste all that money!

 

[Godofgods]

what would you say are the biggest mistakes that either you have made or you have heard of new owners making?

Not knowing my girl was pregnant. Not knowing she gave birth (since i was expecting it). Since i didn't know he was alive, I didn't notice he escaped the cage. Then my ferrets found him under the fridge while out to play one day.
Id say thats at the top of the list...

(FYI: the kit, Houdini, is doing just fine. Hes about 1.5 yr old now)

 

[jess32247]

I can relate to the headphones! I made the mistake of leaving mine on top of Ernie's cage and he completely shredded the wire...haha

Hehe so I'm not the only one! I actually left two pairs of headphones out and she got to them both, one was my school one, kind of sucks because it had a mic on it and I needed it for spanish class at the time! The other one was just a cheap pair.. oh well

 

[Kialana]

I did a good amount of research as I was communicating with my chin's foster mom before i got him. During that time (she was hard to reach because she was out of town and the people taking care of him never contacted me so it took months before I got to see him) I had gotten raisins and a package of the overpriced apple wood sticks. I also got Kaytee Hay and a chinchiller. Guess which of these he still has today. The week before i got him however I discovered this site, read tons of stuff including the New Owners Master FAQs. After that I gave the raisins to my husband (I hate raisins!) and ordered a bunch of stuff from Essentia including pellets, dust, rosehips, haycubes, flower salad, and cookies.

When I got him though I discovered he came with a cage that had plastic shelves which he had clearly chewed on, along with mediocre food that had "treats" in it. I had to make wooden shelves which to a bit of adjusting on his behalf (one of the pastic shelves had a circle in it), and slowly got him more stuff like a fleece tube which he loves. Currently I'm working on moving him into a 161 Critter Nation I found on Craigslist. Just have to finish the shelves since the others can't come out of the cage (the bolts got stripped).

So thanks to this site I went from being totally clueless to being at least moderately informed!

 

[JacknRum]

I never had planned on getting chinchillas, but a friend had two with supplies that they wanted to get rid of, and they had nowhere to go so I offered to take them. I spent a week researching as much as humanly possible, so when they came to me with a plastic bottomed cage with plastic shelves, plastic hides and tunnels, etc. I mostly knew what to do. I eventually got them set up in a portion of my FN and got them all wooden levels and such.

I would say my biggest mistake was being completely lost about food and in a pinch when I got them. They came to me with NO food, NO hay, NO dust. I had to go out and buy what I could get at the store. It ended up not being the worst thing ever. I got some oxbow hay, some sort of generic chinchilla food (At least I knew not to get anything with candy bits, etc.), and Blue Cloud Dust.

Even now, I am still learning very much. I've only just now experienced my first chin illness, and going through that has certainly taught me a lot. Seeing everyone's cages and hearing everyone's stories has given me tons of ideas of what is and isn't allowed. (I've been going with the bare minimum, thinking they'd be good. But with Jack's brother's passing, I am trying to keep him very busy and occupied and spoiled.)

 

[Encantadora]

Hmm, maybe the wire ladder I didn't take out? I had a super pet cage at first but my chin didn't chew it so that wasn't my biggest problem.

 

[chinnmyheart]

I got my first two chins from a pet store, they were a male and female pair and she was pregnant at the time...The petstore also had a baby available and they talked me into buying her as well and said that chins never ever will hurt a baby so I come home with all three and happily put them together in the brand new cage I had, then went off to the store to buy more toys for them....I came back a couple hours later to a dead baby...I was beside myself with guilt! I learned my lesson the hard way and now I research and research and then research even more before I ever bring home any animal....

Wow this is real sad... I feel your pain as I read this.

 

[kurilla22]

Other than have one of those hay balls in the beginning I would have to say my biggest mistake was buying plastic water bottles. I thought it would be fine since they are on the outside of the cage but NOPE! My girl is a major chewer and I woke up one morning, checked on her as usual and noticed all of her water was gone. So i filled it back up and as I walked back over to the cage my leg felt wet and when i looked down i noticed a small hole at the bottom of the bottle. She reached it through the darn cage and chewed it over night.