How old is OLD?

[Nana]

Hi. Chins could live up to 15~20 years, right?
So, how old do you consider a chin to be a "senior" chin?
What about 4 years old. Not young, but not old...:hmm:

 

[chin_gal]

4 years old is young! My oldest chinchilla lived to about 13, and that was up there, but I still wouldn't consider that a senior. I'd say a senior would be around 18-25 years old, although I have heard of a chinchilla up to the age of 28-29 I believe.

 

[AZChins]

I'd put senior at about 10 to 12 years old...anything older than that definitely would be a senior chinchilla most definitely. Some chins will live a lot longer than others, longevity is genetic as well as environmental.

I think chinnie middle age is around 7 to 8 years old. Any chin younger than that is young, in my opinion.

 

[chinsNdobermans]

I think around 10 or so for chins, although I might be inclined to lean towards 7 or 8 like with dogs and cats. 4 is definitely young in chinchilla years!

 

[Sesame]

hmm... so what's the "conversion" of chin years to human years?

I know some people say that 1 dog year is about 7 human years...but, what about chins?

 

[kogia]

Take the average lifespan of a human, compare it to the average lifespan of a chinnie (first we'd all need to agree on that...). Some simple math would do the trick...

for example: avg lifespan of a chinnie=10yrs, avg. lifespan of a human in the USA*= 80yrs. That gives us a 1:8 ratio, 8 human years = 1 chin years.

But then again, I may be totally wrong....



*this is pretty important

 

[AZChins]

That's probably just about right. I've always told people that it was similar to dogs...7 or 8 chinnie years to every 1 human year.

 

[starleomach]

I have a 17 year old here that is now retired but had a kit over the summer )her last one) I would say 12+ is old

 

[3CsMommy]

The oldest recorded thus far was just a few weeks short of his 29th birthday. He passed on in late 2008 or early 2009 Iirc, a ranch bred stud in the UK.

 

[AZChins]

I heard something about a 31 year old chin once...but that was probably just not true. LOL

29 is so incredibly old...that would be something like 200 years old in chin years! Wow, that is amazing. I'd want some kits from that boy...

 

[3CsMommy]

He was apparently one heck of a prolific guy too. Let me see if I can find the listing...

Well, this isn't the one I was thinking of, but he was way up there: http://www.chinchillas4life.co.uk/

1977 to the present would make him 31ish now.

 

[tunes]

Susan, JAGS had a chin in it's upper 20's I believe, and Ashleigh from Golden Chinchillas in Colorado had a male still actively breeding at 30 or 31, I can't remember which. That might be who you are thinking of.

I agree, I would consider 12+ to be creeping into the senior category. A 4-year-old is just a youngun.

 

[AZChins]

That could be it. I remember Ashleigh's mom telling me about their old guy.