Here are some pictures of my chinchilla Ekima. I call her "Choo" for short.

She is 8 years old now and is a homozygous beige mutation.

I really wanted to breed her, but her mate died soon after I got her and I haven't been able to afford another one since and now I think she is just a bit too old to breed from.

Chinchillas come from the Andes in Chile. They have the softest fur in the world with 80 hairs per follicle (that's why they are used for coats. It takes 100 to make a coat :hap:). Because their fur is so dense they rarely get external parasites. They also take dust bathes to keep their fur nice and soft.

I haven't got any recent pictures as my camera is flat, but here are some old ones.

 

On a branch

 

In her hidey ball

 

Having a dust bath.

 

What?

 

She winks at me too. It's cute!

she is a real cutie. I've never seen one before. They look great!

They are like rabbits crossed with squirrels and a hint of kangaroo rat.

:hap: great description!

Oh yeah. They are nocturnal too. So I just have to go put her to bed.

Oh I want one! So Cute!

she is a cutie :hap:

Are there many over in NZ? They're a different looking creature, Ive seen them before but didnt think they were over here (well Nz!)

Any in the wild over there now?

No there are none in the wild. No wild populations, maybe the odd pet that escaped, but they can't really survive in our climate. They are quite sensitive critters and are very sensitive to diet change.

I don't actually know how many there are in NZ, but a quite a few petshops seem to have one or 2 chinchillas.

She is very cute.

It's is sooo cute like a little possum with a squashed face :rofl: ...

How cute. I have never seen one of them - is she tame, i bet she would be lovely to cuddle :rofl:

They aren't really cuddly animals, they prefer to run and play. She comes up to the cage door for treats and enjoys being scratched behind the ear.

When I let her out to run her favourite thing is to run up to a closed door and bounce off of it. Yes she literally bounces off walls.

They are little poop machines though. Their poop is like mouse poop, so it doesn't stain or anything. She just leaves a little trail of pellets sometimes hehe.

They are like possums even in temperament then :rofl: My little brushtail girl here loves to come out and play but she doesn't want to be held she just wants to run up and sit on your shoulder or leap onto the topof her cage and hunt for treats I might have hidden up there :rofl:

 

 

Are they climbers or more of a ground animal?

Yes and no?

They like height, but they don't have claws to hang on to branches with, rather they perch on them instead and bounce and jump off of them.

Ekima is in one of those double storey aviary cages that have a house roof and are usually green. She has lots of platforms made of wood and branches to climb on. In the Andes they live in the rocks and cliff faces of the mountains, hiding in holes or climbing. They are sort of like mountain goats then really.

They share burrows with a little mouse called the chinchilla mouse too (I think that is its name). Really fascinating little creatures.

Their digestive tracts don't tolerate a lot of green food and they rely on hay and dried grasses and the odd fruit from a special cactus plant that lives up there. Needless to say I feed her pellets, seed and hay. No greens except as a treat.

Edited December 16, 200816 yr by Sailorwolf

so cute SW, my girlfriends has one, I don't know much about them but I love to watch them.