blog.chinchillasource.com

I’ve been slaving away on my house the past few months.  It’s been a huge revovation and we’ve not been able to live there.  But, hopefully, we’ll be in by the end of February, and the chinchillas will have new climate controlled diggs.  It’s a bit cramped right now.

I’m also planning on recording some videos, so please let me know if there is something you’d like to see.

Black velvets for sale!

I’ll really like this girl, so I might keep her…

It’s not often we see chinchillas on TV… so I really enjoyed this!  But why is it chinchilli (not chinchilla) day?

We’ve been getting many request for mutations (sapphires, violets, mosaics, etc.) lately.  I know these are established colors now, but I hope the people looking for mutations aren’t planning on breeding.  The backbone of any breeding program is the standard.  If you aren’t producing quality standards you’ll never achieve quality mutations.  Consider starting out with a standard gray - they’re beautiful and healthy!

Right now we only breed standards, black velvets, and beiges.  I have one ebony girl still in breeding and I’m thinking about adding a mosaic run, but I don’t think I’ll ever go beyond that.  It’s just too difficult to deal in that many colors unless you have thousands of chinchillas!

Now some good news! We’ve had a recent baby boom here, and with that we have a couple of new black velvets!  Many have been asking when we would have some, so they may be available in a couple of months.

Also, this week brings the annual show in York, Pennsylvania.  I hope to see some of you there!  I’ll only be showing one chinchilla this year (I’ve sold too many lately) but I’ll be looking for more standards. 

Just a few days old!

I’ve been answering questions on yahoo answers for a little while, and I’ve noticed similar questions seem to pop up again and again. Looking around the web I realize this questions have been answered in various places, but they are not always easy to find.

I thought I’d create a page to help answer some of those questions, but feel free to provide your own questions (or answers!) and we’ll add them to the page.

Before you have a room full of chinchillas be warned… it will take you forever to clean!  Of course, would be easier if I had slide out pans, but chinchillas are much more comfortable on solid bottoms.

The routine?  I have to take out the chinchillas (one section at a time, so I don’t get them confused!) so I can clean each cage.  Each pan gets rinsed off and dried, then refilled with the bedding.

This can take several hours to complete.

I wonder how the large ranchers do it.  They must break them into sections, so as not to do them all in one day. Plus, I’m sure they have paid help.

I’m currently renovating, so I hope to design a play area they can hang out in while I’m cleaning.  Then maybe the children would help me more!

Cleaning cages is certainly the biggest downside of owning a chincilla, or any caged pet.  Think about that before you get too many chinchillas!  A few are just fine.

We’re anxiously awaiting our first kits of the year X!  (if you didn’t know, to avoid confusion all years are assigned a letter for chinchilla date keeping).  I’ve got to get up the picture of the cute little standard who was our last born of 2007 - almost two weeks old!  

I haven’t determined the gender yet.  I have to add a page on identifying males and females this week, as that’s a question I get frequently.  I’m also planning on adding a page on building chinchilla toys and houses.

Any other suggestions?

Feel free to ask questions here and I’ll address them in future posts AND add them to the website!

Welcome to the chinchilla blog.  Here we’ll be able to discuss chinchillas, shows, news, problems and ideas! I look forward to your comments.

Feel free to chime in anytime to comment on things that should be added to the website (the chinchilla source) so we can continue to create the best resource on the web.

I was hoping to make it to the first chinchilla show of the in Jenera, Ohio next weekend, but I’ve got nothing to show right now (too old, too young, or not in their prime).  Is anyone else going?  I went last year and it was a good show - all the big breeders are there, but very few hobby breeders.

Looking forward to all things chinchilla!