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So my girlfriend and I have a chinchilla, N00blet. Here is a GIF of her: And as she usually looks:  And one of her bi-pedalling:  Anywho, my GF got her as a rescue in 2010/11, at which point she was pregnant (didn't know that at the time; a friend of ours has her son). Point being, we don't know her exact age, though our (and the vet's) best guess is about 10. We're thinking of getting another chinchilla, and were wondering if she's still fertile (as would be a consideration if we get a male). Do chinchillas tend to stay fertile throughout their lives, or does it drop off around a certain age? Also, on that note, does anyone know of any chinchilla rescues (or breeders) in or around the SF Bay Area? My GF got N00blet from Sacramento, so we're perfectly fine with a half-day drive.
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Jun 10, 2017 04:54
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:28 |
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I've been busy these past few months, travelling for work and buying a motorcycle. But anyway, back in June we found out that the breeder from which my girlfriend got her chinchilla was closing down, and had to offload around 200 animals. We immediately asked if she had any senior males (as our female is probably around 10), and we ended up with this guy, who we named Barry. Barry turned 12 on the day we picked him up, and was a breeder for all his life. So he had never been an actual pet, really all he knew how to do was reproduce. Even simple things like running at full speed, eating with his hands, and jumping were things he had to get used to. Here he is, immediately after the two hour drive home. He was super stressed, and looking pretty raggedy:  He had a rough couple weeks adjusting, didn't want to eat or drink for awhile. The vet's advice was essentially to force-feed him, which did nothing to help with his stress levels. But he mellowed out and learned the ropes:  A bit later, he figured out the wheel. I really wish I had filmed him experimenting with it; it would have made a nice video accompanied by Also Sprach Zarathustra  After a month or so of supervised visitations, we moved him into N00blet's cage, and they've been bonding really well since:  After 12 years of essentially non-stop loving, we're giving Barry his golden years. 
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Nov 16, 2017 01:00
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Well, it figures that as soon as I posted about Barry, something would come up. We noticed last week that he was more hesitant in taking hay pellets, and looked pretty mopey. Also, his chest was frequently wet, either from him having trouble drinking, or just drooling. We checked his teeth, and they were pretty overgrown. This was the case when we got him (as he didn't really eat for the first few days we had him), but we figured it had gotten better. Took him to the vet, and apparently his pre-molars/molars are overgrown too, one with a big spur. So we need to take him in for a teeth grinding, at a cost of a cozy $750. And of course, this is apparently something that is unlikely to go away, and he may need these treatments as often as every 6 months. And to top it all off, putting rodents under anesthesia always carries some risk. This isn't much fun. We're definitely going to get his teeth fixed this time, but we're likely not able to afford a $750 procedure twice a year. Have to see what happens, I guess. Hopefully he just had a backlog of tooth growth from when he wasn't eating, and this will get him back to a baseline. Capn Jobe fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Nov 29, 2017 |
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Nov 29, 2017 22:25
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Captain Invictus posted:I'm guessing chinchilla teeth aren't like hamsters or guinea pigs where you can just clip the teeth with modeling snippers and they're fine? Front teeth can be easily trimmed like this, but not back teeth, so says the vet. That requires anesthesia and a drill.
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Nov 30, 2017 18:57
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Poor Barry's dentition continues it's downward decline. When we had his teeth ground down in December, they said he should be good for at least 6 months, but he's at least as bad now as he was before. His chin, arms, and chest are regularly covered in a stinky morass of what seems to be drool and partially-chewed food. He is still eating, though not as much as he used to.   The worst part is, as his health has declined, his personality has absolutely blossomed. He's just the absolute best Chinchilla: playful, curious, and enjoys being handled. Also, the coloring on his face is pretty  . At this point we can either pay thousands of dollars a year to keep his teeth trimmed, or put him down. Poor guy.My boss suggested taking him to a veterinary school for teeth trimming, might cost less. Not entirely sure I want to go with the lowest bidder here, but if that's the only option it'd be worth it to keep him around for another few years. Capn Jobe fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Mar 2, 2018 |
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Mar 2, 2018 00:06
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Just gonna leave this here. N00blet (right) went for a pregnancy check last week, as she's added 10-15% to her already-considerable bodyweight. Turns out she's not pregnant, just obese. The vet doesn't seem too concerned about her weight; she's clearly not in any pain, and is quite active (especially considering she's probably about 12). Barry also seems to be doing a bit better. We used a baby-sized hair trimmer to shave some of the gunked-up fur off of his chest and arms, and he does legitimately seem happier for it (I swear he's also eating more, though that could just be that I'm paying more attention). Capn Jobe fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Mar 23, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 23:47
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Well, Barry died yesterday. We knew his teeth issues were a ticking timebomb, but practically overnight he went from "a bit uncomfortable but okay" to "literally dying." Starting on Friday he was super lethargic and could barely walk. I put a call in to the vet, who was out of the office until Sunday. We were gone all day on Saturday, but he was still alive when we got home that night. Yesterday I spoke to the vet, and arranged to bring him in to be put down, but it turns out that wasn't necessary as he was already dead. The good news is, now I'm not stuck wondering if we should have paid to have his teeth trimmed again, as he wouldn't have lived long enough regardless. Also it seems like he went peacefully, and I like that he died at home so he wasn't alone. I would hate to have his final moments be a stressful car ride, and a strange place. We're gonna miss the hell out of this little guy. But he had a good long life; 12 years as a breeding stud, and then another 10 months with us. During his time with us, we taught him the wonders of things like treats, the wheel, and being squished. Seriously, Barry loved to be squished; he was always squirming his way into tight spaces, and often times he'd work his way underneath N00blet just to have her squish him.  And another, showing said squishing: 
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Apr 16, 2018 18:15
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As someone who's lost a few rodents over the years, something to keep in mind: if you treat your pets well (have them in a sizeable cage, let them run around, play with them, feed them well), you've essentially kept them in rodent Nirvana. When we got Barry the chinchilla (RIP) from the breeding farm last year, he'd never been given treats, had a wheel, or really been able to run at all. Point is: we should be proud of the times we have with our pets. It's still no fun to lose them though, RIP Hillary. Also I'm travelling for work at the moment, and the first thing I'm going to do when I get home tonight is hold the chinchillas. I'm a nervous flyer, so after a stressful flight home, furballs are the best therapy. Capn Jobe fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Nov 20, 2018 |
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Nov 20, 2018 22:07
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Bit of a random question: can anyone recommend a vacuum for picking up shavings/poop/hay/other things that chinchillas/small animals knock out of their cage? We have two pretty basic vacuums that we've had for years, and neither is at all useful for this, as they just clog straight away. We got one of the Shark Liftaway models from Costco around Black Friday, and the thing clogged in the first 30 seconds, so it went back. I'm leaning towards a Dyson Animal model (https://www.dyson.com/uprights/dyson-ball-animal-2.html), but was hoping to find a recommendation first. Obviously the best would be a shop vac, but we do not have room for anything that big. Has anyone had a vacuum that worked well for this?
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Dec 4, 2018 18:58
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The Little Death posted:Hi everyone, We went through the same thing with Barry the chinchilla a couple years ago. We got his teeth trimmed once and he did fine for a few months, but really started to slide downhill after that. We weren't able to afford the regular teeth trimmings, and had decided to put him down, but he died on his own that same day. When we went to a chinchilla rescue place to get his successor, Chester, the woman who ran it had a whole room of chinchillas with similar teeth problems. She wasn't comfortable giving them new homes, and was just taking the best care of them that she could. So, in your situation, a rescue place might be willing to take him in. One thing that was interesting for us, was that Barry had spent 12 years as a breeding stud, and had a very unique color pattern (looking pretty I must say), and a lot of the chinchillas this lady had with teeth problems were a similar color. So it's quite likely that Barry had passed on his crummy tooth genes to a huge number of offspring. Poor Barry.We're sadly having our own problems with our female, Nooblet. She was a rescue so we're unsure of her age, but she's probably about 15-16. In late April she started wheezing, and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. We did a 2 week cycle of antibiotics, during which she nearly stopped eating/drinking, and lost a considerable amount of weight. The wheezing went away, but she still wasn't eating. Turns out she had a parasite, giardia. It's a bit hilarious that this is often called "beaver fever". This can lay dormant for awhile and only emerge when the animal gets sick. So we gave her medication for the parasite, which got better, but she's still barely eating and is visibly drooling. This points to the same teething issues that Barry had. We're hoping her teeth just grew extra due to her not eating, and she'll be fine with one trim, but we're not sure. The beaver fever gave her some pretty bad diarrhea, which necessitated giving her an actual wet bath. The poor thing.  Being wet makes her look slimmer, but compare her weight to how she looked last year. She's lost over 25% of her weight. Now the good news here is that because she was pretty fat before, she's actually still a healthy weight. The weight loss isn't good, but her current weight is okay. Strangely, her energy levels have actually increased during this whole ordeal.  And, just to share some happy pics, this was Barry:  And this is Chester, who is probably 10 or so, and is doing fine: 
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Jun 10, 2020 21:25
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Somehow this is a combination religion/rodent post. My GF and her fellow lapsed-Catholic siblings apparently had a long-running joke/bet over whether regular folks can buy communion wafers. It turns out they can, even in bulk, and "altar bread" is the non-denominational name for this product. Naturally, we ordered up a bunch of them and have been finding things to do with them while we're stuck at home. As it turns out, communion wafers are made from only flour and water, and are about one calorie each. Per some research, they are just fine for giving to chinchillas, though I wouldn't want to make it a regular thing. So we now have two christianized rodents. Also a fun fact: at least per Catholic doctrine, this is not considered sacrilegious, as this isn't the consecrated host, just regular bread.   Nooblet, in the second pic, is still having some sort of tooth problem. When she was at the vet about a month ago they did a teeth trim, but said she didn't really have any excess growth, just some sharp edges that may have been bothering her. She seems to have stopped losing weight, and is eating (albeit less than she did before), but she's still really drooly. So much that when she cuddles with Chester, her drool creates these smelly mats in his fur that we have to cut out. So we're pretty much in wait-and-see mode with her.
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Aug 3, 2020 21:57
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Nooblet's condition seems to have stabilized a bit. She's still pretty gross and drooly, but she's eating normally and has even gained a bit of weight back. So even though she's probably on her way out, she doesn't seem to be suffering. Well, unless we're dressing her up for holiday photos, that is.
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Dec 23, 2020 00:57
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Not gonna lie, I did quite a bit of research on those giant pigs last night. Seems like a terrible idea for a pet, unfortunately. I'd love to have my huge guinea pig bring me my shoes so I could take it for a walk around the neighborhood and freak out all of the cats. In other news, we had to say goodbye to our beloved Nooblet a couple weeks ago. Due to being a rescue, we weren't sure of her exact age, but probably around 16-17. She had quite a life: found in a cardboard box behind a strip mall, then spent a year at a rescue, then my fiance got her about 11 years ago. Turns out she was pregnant, and had a son, who died just a couple years ago (and a granddaughter, who is still going strong). In addition to outliving her own son, she outlived two different cagemates. Truly a survivor. Lots of mysteries about this one. She was missing the ends of some of her front toes (didn't seem to bother her though), and had a little bite taken out of one ear. She also seemed to be blind in her left eye, and it would frequently get infected, so eye drops were a regular occurrence for her. With all of that though, she was a fantastic pet. Always happy, well behaved, and docile, never once bit anyone. I think she knew how good she had it. She also tended to have these "fugue states" as we called them, where she'd completely zone out for minutes at a time. She'd come back if touched or startled, but it sure was strange. Here's an example; she stayed like that for a good 5-10 minutes, not moving.  We noticed on a Monday morning that she had some diarrhea, and the vet said they could see her the following day. By Monday night she was super lethargic, and Tuesday morning she was barely hanging on and started convulsing when we moved her to the travel cage. Got her to the vet, who put her on oxygen, but could find only the faintest traces of a pulse, so they put her down. After her health issues last year (a respiratory infection followed by a parasite, most likely giardia) she had lost a lot of weight, but had managed to gain back a good portion of it. Nonetheless, we figured she was on her way out. Hopefully she didn't suffer too much in her last days.   
Capn Jobe fucked around with this message at 21:56 on May 3, 2021 |
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May 3, 2021 21:47
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:28 |
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Well, we had to put down Chester, our final remaining chinchilla, last week. We got him as a rescue about 3 years ago, and were told he was 14 at the time. He was probably not that old, but he definitely had some years on him. He was a very good boy: playful, curious, and a massive junkie for scratches. On a Friday night he seemed to be limping, so we checked his paws, found nothing, and then called the vet the next day. Meanwhile, he was noticeably coughing, sneezing, and wiping his nose. The day of his vet visit, he had a substantial head tilt, and was incapable of keeping his balance most of the time. We had him on painkillers, antibiotics, and criticalcare for a couple days. But he kept getting worse; his balance was completely nonexistent, the only thing he could do was lie on his left side. The vet said it was either an infection that had found its way into his inner ear, or cancer. In the case of the infection, if the antibiotics didn't help, there really wasn't anything to do. So we put the poor guy down. With him gone, we're without any chinchillas for the first time in about 10 years. We're not ready to commit to a chinchilla lifespan just yet, so we're thinking of getting some rats. Being without any rodent friends is extremely un-fun. He sure was a good boy though.
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Oct 26, 2021 00:13
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