Exotic Pets - Chinchillas

Exotic Pets - Chinchillas - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. I am Beth Randall and I am the director at Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary. This is a chinchilla. Chinchillas are very wiggly, obviously. Chinchillas are native to South America and they are a very shy, skittish animal, very wiggly, jumpy, not real handle-able. They do not have sharp claws, but they do have sharp teeth. They have very dense fur. So, when they are handled they get oil on that fur or if they get wet they have to dry off. They take a dust bath to do that. They do that in nature, and you have to provide that if you have them as a pet. They live up to 15 years. They do need a special chincilla pelleted diet, also timothy hay, which is grass hay. They do tend to chew through everything, so they do need a metal cage, an open metal cage, not like an aquarium or anything like that would be too tight for them, not give them enough ventilation. They are susceptible to respiratory infections. So, people who have colds and things like that need to be very careful around them and not give them that. They do not necessarily need to go to the veterinarian every year, but it would not hurt to have a checkup. They can live, again, like I said, up to 15 years, so it is a long term commitment. Occasionally chinchillas can live together, not always. If you do have a pair of chinchillas and you notice they are fighting, you will need to separate them. They do tend to bite. They come in different colors. They can be a gray, a white, a black, things like that. There is even sort of peach colored ones, pinkish ones, lavender. They are an unusual little pet. They do need a wheel of some sort or a saucer, and that should, again, be metal because they will chew through it. They do need things to chew on all the time because their teeth are always growing. So, something to watch for to make sure that their teeth do not grow wrong, crooked. Then, they need to be trimmed by a professional. They do like to run around and get a little bit of exercise, but they need to be supervised. So, a chinchilla is for someone who has the time to spend with them and has some experience caring for small animals and is willing to put forth the extra effort to see that their chinchilla is happy.