How to Care for Your Pet Chinchilla
Allen Teal
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Chinchillas make great low maintenance pets. They can be given lots of attention or very little and seem to do equally well. You can recognize a chinchilla because they have a rodent shaped face with a squirrel-type tail and are incredible soft to touch. The chinchilla grows its fur so thickly th 
at no parasites like mites and fleas can survive on them. So, one less worry to have about the pet. If kept healthy, you can expect to have your chinchilla for 20 years.
Chinchillas are vegetarian and really won't bite you at all. If one seems to be biting you, it is just using its tongue to learn more about you. Once the chinchilla becomes acquainted with you and used to people, it will climb up on the side of its cage to greet you. If you give it an occasional raisin, this will become even more pronounced.
Chinchillas really like raisins. They will work hard to get one. If you put one in the bottom of the food dish, a chinchilla will throw all of the food out of the dish to get to it. Be careful here, more than 3 or 4 raisins per day can be too much for its digestive system.
The cage that houses your chinchilla is set up like a bird cage with a tray at the bottom to catch bodily waste. You put special wood shavings in it and need to change it about once per week. This is all that is required to keep the cage smelling fresh.
Your pet will do fine on a diet of pellets that look like rabbit food. However, they can get bored with the same diet all of the time. To add variety, keep some timothy or alfalfa hay on hand. You can buy this in pet stores in plastic bags or go to the feed store and buy a bale. A bag full lasts for weeks. A bale is overkill. Mix in some chinchilla food from the pet store with a mixture of types of things that chinchillas like to eat. Along with a few raisins, your chinchilla will be quite happy.
If you want to have fun, just toss a piece of paper that's about 3 or 4 inches long and a couple inches wide into the cage. The chinchilla will hold it in it's front paws and gnaw along the edge. It reminds me of a typewriter. In a few minutes, it will have consumed the entire piece. This won't hurt the chinchilla, and they like it. Like everything with chinchillas, just don't overdo it.
Chinchillas are vegetarian and really won't bite you at all. If one seems to be biting you, it is just using its tongue to learn more about you. Once the chinchilla becomes acquainted with you and used to people, it will climb up on the side of its cage to greet you. If you give it an occasional raisin, this will become even more pronounced.
Chinchillas really like raisins. They will work hard to get one. If you put one in the bottom of the food dish, a chinchilla will throw all of the food out of the dish to get to it. Be careful here, more than 3 or 4 raisins per day can be too much for its digestive system.
The cage that houses your chinchilla is set up like a bird cage with a tray at the bottom to catch bodily waste. You put special wood shavings in it and need to change it about once per week. This is all that is required to keep the cage smelling fresh.
Your pet will do fine on a diet of pellets that look like rabbit food. However, they can get bored with the same diet all of the time. To add variety, keep some timothy or alfalfa hay on hand. You can buy this in pet stores in plastic bags or go to the feed store and buy a bale. A bag full lasts for weeks. A bale is overkill. Mix in some chinchilla food from the pet store with a mixture of types of things that chinchillas like to eat. Along with a few raisins, your chinchilla will be quite happy.
If you want to have fun, just toss a piece of paper that's about 3 or 4 inches long and a couple inches wide into the cage. The chinchilla will hold it in it's front paws and gnaw along the edge. It reminds me of a typewriter. In a few minutes, it will have consumed the entire piece. This won't hurt the chinchilla, and they like it. Like everything with chinchillas, just don't overdo it.
- Chinchillas are soft rodents with tails like a squirrel.
- You don't have to worry about chinchillas biting you.
- Chinchillas come from high cold mountains in South America.