Posts tagged health
Happy December!

Happy December everyone!

For the month of November, one  (1) chinchilla was surrendered and three (3) chinchillas were adopted. We had one person bring in a chinchilla for pairbonding and never returned to claim them. The legal requirements for going through abandonment procedure is both time consuming and frustrating. In this case, the false hope of an adoption with pairbonding was simply deceitful. I laugh when people tell me they wish they could do what I do. Rescue work is not all about taking in cute, sad animals. More often than not we receive elderly, ill-tempered or sickly chins with grossly unclean, completely inadequate cages. We are met with a variety of illnesses and medical issues that have given us hands-on experience.


Animal rescue nearly killed me…literally. I almost died this year from zoonosis when a certain bacteria from a pair of rescue chins made its way into my lungs. As an asthmatic, pasteurellosis of the lungs is particularly life threatening. Today I would like to talk about cross-species disease transmission.


Pathogens can and do cross between species. A chinchilla can catch a cold from their people, contract fungus from someone who has athlete’s foot, acquire Pasteurella from the house rabbit and more. On the flip side, humans can contract certain diseases from their pets. These can translate as eye infections, skin infections, parasitic infestations, respiratory issues of a bacterial nature, etc.


Handwashing before and after handling your pet seems like a common sense procedure, no? But seriously, how many people really do that? How easy is it to walk by a cage, give a quick scritch or treat and move on to other tasks or pets? At home we generally have a good feel for the health of our pets and environment. In a shelter or rescue situation, there is more opportunity for disease transmission. One time we had a wildlife rehabber come visit who had ringworm patches exposed on her arms. Yup. For the next few months we struggled to contain and eradicate ringworm from the herd.

At home, letting your interspecies pets “play” together can be a deadly combination. Many rabbits carry the Pasteurella bacteria and show no signs or symptoms. In chinchillas that same bacteria is deadly. Unvaccinated horses can pass on strangles, which is also deadly to chins. Rodents can leave behind droppings full of listeria which can be found in hay and hay based products. It is this very reason why we advise against purchasing hay from your local farmer as most are stored where wild rodents can freely roam. So even the cleanest of homes with the most reliable quality supplies is still subject to contamination.

With this in mind, one of the ways you can keep your pet healthy is to watch for signs and symptoms of anything that may be “off”. As pet guardians, we generally have a good idea what normal behavior is for our individual animals. Pet forums are a great place to compare notes and learn from those who have experienced and treated specific issues. Armed with information we can be better advocates when it comes to partnering with our veterinarians. The hard part is being bold enough to resist deferring to someone based on education rather than experience.

It is our sincerest wish that yours and our chinchillas remain healthy and happy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all.

Happy March!

Happy March everyone!
For the month of February, zero (0) chinchillas were surrendered and zero (0) chinchillas were adopted. We did receive an inquiry regarding a local person who needs to rehome an entire herd. This seems to happen about twice per year. It just never ends.

Anyway! We're on a roll after yesterday's educational post. I'd like to elaborate on the dangers of choices people make when feeding treats and supplements.

Over the years we've actually removed some of our store items because we've seen far too many people abuse "moderation". For example, we've had customers order supplement, and oats, and barley and admit they mixed them for a higher grain content and add it to the pellets! Without going into a lengthy post about the phosphorus/calcium ratio, suffice it to say that the supplement mixes are carefully measured and suggested serving sizes are there for a specific purpose. Adding extra grains to a supplement, mixing brands or giving multiple supplements is in actuality, very dangerous.

A chinchilla's natural diet should be very, very bland and high in fiber. Fiber is absolutely essential for proper tooth and digestive function. If a chinchilla is filling up on supplements and treats, the only thing they are getting is extra calories, but not the necessary roughage. When a chinchilla diet is high in calorie enriched foods, they are less likely to want to fill up on fiber (hay). Consuming too many nutrient dense foods can lead to fatty liver disease, malocclusion, gastric stasis, etc.

Oh! Here's another example! Someone I know used to take high doses of multivitamins. Vitamins are good, right? Not necessarily. A body can only absorb so much. With water soluble vitamins, the body simply excretes the excess through the urinary system. But fat soluble vitamins build dangerous excess in the body. In the case with this person I know, she actually developed gastric ulcers....from vitamins.

Think of it this way, when growing a garden, fertilizers are added to produce more robust greenery, more flowers, fruits, a stronger root system. If the wrong type of fertilizer is used, too much, or two little your plants will suffer. Our chinchilla friends are like plants in a garden. They are fully at our mercy to provide them with their needs. When we feed them foods high in calories, such as added grains, fruits, highly processed commercial treats, SOMETHING will overgrow. I am beginning to suspect that overgrown tooth roots (malocclusion) is due in part to domesticated chins eating foods that are not only too soft, but too rich.

The only exceptions would be chins who are actively growing, pregnant, nursing or recovering from illness. A healthy, fully grown chinchilla does not need supplements as part of their daily diet. Overfeeding your chin, even "healthy" foods can still cause damage. This is why we encourage our customers to make choices for their chinchillas that are as close to what they would find in the natural chinchilla habitat. Safe choices would be rosehips, dried flowers and herbs, seagrass, chew toys and clean, dried wood chews and pumice.

I hope today's post shed some light on the issues surrounding choices in food items for your pet.

Happy December!

Happy December everyone!

For the month of November, zero (0) chinchillas were surrendered and zero (0) chinchillas were adopted. This is actually a good thing as giving pets for Christmas is generally a bad idea and the numbers of dumped pets each holiday season is notoriously common.  In our particular instance, as long as our adoption numbers remain low, we simply cannot take in more surrenders. For those of you who consider adoption instead of purchasing chinchillas from a breeder or pet store, thank you!

December has a been a busy one for Christmas orders. It's fun to see people who want to spoil their fur babies this time of year. Many individuals have chosen the Ultimate Chew ToyBundle. We're thrilled! The bundle has so many favorites and a fantastic variety. Depending on the number of chins one owns and how "destructive" they are, this bundle can last for many months. Which reminds me...we had someone write with concern that their chinchilla was suddenly destroying all his new cage accessories. Folks, this is a good thing! A chin with a hearty chewing habit is one that is less prone to malocclusion. It's a mistake to choose toys that aren't ones the chin demolishes quickly. Did you hear that? Sometimes I feel like a broken record. After having been immersed in all things chinchilla for nearly a decade, I find myself making the same statements over...and over...and over again.

I hope our long time followers don't become frustrated by the repetition as Whimsy is tempted to be. Unfortunately, some of our long time followers are the ones who are guilty. Case in point: we heard from someone recently who purchased a 50lb bag of feed for a single chinchilla. Thinking they could save lots of money, they would have done just as well feeding their chinchilla cardboard. The nutritional value depleted long ago.

Another instance of broken record syndrome this year was hearing from another young chin owner who wanted to let a father/daughter pair share a cage. Her rationale was that the chins would somehow know they were related and not mate with each other. (I'm so glad y'all can't see my eye roll over here.)

And other hall of shame instances this year are otherwise intelligent people who can't accurately tell the gender of their pet or who feed their chins fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts and wonder why they suddenly have unplanned babies, pass away or have other health issues. So when people contact us saying they've "done the research", please forgive me if I'm skeptical.

Ok, enough pessimism for one post. On a much more positive light, we've received some beautiful, wonderfully uplifting emails regarding the essay in last month's post. We have also experienced some extremely generous individuals who have donated to our cause. When we began the chinchilla rescue it was to fill a need. Whimsy absorbed all the upfront costs with no expectation of assistance. We are thankful that the webstore has grown to the point where the rescue has support with no struggle. We routinely have enough funds to cover the cost of operation and have even managed to set aside the humble beginnings of a down payment for that elusive farm. Please know that when you place an order through our store and round up the payment amount, the donation portion is counted separately. We hope to have an actual total figure to post about after this year's tax filings. Until then have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year.

Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should (Happy November!)

For the month of October, one (1) chinchilla was surrendered and two (2) chinchillas were adopted. We still have a waiting list for surrenders and adoptions continue to be low. We have had quite a large number of people come to us for our matchmaking service which is both helpful and frustrating. It's helpful in the sense that adoptable chins are going home, but frustrating that only the most docile chins are eligible. We have lots and LOTS of single males who are friendly, but can't be caged with another chin who absolutely need good, permanent homes. *sigh*

Anywho...the topic of this month's post is: 

Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should

For some strange reason, this month we've experienced quite a large number of shocking bits of information. All of it has come with the disclaimer that the chins "never had very much", "it was an emergency", "they do fine", "it was never for very long", or Whimsy's personal favorite, "I didn't know". Those are just some of this month's highlights. Welcome to our world.

We are always wary of people who claim they have researched chin care or who get advice from pet stores. The internet is full of chin-information, much of it simply reflects the beliefs of the writer who is seeking to justify their practices. Yes, this includes our website as well. However, we will never advocate anything that is contrary to what is closest to natural for ours and your pets. For example, even though we continuously stress the importance of a highfiber/lowprotein/nofat/nosugar diet, we still see chins who are fed dried fruits, nuts, and yogurt candy drops!

Here's another example, the picture of this pet store treat specifies that it's for chinchillas. The ingredients, however, state that this plastic-like, carrot shaped lump is made of rice, pineapple, starch, palm oil, gelatin and artificial colors.

Pet stores advocate a plethora of dangerous items, including food, treats, plastic exercise balls, hanging wire hay balls, etc. Your job is to weed through the bling and choose the best. (Which is another reason why our web store began. We do our very best to offer affordable, healthy items! Don't even get me started on those who offer flavored and colored loofahs!)

Another big pet peeve are people who say their single chins do just fine alone. *nods* Yup, even we have chins kept in single cages...for their safety. Chins are herd animals and being alone is unnatural. However, if they are highly aggressive towards their own kind, there is no escape for the underdog in an attack, in a cage. We will always advocate for pairbonding same sex chins if they are receptive to it.

Moderation is key, but if we want to keep our fur babies healthy and safe, we will have to be wise about their care. As their guardians, we should ask ourselves whether a certain food or care practice is acceptable, or beneficial. *hint* Our goal is to encourage people to choose beneficial over acceptable.

Happy August!

For the month of July, two (2) chinchillas were surrendered and two (2) chinchillas were adopted.  Last month we turned away a whopping 19 requests for surrender! We've found that our adoptions have dropped sharply since our lawyer stepped in to give our contract more "bite". So we're looking in to softening the rules at bit. Watch for upcoming changes in our contract and please, spread the word about adopting recycled pets.

Now, for those of you who already own a chinchilla or several, let us challenge your knowledge. We never take seriously those who claim to be long term chin owners. We have learned the hard way that radically different degrees of knowledge exist within the small subculture of those who own chinchillas (or any other animal for that matter). The internet is full of misinformation. We hope to dispel some myths and give good, sound reasons for our advice.

With that being said, we received an interesting email from someone this week who erroneously believed that vine chew toys were "treats". In a nutshell (no pun intended) a "treat" would be any food item that a chinchilla would not normally find in abundance in their natural habitat.

A chinchilla's natural habitat is high desert. Desert is a biome that simply refers to the degree of precipitation, not degree of heat! A desert biome grows vegetation that is high in fiber with very little moisture. So a chinchilla diet should also be high in fiber, low protein, with practically zero fats and sugars. If your chinnie is getting plump off of high sugar/ high fat treats, you run the risk of killing it with kindness by contributing to fatty liver disease. If you choose to purchase processed treats, at the very least be cognizant of the ingredients list! The closer to single ingredient items you can give, the better. The infamous pet store fare (certain flower-type green disks) generally contains a list of ingredients that clearly is NOT healthy for your pet.

With this in mind, we've made a handy-dandy food pyramid to show you the types and amount of foods your chinchilla should have. We would strongly prefer nothing from the uppermost level of the pyramid. This is the "treat" section. But if you must, remember: the smaller the section of the pyramid equals offering smaller amounts to your chin. 

The largest section at the bottom contains a list of food items that your chin can eat without restriction and is actually naturally healthy for them. Items from the lower portion of the list can excite your chin as a healthy alternative to treats if you hand feed them. It's all in the mindset. We know of one person whose chins get excited about wooden clothespins! So study the list, be smart and enjoy!