Dog Community

Show me your Chins!

Posted : 11/19/2006 4:10:36 PM

Well, your chinchillas.

Here's my chin, a 3 year old female mosaic named Scout. She's spoiled. She lives upstairs in a three story cage most the time, but she also has a smaller two story cage downstairs she gets to go in a lot. Then she also gets to play outside her cage all the time. Just a little rotten baby really:

As a baby

Nowadays, she's pretty large.

Showing off the black spot on her back.

Chewing the camera cord as I'm trying to take pictures. When chins are curious, they stick it in their mouth.

Coming out of a tube she likes to hide in. I swear she can fit, she's just fluffy!

Proof she can fit in that tunnel. She really is just a big fluffball.

And my old Chin and Scout's friend, Smokie. He was a hetero beige I believe. He died of a genetic defect at just two years old.

So any other chin people out there? (I know I've seen some of you)

bluelighting

Posted : 11/19/2006 4:57:52 PM

Here are the Bash Brothers. Tigger is the smaller guy with one blind eye and Chilli is the bigger one.

Aina

Posted : 11/19/2006 4:58:54 PM

I wan a chin *sigh* I keep trying to convince my parents.
How expensive are they to keep up? (sand bath, food, ect)

bluelighting

Posted : 11/19/2006 5:16:14 PM

The most expensive thing is their cages due to the fact they love to jump around and they need the room.

Cage $75 and up for a good cage.
Big bag of Bedding $12.00
25lb bag of food $13.50
Blue Cloud dust 4lb $4.00
Hay depends around your area

As for toys I suggest bird toys they last longer and they are made out of safe wood

For me this year I spent probably $400 or more this year on new cage, toys, Chilli, food, dust, wheel, water bottle,shelves,hay, and cage stand. Usually I spend about $100.00 a year alone on just Tigger.

Below is a picture of my boys cage they live in.

bluelighting

Posted : 11/19/2006 5:20:49 PM

Ok last pictures I'll stop for now.

Laurelin_429

Posted : 11/19/2006 10:44:27 PM

ORIGINAL: bluelighting

Ok last pictures I'll stop for now.

I don't think Scout would let me do that to her lol. It's cute.

Both your boys are so adorable.

Chins are a lot of work but so worth it. (I'm comparing to hamsters, which were the only small animals I had before getting my chin) Our cage was about 100, the chin was about 100- give or take a bit, can't remember exactly. Scout cost a little bit more because I wanted a mosaic. She gets treats and toys frequently, plus you have to buy a bath, dust, food, bedding, and hay pretty regularly. But she's very sweet and contrary to popular belief, they're very affectionate and interactive. And I second the bird toy suggestion. They last a lot longer and Scout's favorite toy is a bird toy with a bell on it. She loves to ring it.

They come in lots of colors too- white, standard grey, brown velvet, black velvet, mosaic, beige, etc. That's usually not very known, I assume, because no one ever knows what Scout is when we take her to the vet's. All the people (well, not the vet, he has a 6 year old female beige) think she's either a rabbit or a squirrel or a guinea pig, or a hamster (O.o Hamsterzilla, I suppose). We tell them she's a chin and they go 'I didn't know chinchillas could be white!?'

Aina

Posted : 11/20/2006 10:36:32 AM

They're all so pretty! I love their ears.
I've been looking at chins, and they are about $150 in my area. I have hamsters.
Their food is a lot less expencive. Bedding the same (duh) But then you also have to buy dust.
Compared to them, how are Chins personality? Is there no comparison? I've read so books that say they are a lot shyer, and not as tame, but I would like to get opinions from people who actually have chins.

Do you think I could build a NIC cage for one, like some use for their rabbits?

*random person from my bunny board's NIC cage*

(in case you are wondering, I am *trying* to convince my parents to get me one for x-mas. I've wanted one for years now.)