Questions and Answers

I have four ferrets (3 males and a female) that play together great in their playpen, but I am going to be adding four chinchillas to our family soon (two males and two females). Will they get along or will I have to keep their playtimes separate? Any information you have will be great. Thanks.

I own three chinchillas and am thinking about buying a dog. The chinchillas live in wire cages in a one-bedroom house. I don't want to traumatize a dog or the chinchillas by having them live together when they are not compatible.

My chinchillas start barking at like 2am and wont stop till like 6am. Of course it's off and on but I can't sleep.

I am having a hard time with owning two chinchillas, because since then I have had two babies, and I have my hands full. I am now looking sadly to get rid of at least one of them to help with the stress. Any ideas?

We received a note from Dez the other day regarding some possible problems with CareFresh bedding...

My Chinchilla recently went through a bout of digestive bacterial infection. It was the first time in 6 years that anything like that had happened and it was right when I decided to try Carefresh bedding. After lengthy and costly vet visits, he got better for about a month. Then a few days ago, I switched out the towels I was using when he was sick, and went back to Carefresh, and this morning, I can see Diarrhea and he's slumped over and not active at all.

My granddaughter has a chinchilla she has had for awhile. There are now small flies around the cage and on his droppings. What is the problem and had can I get rid of the flies?

Sometimes things don't go well for chinchilla owners. Such was the case when we heard from Jennifer.

Does anyone know if it's common for chinchillas to kill each other or act violently towards each other? I don't know if my chin killed the other one, but we came home and found the female dead. The might be killer was her baby (a 1 year old male). They have acted violently before and if I had known it was going to go this far, I would have separated them. Stupid, stupid me already knew I was supposed to. I feel horrible about it.

We have had our Chinchilla for about 6 months, and when we bought him home everything was normal. We recently moved and now he is making noises at night. The first 2 nights after making sounds every couple hours I finally went and slept in the same room as him and he was quiet after that. Then a couple of nights went by with nothing, now he has started again. I looked up the noises and found that they were stress related, but it has been over a week. Is there anything I can do to help him relax into his new home?

Glenna Rogers recently wrote to us about some serious health problems her chinchilla is having. If you happen to have any insight, please respond to this posting. This particular medical problem is over our heads so help if you can.

Technically, chinchillas are NOT nocturnal. They are often thought to be so and in a few places on this site you'll see that we've said they are. However, one of our readers, Amber, has informed us that chinchillas are crepuscular, which means they are active in the twilight hours. As a result, you'll notice that chinchillas are most active in the evening and early morning. They will otherwise take long "naps" during the the brightest part of the day and the darkest part of the night.