General Info

The healthiest chinchillas will come from professional breeders that are involved in shows. This stands to reason since these people are aiming to win prizes. Even their castaways are going to be strong and healthy.

Chinchillas live in rocky places in the Andes mountains at altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 16,500 feet. Their habitat used to stretch across Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. And as you might imagine, this mountain terrain is barren, full of thorny shrubs, and made up of large rocks with various gaps and crevices.

This is a note from Rick of Secto Enterprises about a chinchilla harness he's developed. We haven't used this harness, but if you're determined to use one, Rick might have the best solution for you.

Every owner of pet chinchillas wants them to be tame enough to pick up and hold. We're no exception. However, chinchillas in the wild are prey for many predators and are conditioned to be cautious.

We've come across some interesting facts about chinchillas during our research. Here's a list of things that don't quite fit in with other pages on this site.

Chinchillas make a variety of sounds. The most common is a "barking" sound that they make to indicate that they're scared and to warn other chinchillas of danger. On occasion, our chinchillas will bark if there's a particularly loud car going by the house or if there's an unusual noise outside.

Chinchilla history is vague up to the time when the Spaniards traveled to South America in 1524. In South America the Spaniards encountered a tribe of Indians called "Chinchas" who introduced them to the little furry animals. The Chinchas wore the pelts of the little guys and at the same time kept them as pets. The Spaniards named the little furry guys after the Indian tribe as "Chinchillas" - literally "Little Chinchas". They took pelts back with them to Europe and started the Chin fur business.

We often have to describe chinchillas to people we meet when they learn that we have them as pets. The best verbal description we've come up with is that they have the head, face, and ears of Jerry the mouse from Tom and Jerry, the body of a domesticated rabbit, and the tail of a squirrel. Of course such a description is fairly limiting. Luckily, we can post pictures on the web so here's what a "typical" chinchilla looks like.

We believe that people should make an informed decision before taking on the responsibility of caring for a chinchilla. Here are reasons to NOT get a chinchilla as a pet.

We've seen the occasional chinchilla owner ask if there is any clothing that is appropriate for chinchillas. The quick answer is, "no".