General Info

We've gathered various poll results from around the web (mostly from the Chins & Quills forum) and consolidated them here. These are the ones we found interesting and hope you do too.

We thought it would be fun to hold a chinchilla photo contest with a $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com as the prize for the winner. All you have to do is e-mail us the cutest picture you have of a chinchilla.

One of the questions that we're asked is whether it is safe to take a chinchilla on trips. Our general response is that taking your chinchilla on your travels is a bad idea.

When we first got our chinchillas, one of the things we asked ourselves was whether we could get a harness and leash that would fit them. Our goal was to be able to take our chinchillas out to the backyard or a field and give them exposure to something outside their regular environment.

Pet chinchillas vary in price with much of the cost determined by the chinchilla's color. The rarer or more difficult it is for a particular color, the more expensive the chinchilla will be. And while costs will also vary from breeder to breeder and from pet store to pet store, we've compiled a list that we think will give you a good idea of the potential price tag.

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.

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.