It's been a bad week for chinchilla pet owners. We received two e-mails about chinchilla deaths.
Stephanie writes… I had two chinchillas, but one has just died. I'm not sure how, but I'm wondering how can I help my other chinchilla that is still alive from getting depressed on me and keep up with his hyperness and happiness so I don't end up losing him too? If you can please help me I would be so grateful. Thank you.
And Cassandra writes… I had two chinchillas and one died last night so I have one left.
Their cages were right next to each other and they would play through their cages with each other. I'm wondering if my chinchilla can die from stress of losing the other one? What precautions should I take and what I should look for? It would be great help if I can get some information on that please. Thanks.
Chinchilla Planet answers… We've had one of our chinchillas die. It's hard to know how the remaining chinchilla(s) will react to the death. Our best suggestion is to spend time with your remaining chinchilla. Aside from providing comfort, you should also watch for changes in behavior. If your chinchilla continues to run around and play, then there is likely nothing to worry about. If, on the other hand, your chinchilla won't leave the cage and is particularly skittish for a long time, you may have to look to other techniques. What those techniques are, we can't say. Our chinchilla "moved on" on her own.
Entries (RSS)
April 8th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Our family has suffered a great loss of our young male chinchilla today…Easter Sunday. We came home from church and breakfast and he ran to his cage and jumped up onto the wire door for his normal kisses and pets. I took him from his cage, placed him on a small blanket and promptly brought him to our room. This was a new habit for us as we only had him a short period of time. My husband and I planned on watching a movie and so did with "Gizmo" our wonderful little loving chinchilla. He was fine and nestled in my neck and chest area and did so for about 2 hours. Now and then he made noises and such like normal. He behaved normal for we'd been having longer and longer snuggling sessions over the past week.
Well, later, he hopped around our bed and such and we put him back in his house so he could get something to drink or eat in the event he was hungry or thirsty. It was nearly 15 minutes later and I noticed he was laying on his side near his door. I ran and picked him up and nearly lost control. He begun having seizures in my hands when I picked up his near lifeless body. He held on for nearly 10 minutes more and we tried calling vets around the area. He ended up taking his last breath in my husband's hands. He did twitch a few more times and my husband said he seemed to have a hard time breathing as if he was trying hard to breath but couldn't get enough air. We only had Gizmo for about 2 months and we loved him infinitely.
The symptoms he suffered have been documented as we've looked online and it may have been from poor breeding and he may not have ever truly had a chance. Our lesson here is we will take our next chin to the vet for a wellness check up and will purchase from a reputable breeder instead of PetSmart. It appears we had quite a great relationship with ours. He loved attention especially mine. He loved being pampered. Our family will heal but the loss is greater than ever could be expected.
April 9th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Pamela,
We're so sorry to hear about your loss! We've had to deal with the death of a chinchilla too so we know a bit about what you're feeling. But at least it does sound like you had some quality time with Gizmo despite his life being cut short. Take care and we wish you luck with your search for a new friend!
October 8th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I got two "male" chinchillas from Petco, we finally got everyone sexed (hopefully in a proper way) and separated. Two weeks later another baby was born. It quickly learned to escape from the cage (squeezed between the bars) and would run around the room. One night we checked, Goose was in the cage and so we let the ferrets out to play for a while. About 10 minutes later there is horrible scream and one has the baby (it's about 8 weeks old now). It jumped away and I caught it. Held on to it, which was weird because it normally didn't like being held. And it started convulsing on my hand, and had trouble breathing. In a last ditch attempt to see if it was okay, I let it's mom out of her cage and she completely ignored the baby. 2 minutes later the labored breathing stopped and it was dead. It was being kept with mom and a sister from the previous litter. Now the two of them wander around the cage and look out watching like when it had escaped. I'm worried about them becoming depressed over the situation.
Any suggestions??
Thank you
October 8th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Kendra,
Nothing you can do at this point. I'm sure you realize now that ferrets and chinchillas don't mix. Ferrets and anything smaller them don't mix really.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I do not recommend getting any pets for PetSmart. Every pet that I get from there gets sick and dies. It is hard b/c you want to rescue them from the small cages they are housed in, but all seem to have gotten sick after a short period.