Traveling with a Chinchilla

If you read some of the older posts you might get some ideas for planning Chile's trip.

I shipped my chinchilla from the USA to England, then a few weeks later to Spain a few years back, I was very challenged to find information about how to do it, and just read as much as I could, considered what was needed to keep him as safe as possible. He was flying, so I designed his crate taking the risk of sudden turbulence into account. I have a dog who has taken 7 international flights, and when I left USA traveled with 1 chinchilla, 2 ferrets and 2 dogs, my advice to you, is plan your journey, very carefully, think about what your animal needs, ie space wise, food, water, temperature, length of travel etc, and make it as safe as possible, ie think about if the plane gets delayed, or the car breaks down, and plan for it. Then you have done your best.

I was on a plane once that had a suspected fire in the hold 5 minutes into the flight and had to return to the airport, my 2 dogs were in there. It was not a fire it was water getting into the air intake, but the plane had to be checked just the same so we were grounded for 8 hours. Initially the flight controller would not take the dogs off, and it was only after I refused to be bused back to the airport building that they decided the dogs should be checked. The dogs were taken off, and because animal importation in the UK is highly regulated, they got to go to a special pet centre and be very well looked after. The customer services people really helped, but it is important not to assume that those in charge of a plane will always have the best interests of any animals on board, as a priority.

There is I believe a new pet airline in the USA I don't know if they travel your route?

I have been very lucky, and have never had any problems with any of the animals traveling, and I would say planning is the key.

Good luck
Amanda

I actually just transported my chinchillas via car ride from New Jersey to California. What I did was put one of the chin's cages in my backseat and the two chins would habitat there for the 12-16 hrs I drove each day. They didn't seem to mind and played as they normally would and slept. When it came time for hotels, I made my own chinchilla carrier. I basically took a large size plastic lizard cage and put bedding on the bottom of it...it was perfect since there was ventilation, a place for the chins to pee, and no way for them to escape. Once inside the hotel I attached a water bottle to the side of the carrier. Each chinchilla got his own carrier of course.

If you are flying to CA instead of driving like I did, that might be easier. I believe you can ship them since breeders do it all the time with live animals. Reply back if you need any more suggestions. Hope this helps!