About Chinchillas
Chinchillas
Chinchillas are members of the rodent family native to the Andes Mountains in South American. Until fairly recently chinchillas were best known for their luxurious coat of fur. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of these adorable creatures were trapped and slaughtered to make fur coats and cold weather accessories. Thankfully, attitudes have changed in the world and chinchilla fur is no longer in huge demand. Current demand for chinchilla pelts is met by chinchilla farmers. Sadly, these changes came too late for the giant chinchilla which is now extinct. However, the other two species, the lanigera and the brevicaudata, although rare, are still holding on in the wild.
In their natural habitat chinchillas live in small burrows. They are agile and fast and can leap up to 5 feet straight up. They rarely walk, but rather hop, to move around, similar to the rabbit. They live in colonies of varying numbers called herds. They are diurnal creatures, meaning that they are most active in the evenings and early mornings.. They eat grasses and seeds and an occasional insect. Like most rodents they can breed at any time of year. They have an unusually long gestation period of 111 days. Because of this the young, called kits, are born fully furred, eyes open, and ready to move around within minutes of being born.
The chinchilla was first raised in captivity by fur traders in the 1600s. It did not take most of the traders long to discover that chinchillas adapted well to captivity and that it was a whole lot easier to breed these animals than it was to hike around the Andes Mountains in search of them. These fur traders transformed themselves into chinchilla farmers. When the demand for chinchilla pelts began to decrease these farmers went searching for another outlet for their animals. They found the pet industry and a new family pet was born.
Chinchillas can make very engaging and responsive pets if handled properly. Because they are very active creatures, they require large living quarters for animals their size and seem to prefer cages with multiple levels that they can leap around on. They are by nature highly strung animals and unless they have a great deal of contact with humans as kits they may never settle down enough to be handled. If, however, they are interacted with from birth, they can become loving pets that crave human companionship.
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