The Possible Effects
of ... Other Animals
On Chinchillas
Always remember, chinchillas are very fragile animals, both physically and
emotionally. Anytime another animal is around your chinchilla(s), no matter
how much they have been around them before, or how docile they seem to be
around them ... use extreme caution! Never leave them alone with your chin,
or allow them even the hint of a chance of an access to your chins without
supervision. It only takes a minute.

Above is a beautiful female puppy, almost a year old. Her name is Shadow
and she belongs to my brother. She has come up with him on visits from
Tennessee on numerous occasions since she was about four months old. To
my surprise, about a month ago, she climbed the barrier into the chin room.
Once she was inside, with no one to stop her, she decided to go nose to nose
at a cage door with a family of my chins. She could not get to the chins to
harm them physically. Shadow began to bark and lunge at them in a
threatening manner ... something she had never done before, but she had
never been alone with them before either. When I heard the commotion, I
ran to the basement. But the damage had been done, as I would find out all
to soon. Needless to say ... her antics resulted in one VERY stressed
chinchilla family! Some of the other chins were affected, but not to the
extent the 'royal' family was.

 Duke and Duchess, both ebonies, had two young kits that were soon to be
weaned. I tried to calm their squeaks and squalls of "danger" that they were
announcing to alert all the other chins, as I shooed my brother's dog out of
the room. They were all traumatized!!! This dog would never be allowed to
even be on the same floor of the house with my chins again. Trying to calm
and cuddle Duke, Duchess and the kits seemed to be impossible. It seemed
as if they would never stop shaking. First one, then another would tremble
and/or cry out. But all the affects of the incident were not yet evident. That
would come to light over the next two days. Never had they done any fur
chewing, but that was about to change. My beautiful healthy, happy ebonies
were no longer as they once were.

Many of you have seen, Duke, a handsome hetro ebony, on my site and on
the Chinchilla Club site. The picture above is Duke, the one below is him
also, taken two days after he was traumatized ...
The fear and stress caused by the dog made them start chewing each other's
fur. Not only was Duke affected, but his mate's fur and both kits' fur were
badly chewed by each other, as you can see in the pictures below. All this
caused by a dog's barking and growling ... in just a few minutes time. My
precious ebony family!!! They will never be the same.
    They have since almost quit chewing and their fur is trying to grow back,
but I am afraid they could never go to a home where there would be barks
from a dog, not even friendly barks.

They have to have a home where the love is special and lots of it.  

                     

M
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T
T

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J
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F
F
March
2005
October 1, 2006