Chinchillas

This is a less well known rodents. They are exceptionally long lived, even to over 20 years. They are in the same family of rodents as Guinea Pigs, meaning that the young are not born helpless and they have fur. They also live a lot longer than most small rodents like mice, rats, hamsters, and gerbils.

A black adult chinchilla

Baby chinchilla being bottle fed

And of the hardest parts of keeping chinchillas, is they need very cool temperatures. During hot weather they may need a fan blowing on them. This is owing to the fact that chinchillas originally lived on mountains in Peru.

Chinchillas were once extremely rare, but about 28 were caught and kept in captivity. These animals were bred and all the domestic chinchillas we have today came from these few wild rodents.

Chinchillas take baths in a special kind of sand. They can not be washed in water.

Chinchillas have a friendly personally, once they are tamed. They don't usually bite. But they will not tolerate rough handling. They are not good pets for young children.

Chinchillas love to climb.