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The common chinchilla (other names: coastal chinchilla, small long-tailed chinchilla) is a species of rodent belonging to the chinchilla family. Very rare in wildlife a species found only in the high Andes regions of Chile.
The chinchilla is an active rodent with a large tail, expressive eyes and long whiskers (vibrissae), which help the animal search for food and navigate in the dark. The hairline is represented by thick and long fur. A warm coat protects chinchillas from cold and sudden temperature fluctuations in natural environment habitat.

Representatives of this species live mainly in the Andes in South America. Most often they inhabit rocks where there are ready-made shelters - rock crevices. In areas where they are absent, chinchillas dig holes for themselves. They are remarkably adapted to the lifestyle in mountainous areas. Thanks to well-developed sensory organs, these nocturnal animals are perfectly oriented at the time of their greatest activity, i.e. in the dark. Interesting feature chinchilla skeleton: it has the ability to shrink vertically, which allows them to effortlessly penetrate narrow gaps between stones. Not much is known about the life activities of these rodents in the wild. Zoologists studied their behavior mainly in artificially created conditions.

All the external characteristics that chinchillas are endowed with serve to ensure their normal existence in freedom. Large locator ears are capable of picking up the slightest sounds, providing the opportunity to know in advance about the approach of any danger; whiskers-vibrissae replace the animal’s vision - with their help, chinchillas explore surrounding objects and even measure distances. Representatives of this species have a very well developed cerebellum, so they can move around the mountains without much difficulty. The reaction speed of chinchillas compensates for weak, monocular vision (surrounding objects and objects falling into the field of view are mainly perceived by one eye). However, they are endowed with the ability to see in the dark.

The length of the chinchilla's body ranges from 20 to 40 cm, the ears reach 6 cm, and the mustache can be up to 10 cm long. The weight of males on average is 369-493 g, and females - 379-450 g. At home, animals are larger than in the wild and have greater sexual dimorphism (anatomical differences between females and males of the same biological species), with females weighing up to 800 g and males up to 600 g. The hind limbs of chinchillas, which have four fingers, are almost twice as long as the front ones, which have five grasping fingers.

The natural habitats of chinchillas do not offer a wide variety of diets. They feed on plants that grow in the mountains. In addition, their food can be mosses, lichens, tree bark and various cacti, and at best they manage to catch small comas.

A chinchilla gains the ability to give birth at about six months of age. The number of births per year ranges from 2 to 3 times, and the average number of cubs born is 2-3, and in rare cases - 5 small chinchillas. The gestation period lasts up to 3-3.5 months. Within a week after birth, the young are able to feed on their own, and at the age of 1.5-2 months they can begin an independent life.

In the wild, chinchillas are monogamous, that is, in most cases they create a stable pair, but in artificial conditions this factor is practically not taken into account. During pregnancy, the female is very restless, so it is advisable not to disturb her again. The cubs are born sighted, with short fur and erupted teeth.

Unfortunately, chinchilla breeding is done not only for pleasure, but also with complete practical purposes– for example, as a source of fur, which is by far the most expensive. Of course, it is very upsetting that these cute animals often become objects of destruction, because there are not so many of them left in nature.

The small long-tailed chinchilla should not be confused with another type of chinchilla - the short-tailed (large) chinchilla. Long-tailed chinchillas are popular as pets.

Chinchillas are small animals from the order of rodents native to South America. Their habitat is the highlands of the South American Andes. Currently, there are very few chinchillas left in the wild; these animals were hunted for their fur, as a result of which the species is on the verge of extinction. Since the middle of the last century, chinchillas have been bred by amateurs as pets.

The chinchilla was first described by the English zoologist Edward Bennett in 1829.

Chinchilla - description and external characteristics

In appearance, the chinchilla resembles a large squirrel (they weigh from 300 to 800 g, and males are smaller than females), but in terms of its method of movement it is more like a rabbit. They have very thick, thin and soft fur, large dark eyes and large ears. The ears are the only organ of chinchillas that helps reduce body temperature - they are covered with a dense network of capillaries.

The body length of chinchillas is from 22 to 38 cm, the tail is 10-17 cm. The hind legs are longer than the front legs, thanks to which their movement resembles the jumping of a rabbit. Number of toes: four on the hind limbs, five on the front limbs. The front legs can make grasping movements.

The number of teeth reaches 20, and they grow throughout life. Therefore, it is very important for chinchillas to be able to chew something.

Baby chinchillas have white teeth, but adult chinchillas have orange teeth.

What types of chinchillas are there?

There are two types of chinchillas:

• The short-tailed chinchilla is a rare and almost extinct species. It is the short-tailed chinchilla that has the most valuable fur.
• Long-tailed Chinchilla - still found in small groups in the wild. It was this chinchilla that became a well-known domestic animal.

Chinchillas are found in the wild in the dry mountainous regions of Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. In these zones, the temperature in summer does not exceed +24 C o, and in winter it drops to -20 C o. The climate is dry, windy and cold. It is thanks to these living conditions that chinchillas have very valuable and thick fur.

The vegetation in the area where wild chinchillas live is quite sparse. Mostly cacti, shrubs, some cereal plants and herbs grow there. Such living conditions affected the diet of these animals. Their incredibly long intestines allow them to extract nutrients from fairly meager food. In an adult animal, the length of the small and large intestines reaches 3.5 m. Wild chinchillas feed only on plant foods: branches and bark of shrubs, succulents, dry herbs and leaves.

Chinchillas live in groups and are nocturnal. Up to hundreds of animals can live in one group. During the day they hide in natural shelters, such as crevices in rocks or in burrows dug by other animals. To protect against predators, the colony always has “observers” who warn the whole family about the danger with loud sounds.

Chinchillas are nocturnal animals, their large eyes and long sensitive whiskers (vibrissae) allow them to move unerringly in the dark.

In natural conditions, chinchillas form pairs. They produce one offspring per year. There are usually 2-4 cubs in a litter.

Unfortunately, at present the number of wild animals is very small, only about ten thousand. In 2008, the long-tailed chinchilla was declared a critically endangered species. And the short-tailed chinchilla, unfortunately, is an endangered species.

How many years do chinchillas live in the wild?

Approximately, wild chinchillas live for about five years.

Chinchillas feed on various herbaceous plants, mosses, cereals and legumes, as well as shrubs, cacti, tree bark, and also insects.

Chinchilla breeding

Chinchillas reach sexual maturity at the age of eight months. Whenever possible, they create monogamous pairs. Pregnancy lasts quite a long time - 105 - 110 days, so females can give birth no more than two to three times a year. Usually 2-4 almost fully developed babies are born. Their eyes are open, their teeth have erupted, they are completely covered with hair and are able to move independently.

What sounds do chinchillas make?

In nature, chinchillas live in groups and have developed a way of communicating with sounds. Their range ranges from a soft and quiet purr to a sharp whistle:

• mating rumbling calls of the male to mate;
• squeaking of babies - a demand for mother's attention or food;
• protest - sharp sounds that chinchillas make when quarreling or warning of danger;
• Chinchillas make very sharp and high-pitched sounds when angry, in a state of severe fright or when feeling pain.

Chinchillas are unusually active animals; they really like to jump, run and play. Life expectancy in captivity depends on how they are kept. How long can a chinchilla live at home? If you pay attention to their diet, keep the animals in a spacious cage, and give them the opportunity to communicate and move, then they can live quite a long time: eight to ten years or more.

Character

By nature, chinchillas are very affectionate and tame; they almost never bite. The animal can bite only in a state of severe fright. All chinchillas are different, some like to be petted and others not so much, and these character traits need to be respected. What chinchillas do not tolerate is violence. In order to achieve mutual understanding with the animal, you need to show patience and perseverance, and respect the peculiarities of its character and behavior.

After purchasing a chinchilla, you need to leave it alone for about a week and let it get used to its new place. Then, unpersistently, you need to extend your hand to her with a treat. If the chinchilla wants, she will come up, take the treat and climb into your arms. If not, you need to continue taming it day after day until the animal gets used to you.

A chinchilla may become offended if you leave it alone for a long time or simply do not pay attention to it. She won't want to play with you and won't even take treats from your hands.

Chinchillas are very good at manipulating their owners. They know exactly what needs to be done to get what they want: they will sit in a corner and look at you with sad eyes, or they will jump on their hind legs to get a treat or go for a walk around the room.

Is it possible to train a chinchilla to go to the litter tray?

Chinchillas are very smart and learn quickly. It is very easy to train them to go to the litter box: place it in the cage in the place where the animal usually goes to the toilet, you need to remove all the bedding and wipe the floor of the cage with lemon. The chinchilla will immediately understand what needs to be done.

Tray

The second method: initially allow the animal to go to the toilet on the entire bedding at the bottom of the cage, but gradually reducing it every day. When a small patch remains, replace it with a small tray. The main thing is to change the bedding every day so that the cage is always dry.

Chinchilla color

The natural color of chinchillas is gray, but not uniform; they have a dark back and a white belly. The color can vary in saturation from light gray to almost black.

Amateurs have bred numerous color variations: white, black, beige, brown and others. There are also purple chinchillas, although their color is not exactly purple, but gray with a bluish or light purple tint. In total, there are about 240 different shades of domestic chinchilla color.

Golden color

How to distinguish a male from a female chinchilla

Despite the fact that males are usually smaller than females, it is quite difficult to distinguish them from each other. In nature, females are larger and more aggressive than males, but at home they practically do not differ in either behavior or color. The only way to determine the sex of an animal is to simply look at its genitals. In boys, the distance between the anus and the urethra is approximately 3-4 mm, but in girls there is no such pronounced gap.

Chinchillas are quite delicate animals, and their diet at home must be selected very carefully. What do chinchillas eat? The main food for them is dry hay (it must be properly dried, with a pleasant herbal smell).

Fresh, high-quality hay should always be in the cage. If there is not enough hay, the animal may die.

In addition to hay, the chinchilla is fed with special food, and the following are suitable complementary foods: cereal flakes, dried leaves, herbs or roots, corn and flax seed, dried pieces of vegetables. These animals happily gnaw on branches of fruit trees and bushes: apple, cherry, raspberry or currant trees. The main thing is that everything is dry and free of moisture.

Chinchillas need to be given water. Make sure the water is always fresh.

A responsible attitude to the selection of chinchilla nutrition prolongs their life; more than half of the animals die prematurely from intestinal disorders.

Reproduction at home

For breeding at home, take a male and a female chinchilla at least eight months old and weighing at least 500 g. Before giving birth, it is advisable to remove the male to allow the female to give birth to her babies in peace and rest.

Keeping at home

Keeping and caring for chinchillas at home is not difficult. But there are some important conditions that must be adhered to. Chinchillas need spacious, wide cages, preferably high ones, similar to aviaries; the animals are very active and must move a lot. For one animal, a cage of the following dimensions is suitable: 100 cm high, 80 cm long and 50 cm wide.

Chinchillas love to climb to heights, so it is advisable to give them this opportunity by installing wooden shelves in the cage. There is no need for ladders to connect floors, as chinchillas love to jump. In addition to shelves, it is advisable to install in the cage: a spacious wooden house, hammocks, tunnels and a running wheel.

Chew toys are also needed. These could be: small branches, wooden blocks, salt or chalk stone.

When choosing a cage, pay attention to the presence of plastic parts; they should not be in the cage, because... chinchillas chew and eat everything, and plastic can cause intestinal obstruction and death of the animal.

In addition, the chinchilla needs to be let out of the cage for a couple of hours a day, but at the same time monitored, since they like to chew everything that comes their way, including wires and furniture.

The bottom of the cage can be left clean, without filler, and in the corner of the cage you can install a tray where the chinchilla will go to the toilet.

A container of sand can be placed in and next to the cage several times a week. There is no need to leave it on for a long time, as bathing chinchillas too often can cause dry skin.

If there is no filler at the bottom of the cage, then the cage should be swept daily with a small broom, removing excrement. It is advisable to wipe the shelves daily with natural detergents.

Chinchilla health

A healthy adult animal should weigh at least 500 g. You also need to pay attention to the color of the teeth. If teeth begin to turn white, losing their orange color, this is the first sign of calcium deficiency. The fur should be smooth and shiny.

People often ask whether a chinchilla needs special care. No special care is needed, but it is better to contact a veterinarian if you notice that your animal:

• refuses food;
• lethargic and passive;
• falls over on its side.

In the room where the animal lives, the air temperature should be no higher than 26 degrees. High temperature air can cause heatstroke in a chinchilla.

Chinchilla (lat. Chinchilla) belongs to the order Rodents, suborder Porcupines, superfamily Chinchilla-shaped, family Chinchillaidae, genus Chinchilla.

Description of the chinchilla and photographs.

Chinchillas have a round head and a short neck. The body is covered with thick soft hair, and hard hairs grow on the tail. The body length is 22-38 cm, and the tail grows 10-17 cm long. The weight of a chinchilla reaches 700-800 grams, while females are larger and heavier than males.

At night, chinchillas can easily navigate thanks to their huge eyes, which have vertical pupils. The whiskers of mammals grow up to 10 centimeters in length. Chinchilla ears are round in shape and have a length of 5-6 cm. In the ears there is a special membrane with which the chinchilla closes its ears when taking a sand bath.

The chinchilla's skeleton can be compressed in a vertical plane, so the animals can crawl into the smallest crevices. The hind legs of chinchillas are four-toed, and the front legs have 5 toes. The hind limbs are very strong and twice as long as the front ones, which allows mammals to jump high.

The life expectancy of a chinchilla reaches 20 years.

Do chinchillas have teeth?

Chinchillas have very strong teeth, just like all other rodents. They have 20 teeth in total: 16 molars and 4 incisors. Newborn babies have 8 molars and 4 incisors.

Interesting fact: Adult chinchillas have orange teeth. Cubs are born with white teeth, which change color as they age.

Chinchilla colors. What color are chinchillas?

Chinchillas have an ash-gray color and a white belly - this is the standard color of the animal. More than 40 were bred in the 20th century different types chinchillas, whose coat color has more than 250 shades. Thus, chinchillas come in white, beige, white-pink, brown, black, purple and sapphire colors.

Types of chinchillas.

There are the following types of chinchillas:

• Small long-tailed chinchilla (coastal)
• Short-tailed (large) chinchilla

Male and female chinchilla.

Chinchilla female larger than the male and weighs more. Males are more tame. But if you pick up the male first, not the female, the chinchilla may be offended and turn his back.

Where does the chinchilla live?

South America is considered the homeland of chinchillas. The short-tailed chinchilla lives in the Andes of southern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. The long-tailed chinchilla lives only in certain areas of the Andes in northern Chile.

Thanks to their strong hind legs, chinchillas are capable of high jumps, and a developed cerebellum guarantees them excellent coordination. These are colonial animals that do not live alone. Chinchillas are most active at night. If there are no crevices or voids in their habitat, the chinchilla digs a hole.

What does a chinchilla eat?

Like all rodents, the chinchilla eats seeds, cereals, herbaceous plants, lichens, bark, moss, legumes, shrubs, and insects. In captivity, the animal eats dried foods: hay, dried dandelions, nuts, as well as special foods that include oats, barley, peas, lentils, beans, grass meal and other components. Chinchillas especially love dried fruits such as raisins, dried apricots, prunes, dried apples, dried cherries, rose hips and hawthorn. You should not feed your chinchilla many fresh vegetables and fruits, as this can lead to stomach problems.

Reproduction of chinchillas.

Chinchilla couples are monogamous. At the age of 7 months, the animals reach sexual maturity. The female can give birth to offspring up to three times a year. On average, two cubs are born, but sometimes more. Females remain pregnant for up to 115 days. The male becomes caring and helps the female care for the chinchillas. Small chinchillas are born with open eyes, with fur, and can move around on their own.

Chinchillas are fur-bearing animals that are herbivores and are small in size. They have small round ears, shiny eyes, long whiskers that move all the time, beautiful, fluffy, soft fur and a tail like a squirrel.

These animals are very charming and quite curious. The chinchilla animal looks like a tiny bunny, which for some reason has grown a long tail. But, oddly enough, the porcupine can be considered its closest relative, although the porcupine is large and prickly, and the chinchilla is small and fluffy

Where do chinchillas live?

Place rodent habitat is the Andes mountain system in South America at an altitude of 400 to 5000 m, adapted to life in the mountains. Their skeletons compress vertically, allowing the animals to crawl through narrow vertical cracks. A well-developed cerebellum allows the animals to move perfectly on rocks. Large black eyes, long whiskers - vibrissae, large oval ears - are not an accident - this is an adaptation to a twilight lifestyle. With the help of these devices, the rodent sees well and hunts at night. When a threat approaches, they attack, stand on their hind legs and can bite with their teeth.

Chinchilla - description of the animal

The size of an adult chinchilla is quite small. So the body length of the animal is 22-38 cm, the tail size is 7-15 cm. By the way, the weight of the female is much greater than the male. A female chinchilla is also larger in size than a male. The weight of chinchillas ranges from 800 grams to 1.5 kilos.

In nature they live only in colonies. In science, the chinchilla family is distinguished separately.

The chinchilla rodent belongs to the chinchilla family. It has a gray natural color (standard animal). The animal's hair is colored in parts: the upper part is black, the middle part is white, and the lower part has a black or bluish tint. From here, a beautiful play of tones appears on the curves of the body. The animal has unique fur structure– about fifty hairs grow from one hair follicle. They also have a dense arrangement of bulbs, which makes the fur very thick. Along the entire length, the hairs have a non-uniform color, which makes the fur elegant, as the tones play perfectly. At the moment, there is a description of about 20 different colors of this species of animals, with their many shades.

The chinchilla animal, despite its exoticism, has become very popular. Children are always welcome to these good-natured animals. In addition, caring for them does not require special skills and knowledge. You can tame a chinchilla quite quickly. Communication with these beautiful creatures will diversify everyday life. home environment and will bring joy.

» Chinchillas

A couple of centuries ago, chinchillas were on the verge of extinction - they were destroyed because of their very valuable fur, but gradually the situation changed for the better for the animal and from the status of a hunting trophy, this rodent migrated into our homes to the status of a pet and everyone's favorite.

But in order for the animal to feel comfortable, healthy and cheerful, it is worth knowing how to properly feed it, what to feed it and is it possible to breed it at home?

It is best to buy a chinchilla at the age of 2 months– an animal will get used to a new environment and owners faster than an already mature and mature one.

When choosing an animal, you should understand that the chinchilla is a nocturnal animal and therefore will be more active in the evening and at night.

If you have purchased a small rodent and wondered whether it is possible to tame it, then, of course, you can. In the first days, just leave the animal alone - it will get used to the new home, smells and you.

Gradually begin to tame him into your hands– go to the cage and on the palm of your hand in front of the open cage door, offer the chinchilla a treat, for example a piece of a sweet apple.

The animal will definitely take it from your hand, even if not immediately, but after a few days - a tamed chinchilla will often sit on your shoulder and joyfully respond to your attention to its person. Believe me, caring for her is not that difficult.

When taking an adult animal into your home, ask the previous owners how long the animal has lived with them. About the pet’s eating habits and preferences, what diseases the animal suffered from and vaccinations given. All this will allow the animal to endure the move as comfortably as possible and not suffer from a sudden change in environment and diet.

There are rules and recommendations regarding the selection and arrangement of a cage. At the very beginning, the size of the cage per animal is 60 by 50 cm, with a height of 60 cm or more. All locks and closures are strong, preferably not wooden, but metal, since the chinchilla is a rodent and soon only the wooden rods may remain just sawdust.

The animal bathes in special sand, but not in water– it is not recommended to place a font with sand in the cage, but it should be kept separately, giving the animal a so-called “bath day” every 2-3 days.

Cage equipment: how to keep it clean?

Regarding the equipment of the cage and what should be in it, it is recommended to put in it a small house where the animal can retire, wooden shelves and ladders for games, a hanging drinking bowl and a feeding trough, which are attached from the outside.

It is recommended to put salt and mineral stones– they serve as a natural sharpener for the animal’s teeth and a source of salt and vitamins in the body, a hay box with dry hay and grass, and it is recommended to cover the floor of the cage with a special filler made of wood that does not stick to the animal’s paws.

If the dimensions of the cage allow, you can install a running wheel, toys made of wood, preferably birch, but not pine or spruce, rings and a hammock. It is also worth learning the rules regarding what you should not do with chinchillas.

A properly and properly equipped cage will allow you to create the most comfortable living conditions for your chinchilla, and its health depends on this.

What can’t be done to extend the life of an animal?

First of all, it is worth remembering that it is prohibited to bathe chinchillas in water, since there is special sand for this, in which the animal itself splashes with pleasure. You should not keep her in a cramped, small cage - she is an active rodent and a sedentary lifestyle will lead to obesity and death.

At the same time For a chinchilla, upward movement is important, moving from the top to the bottom shelf and vice versa, and therefore it is optimal to choose a tall cage shape rather than an oblong one.

You shouldn’t let this handsome guy roam around the apartment on his own – you’ll end up with damaged furniture, wiring and books.

Also, you should not let your chinchilla eat a lot of nuts and fresh food often - the optimal diet is granulated food and hay. Nuts, fresh fruits, seeds should serve as a delicacy rather than as a daily diet.

If you purchased a pair of chinchillas, then never put a female with a male, especially if the boy is older and the girl is less than 6 months old. At this time, the female is not yet ready to give birth and therefore early pregnancy will only lead to problems with her health.

Try to travel less with chinchillas - for them the slightest noise, squabbles and moving are just another stress that does not have the best effect on your pet.

Chinchilla cannot tolerate cold and therefore keeping it in a room where it is below 14 degrees is fatal., although you shouldn’t overdo it with heat either, since these rodents react very painfully to overheating, as well as sunlight, which can lead to heat or sunstroke.

What to feed a chinchilla and how many times a day?

Chinchillas belong to the order of herbivores, they are true representatives of the rodent family - at home this point should be taken into account and the appropriate diet should be selected.

Regarding food, in chinchilla stores today it will not be a problem to choose dry, granular food, formulated taking into account the preferences of the rodent and with the composition of macro, microelements, and vitamins it needs.

Many experts do not recommend buying and giving vitamins separately to chinchillas, although during pregnancy and feeding the offspring, the female can be switched to a diet enhanced with vitamins.

A chinchilla's diet should also include hay - you can prepare it yourself by collecting herbs such as clover, dandelions, and alfalfa in the field. If you buy hay at a pet store, it should be dry, clean, without any unnecessary unpleasant odors of mold.

As an additive, you can add birch or willow twigs, raspberry or apple twigs, currant or linden twigs. Under no circumstances should you give branches of oak and cherry, as well as trees that emit resin - pine, spruce.

The cage must contain clean, boiled or filtered water - in nature, chinchillas get it from food, but due to the fact that at home the animal receives dry food, it simply needs moisture.

You can feed the animal with flax seeds or corn grains, leaves of fresh and young nettles or dandelions, strawberries, and periodically give it pieces of dried sweet apple and carrots, pears, and a few raisins. But introducing fresh apples, cabbage and nuts into the diet is undesirable and even contraindicated.

Speaking about what should be excluded from a chinchilla’s diet, in addition to everything mentioned above, never give it to your pet roasted sunflower seeds and grains, nuts - they are served fresh, but not fried. You should not give food from your own table. Bread and cookies - it is optimal to give wheat crackers, and even then infrequently.

Proper and nutritious nutrition is always the key to health, an active lifestyle and the normal development of a chinchilla. If the food is not complete or chosen incorrectly, you will end up with health problems for your pet and its death.

Diseases and their prevention: how to care for a sick animal?

Many people wonder what diseases are inherent in chinchillas and what control measures and preventive measures should be used to prevent them? In the list of the most common diseases, veterinarians have identified the following:

1. Gastrointestinal disorder. The root cause is low-quality food with an expired expiration date, incorrect feeding regimen when there is an excess of dry or succulent food, a sudden change in diet and diet. As a result, the animal is diagnosed with constipation or diarrhea, inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, when the stool comes with blood in it. Be sure to show your pet to a doctor - he will examine your pet and recommend a course of treatment and diet.
2. The chinchilla chews out its own fur, or if there are several animals in the cage, then from each other. The reasons for this behavior are different - itchy skin or harmful insects, lack of certain vitamins in the diet, especially protein. Show the animal to a doctor who will conduct an examination and take tests, or change the diet by introducing vitamin supplements into it, and also clean the cage more often.
3. Dystrophy of liver cells due to obesity– here liver cells are replaced by adipose tissue. The reason is rancid, low-quality food, when the chinchilla’s body does not absorb carotene, excessively fatty food, and a large amount of nuts and seeds. The animal is simply fed - review the diet, minimizing fatty foods, choosing only high-quality, fresh food, and also put a wheel in the cage for your pet’s sports activities.
4. Formation of stones in the genitourinary system– the cause may be an incorrect diet. Stones can be identified through ultrasound - if they are small, when it is more like sand, then it will come out of the body on its own, if their size is larger - they are removed surgically.
5. Sunstroke or hypothermia– the reasons are wrong temperature regime keeping the animal. Accordingly, remove the animal from a room that is too hot for it, from the sun, or transfer it to a warmer room. With such a problem, the animal will constantly lie down, its breathing will become intermittent and labored, it will lose consciousness - if this does not help, then you should show the chinchilla to a veterinarian, who will prescribe medications that increase blood flow and breathing.
6. Conjunctivitis– inflammation of the conjunctiva of the eyes of a chinchilla. The cause could be injury or chemical irritants or bacteria - show the animal to a doctor, who will prescribe treatment. In addition, clean the cage and treat it with antiseptics, and as a preventive measure and treatment, wash the eyes with a 3% solution of boric acid, or a decoction of chamomile, plus drops that contain antibiotics.
7. Catarrh of the nose– this disease in chinchillas manifests itself when the weather changes, with sudden temperature fluctuations, if there is a strong draft in the room. In this case, mucus will leak from the animal’s nasal passages, the eyes will water, and white or yellow discharge will accumulate in the corners. The chinchilla eats little, frequent breathing and an increase in temperature aggravate its condition. In this case, keep the animal in a dry room, wash the eyes with a solution of boric acid, give food rich in vitamin C, and consult a veterinarian.
8. Wounds that occur as a result of injury to animals among themselves during a fight, or in contact with a sharp edge of a shelf in a cage. If the wounds are superficial, they heal on their own, without outside help, but if it is a deep wound, consult a doctor for washing and treatment to avoid infection and inflammation.
9. Dental problems. As the animal grows, chinchillas may experience problems with their teeth - excessive growth and periodontal disease. The growth of teeth and the animal’s inability to grind them down leads to problems with bite and nutrition, chewing food and, as a result, problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Remember also that chinchillas’ teeth have an open root - so they grow constantly, and if there is a lack of vitamins A and D and calcium in the diet, the teeth will grow too quickly. In this case, it is worth correcting the teeth - simply by cutting them down in a medical facility and constantly giving the animal hard twigs and products for grinding down the teeth.

If you have the slightest suspicion of health problems with your chinchilla, immediately contact a veterinarian and carry out the necessary examination, examination, and course of treatment. You should never hesitate - the sooner a diagnosis is made and treatment is prescribed, the better the treatment outcome will be.

Breeding animals at home in an apartment

How to keep a chinchilla at home? If you want to keep a family of chinchillas and start breeding them, you should take into account several points and rules. First of all - In chinchilla families, matriarchy is clearly expressed, the supremacy of the female and therefore it is recommended to place the female with the male on his territory, but if the placement takes place on her territory, the couple should be given time to get used to each other, so to speak, to get to know each other.

In this case, place the cage with the male next to the cage with the female for a couple of days and only then put them together. If the animals behave aggressively, separate them into cages for a while and so on until they coexist peacefully in pairs. The main thing is to carry out everything under your own control, so that the animals do not injure each other in a fight.

The male reaches sexual maturity at the age of 8-9 months, the female at 7-8, while the duration of the female’s sexual cycle is about 40-50 days, while estrus lasts 3-4 days. The female bears offspring for 105-110 days - during this period it is recommended to give her increased nutrition, especially if the animal is pregnant for the first time.

1-2 cubs are born, less often - 3 or more, and in caring for the offspring the male shows himself to be a rather caring father. But if you do not want the chinchilla to become pregnant again, it is recommended to move the male into another cage while the female is caring for the offspring.

Babies are born already covered with fur, with open eyes and can move on their own - their weight varies from 30 to 70 grams and the weight depends on the number of cubs in the litter.

If the female has given birth to 2, then there is no need to feed them, but if 3 or more, artificial feeding from a pipette with milk formula will allow you to save the babies. For that, so that the female produces more milk - give 1-2 raisins a day, and after 2 months the babies can be separated from their mother.

Breeding chinchillas at home will not be difficult even for a novice zoologist and will bring a lot of pleasure and positivity. Under the right conditions, a pair of chinchillas will regularly delight you with a new addition to your family.

As you can see, caring for a chinchilla at home is not that difficult. Having a chinchilla in the house, caring for it and breeding it is something everyone can do. And you will get a lot of joy from caring for a small, furry animal.