On the 2-hour ride to Georgia, my former boyfriend and I carried out heated argument after heated argument. We weren't doing so great those days, and after adopting Nimbus, our relationship went straight downhill for multiple reasons. We broke up 3 months later. During the drive, I kept flip-flopping back and forth about whether to adopt a chinchilla. My head was filled with worry. What if I killed it right off the bat? What if it just up and died like my guinea pig Nibbles? What if I hated owning a chinchilla? I couldn't just send him back to the rescue. That would be irresponsible and mean to this poor chinchilla being carted back and forth from the rescue to his new home to back to the rescue.
But all those worries disappeared when I saw this little puffball jumping and banging in this old birdcage. His twitching nose. His bristly tail. Those big eyes. Little rounded ears. I was sold, and when the woman asked me if I wanted to hold him, my heart started racing. It was a miracle I didn't drop him. Fifteen minutes later, he was zipped into my cat carrier and away we went.
Within the first 10 minutes of owning him, I made the biggest mistake since we've been together. Back home, we didn't have any chinchilla supplies. Instead, we wanted to make sure that yes, indeed we were adopting a chinchilla and wanted to have him with us when we picked out the cage. Choosing a chinchilla cage can be difficult because you need to look at several factors:
1. Is the cage material safe if the chinchilla decides to chew it?
2. Is the cage material chew proof?
3. Is the bar spacing small enough that he won't get his paws stuck when he's jumping around the cage?
4. Is the cage sturdy enough to handle a bouncy chinchilla?
5. And, of course, is it big enough?
So, to purchase our new friend's supplies and food we went to the local Petsmart. Horrible, horrible idea!!!! It was Saturday. It was crowded. It was a tiny store. It was dog training day. Mass hysteria!!!
Finding the cage was the most difficult part. The food, the bowls, the toys, I already knew what I needed and what I wanted, but because I wanted to keep my boyfriend involved in the life of Nimbus, the process was dragged out in picking out items. Then, there was the cage. As Nimbus sat in the cat carrier in the bottom of the cart with the bright fluorescent lights, barking dogs and screaming children, my boyfriend battled with the different cages by pulling them out of their boxes to make sure they were the right size. We settled on the Chinchilla Starter, which comes with the cage, a sample of food, a wooden house and some other goodies that I believe we threw out because they weren't actually chinchilla friendly. What I liked were the different levels, all of which were made of safe wood.
After that horrible experience, we took off home, and I watched Nimbus on my lap become more listless and angry. I actually thought he was going to die before we even walked in the house. He refused to sleep and kept walking around with dull eyes and laid back ears. These are not signs of a healthy or a happy chin. By the time we walked in the door, I wondered how much more time we had left with him. I set the carrier in the bathroom, and my boyfriend got to work on building the cage. When it was finished, I said, "It looks kind of small."
And, it did. When we placed Nimbus in the cage, his ears brushed the top of the cage when he sat on the top floor. He couldn't stand on his back feet. I placed his Chinny Buddy (unfortunately, I can't find a link for this) in the cage with him, which he stared at, and closed the door. At this time, the cats were released from their holding cells in separate bedrooms. They sniffed and sniffed at this new animal, and we reinforced the idea that this new creature was part of the family with the squirt bottle every time claws popped out. Then, we waited.
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| A very angry Nimbus and his Chinny Buddy |
In proper etiquette when bringing home a chinchilla, you should wait 3-4 days before opening the cage and letting him explore. I thought this was a horrible idea since they need daily exercise and playtime. In his cage, there was no way Nimbus could do that. Instead, he sulked and squished himself between the bottom of the wooden second floor and the top of his rounded woven grass bungalow (see right hand bottom corner below). He just sat there. I didn't see him sleep for days. In fact, it wasn't until I did some more research and draped a dark sheet over 3 walls of his enclosure that Nimbus finally felt secure in his surroundings. I highly recommend doing so.
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| The day before his new cage arrived |
By the end of the second or third day, I couldn't take it anymore. He looked on the verge of dying. I couldn't tell what was wrong. It wasn't heat exhaustion. It wasn't intestinal blockage. It had to be plain, ole misery. I took a large square piece of Tupperware and filled it with Blue Cloud chinchilla dust. Holding the dust bath up to the cage door, I unhooked the latch and whispered to Nimbus. After a few minutes, he started to come out of the door. As soon as he realized what was in front of him, he dove into the dust bath and began flipping about. I've never seen a creature so happy!! In fact, he even gave The Squeak!
The Squeak is the ultimate goal. You want to achieve The Squeak from your chin. It means they are the happiest they can be, and it is usually accompanied by popcorning. You'll know it when you see it, and it comes with a huge sense of accomplishment. It's not the little grunts of foraging and exploring but a high-pitched little squeak. It sounds similar to their sneezes.
After that bath, Nimbus's level of activity and interaction improved, mostly. But, there was still something missing, and it wasn't found until we bought the new cage!
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