Is it worth it?

Ratmosphere

Arachnoking
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
2,294
My friend and his family have been keeping a pet chinchilla for years. My friend told me the chinchilla is a male and is about 8 years old. He recently offered to give me it with the cage and everything. However, they don't usually take it out or hold it. I'm thinking the chinchilla has independence and may not like to be bothered. Should I take him? Or just let him live his last years the way he has his whole life?
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
Active Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
5,893
My friend and his family have been keeping a pet chinchilla for years. My friend told me the chinchilla is a male and is about 8 years old. He recently offered to give me it with the cage and everything. However, they don't usually take it out or hold it. I'm thinking the chinchilla has independence and may not like to be bothered. Should I take him? Or just let him live his last years the way he has his whole life?
That's only a question you can answer. Not sure if this page is accurate or not but they can live to 15 in captivity. So you could bring each other a lot of happiness for a number of years. I'm sure it'd love some interaction and exercise out of it's cage.

http://www.chincare.com/
 

Dark

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 15, 2003
Messages
538
Seems like a very bad idea, people are always trying to get rid of chinchillas, I see them on craigslist all the time. If you really want a chinchilla I'd say do a ton of research and then get one from a breeder right after it's weaned so you can actually form some sort of bond with it. A "never been touched" chinchilla that's 8 years old probably isn't going to want to have anything to do with you. They're tremendously fast and require a ton of free space. They also need to be kept cool as they have a lot of fur, require dust baths and overall are quite skittish. I've known people who love them more than anything but those people are few and far between.

My vote is: Definitely 100% don't take it unless you can be content with the animal never ever liking you or letting you pet it.

Eric
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
My vote is: Definitely 100% don't take it unless you can be content with the animal never ever liking you or letting you pet it.
I heard that nightmare scenario from a friend. She got some dumped on her that were a burden for someone else. Her paraphrased opinion: "Full time work caring for them and they hate my guts and wish I fell off the planet."

On the positive side, they are very durable capable animals if left to their own devices. All you have to do is manage to emulate the climate and environment of volcanic areas several thousand feet up the Andes.
 

AlbatrossWarrior

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
147
I've heard all the time of little children begging their parents to buy the adorable 300$ chinchilla at the petstore then returning it the very next day because they apparently poop like crazy, and aren't cuddly and don't crave your attention like rats.
I wouldn't get it IMO, the cage is probably huge if it's anything like my rat cage, so it will take up a huge chunk of a room + paying for the right kind of food and several toys and cage accessories for the next five years, which I wouldn't mind for my rats because they truly love me and are very rewards, but for an animal who will just destroy the toys a few weeks after they're bought and need a cage cleaning every other day? Not for me :rofl:
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,044
Got a little more info. Relative humidity through most of the natural habitat of these animals is way way low. Includes the altiiplano desert. One big problem these have is growing fungus in their fur if the humidity is too high. This can lead to skin problems and invite diseases.
 

Introvertebrate

Arachnoprince
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Dec 18, 2010
Messages
1,199
My vote is: Definitely 100% don't take it unless you can be content with the animal never ever liking you or letting you pet it.
Isn't that why we're into invertebrates? Sounds like the perfect pet to me.
 
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