Chinchilla – What is it?

Do you know what a chinchilla is? I didn’t know anything about it either until a few days ago, I went to my friend’s house and in the basement, there were two chinchillas, each in their own cage. The first moment I saw them, my eyes grew so big, they were super adorable, cute looking, furry comfy fur. But I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what they were. Are they related to a rabbit? Are they elated to a rat? Or are they related to a squirrel?

So, I decided to go to Wikipedia to find out. These are the exact words from Wikipedia’s definition, “Chinchillas are crepuscular (most active around dawn and dusk) rodents, slightly larger and more robust than ground squirrels. They are native to the Andes mountains in South Americaand live in colonies called “herds” at high altitudes up to 4,270 metres (14,000 ft).”

Apparently, chinchilla are relatively low-maintenance animals. They can instinctively clean their fur by taking dust baths, in which they roll around in special dust made of fine pumice. Due to their thick fur, they don’t need to shower in water. In fact, they need to dry quickly with a non-heat blow dryer to dry out the water. Or else, the condensation will form fungus growth or fur rot because their dense furs can’t dissipate the water. They also need some teeth exercise which means they need to eat apples or other birch wood to keep their teeth sharp and in good length because if their teeth are overly grown and not being exercised, they lost their biting abilities.

Overall, it’s a good low-mainteance pet. It is mainly very quiet and you don’t have to bathe them as mentioned above. They just need some occasional running around the basement to keep them active.

But honestly, I have no time even for low-maintenance chinchilla. I guess I will just to go my friend’s place to cuddle the comfortable fur and play with them whenever I could. I thank my friend because I wouldn’t know such cute animals existed on this planet if I didn’t see the pets first hand!

For more information about chinchilla, click here.

Check out the cute photos I posed with the chinchillas.

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