Today in Chinchilla Land
Posted by Jennifer Snyder on Sat, Jun 14, 2008 @ 12:48 AM
So today I let my 7 chinchillas run wild together through my guest
bedroom. Yes a messy adventure, but it was exciting. Like watching a national
geographic show live. They don't all live together, we keep them in 3 different
cages.
B-B lives with Haze
Boo lives with Belle
Jelly Bean, Elbow and Smoke live together (couldn't seperate the twins!)
So it was interesting to watch them interact in such a large area. I
left the dust out so they could all take a nice bath while they played and
explored. I figured as long as it's going to be a clean up afterwards, they
mise well have a whole lot of fun!
For some unknown reason Belle despises Smoke. Perhaps it is because he
shares a house right next-door with both of her daughters, but as soon as she laid
eyes on him, the chase began. She was intent on running him back to his cage! I
watched for a moment, but my general rule of thumb is to separate the chins
when squealing and hair flying starts. They can be pretty nasty to each other
if they have some unknown to human reason for a chinchilla vendetta; and Belle
can be one scary momma! Smoke took off across the room jumped onto the bed 90
miles an hour and high tailed it to him cage. I like leaving the doors open in
case they want a "safe spot" to relax.
Elbow is the smaller of the twins and the biggest scardy cat out of all of
the herd. I couldn't even coax her out of the cage with the tastiest dried
fruit chinchilla treat I had! I eventually picked her up and places her in the
dust bowl so she would at least be as clean as the other chins. As soon as she
was done dusting she hoped back in her cage and remained a spectator while the
other chinchillas roamed the room wreaking havoc on my Vonnegut novels by nibbling
the corners of the covers.
Elbow would call to her move adventures twin sis Jelly Bean every now and
then as she watched from her chinchilla house.
Haze and B-B are the two smartest of the pack and also the least interested
in...well me. They are quite happy with each other’s company and I believe B-B
is expecting. She looked extra wide around her sides today and she staked out
good hiding places with her chin life mate Haze.
Boo is bright white and an extremely sweet natured chinchilla. He is a little
timid but also trusting when he is assured that the situation is safe. Belle
and Boo really took to each other and it balanced their personalities out
nicely. Before Boo, Belle was quite the wild woman! She had a tendency to spray
and barked at me whenever I tried to get near her. Now, Belle is a sweet heart.
She seems to respond to her name, or at least the treat in my hand and even
enjoys when a pet under her chin and on top of her head.
After play time there is the tedious task of getting all of the chinchillas
back to their proper homes. I rounded up the first five; Boo, Belle, Smoke,
Jelly Bean &Elbow (who was alreay in the cage) with relative ease, but Haze
and B-B...now that was a chore. They were no where to be found!
In our house we are VERY cautious to make sure our chinchillas are not on
the loose, because we have a greyhound. She never bothers them when we are at
home, but she also doesn't get into the trash while we are at home .It's
always best to be cautious with other pets, especially if your pet happens to
be a retired racing dog that was trained to run after a funny
"rabbit".
I began to panic a little when I couldn't find them in the first 10 minutes.
Had they slipped under the door? Was that possible? The room isn't THAT big,
but they had been extra crafty in finding a very good hiding space. Both of
them were inside the arm rest of our pull out couch! We didn't want to squish
them and no treat was working this time. We decided the waiting game was the
best way to snag them. B-B came out first and Haze eventually came to
investigate her disappearance. Victory was ours!
We missed our original movie time but still made it to the Hulk later this
evening, which I might add is surprisingly good. Edward Norton is one heck of
actor.