Tango's Corner

On one hand you have The Guide to Owning a Chinchilla by Anmarie Barrie, author of the Guide to Owning series. On the other you have Chinchillas, written by David Alderton and marketed as part of Animal Planet's Pet Care Library. Despite the vast difference in appearance and style, both books are published by T.F.H. Publications, Inc., a company that was first associated with tropical fish (TFH-Tropical Fish Hobbyist) and also the first publisher to make color pet books. It should be noted that the table of contents and overall organization of the two books are almost identical, although perhaps the similarity has more to do with a particular formula for writing pet care manuals rather than the fact both books were published by the same company.

In case you were wondering, David Alderton is a respected, international bestselling author of pet-related literature. He is also a long-time chinchilla owner, and has created training programs for pet shops and other businesses on chinchilla care. He is semi-famous in his native Britain, where he hosts local radio and television shows on animals and natural history. At least that's what read on the back of the book; it's probably just marketing hype, but with no foundation for Barrie's expertise, the blurb makes Alderton seem slightly more credible.

The Guide to Owning a Chinchilla is in the standard glossy softbound format common to pet care manuals, with several large color photographs of chinchillas that are mildly related to the text. Chinchillas is a hardcover book, which is a notable feature of the Pet Care Library, and has a much more modern and poppy layout than The Guide, with bright colors and several small offset snippets of tips and advice in case you need a quick reference or get bored with the main text.

Somewhere near the beginning, both authors tell the story of Mathias F. Chapman in 1918 and the first domesticated chinchillas; however, Alderton's version is told merely as a side note within the context of conservationism, whereas Barrie conjures a much more intriguing story about Chapman's incredible efforts over the course four years to bring 11 chinchillas to America: He spent three years in the Andes Mountains of Chile just trying to catch the wily things without injuring them. Then, to prevent the chinchillas from going into shock from the change in altitude, Chapman patiently descended 12,000 feet down the mountain over the course of a year, using ice blocks to keep the chinchillas cool as he neared the foot. Finally, he took the whole herd by ship back to his ranch in California from Chile. Luckily for Chapman, chinchillas are rodents, the horny devils, and had already starting breeding before the ship reached California. Although, considering Chapman's unbelievable dedication in a time before air conditioning and air travel, luck probably had little to do with his success.

I did find some faults with The Guide; however, Barrie's story of Chapman was an inspiration for the level of patience that has allowed many people, including myself, to own a chinchilla today. Then again, Chapman allowed an entire commercial chinchilla furring industry to emerge, and is therefore also responsible for the deaths of millions upon millions of chinchillas. Kind of incredible to slap your thoughts around that little circle, isn't it?

But anyhow,

Alderton and Barrie spend considerable effort in guiding the reader at the initial stages of chinchilla ownership, including the very first step: making a conscious decision to acquire a chinchilla. This may seem trivial, but in fact chinchilla owners do need to consider a few things before they run down to the local chilla patch.

As far as informing the reader whether their living arrangement is suitable for chinchilla ownership, Barrie's "no apartment is too small" comment is humorously idealistic and almost completely contradictory to Alderton's sobering advice, which considers the large cage, but is also mindful of necessary human to chinchilla interaction, and warns against housing a noisy, nocturnal chinchilla in a bedroom. All very sound in my opinion, unless you want to shack up for 20 years next to Mr. Somehow-I-Can-Fling-Poop-Farther-Than-My-Cage-Guard in your studio apartment; then be my guest. Not that chinchillas aren't fastidious and clean and all that, but let's face it, every chinchilla owner has to do a lot of sweeping and vacuuming if they want to walk barefoot around the cage without getting toe-jimmies.

As I was saying,

Barrie tends to gloss over negative aspects and possible barriers to chinchilla ownership at first, barriers such as living in a climate that regularly exceeds 80-90°F and not having AC, although she makes that point later in the book. To be fair, Alderton talks chinchillas up, too, although with obvious concern for leaving chinchillas in the care of children. Which isn't to say the authors shouldn't encourage people to get chinchillas, but within reason.

Both authors recommend getting chinchillas in pairs, preferably two females. But, should you house a male and a female together, Barrie suggests getting your male chinchilla neutered to prevent offspring. I found this to be a little off-putting. She later describes a process for finding a qualified vet, but I think it bears mentioning that even with the absolute best chinchilla veterinarian in the world, think twice before you let your chinchilla go under the knife if the situation can be avoided. For example, it would be much cheaper and less stressful to buy a second cage than to neuter a small animal. Or better yet, don't buy opposite sex chinchillas unless you intend to breed them.

Anyway,

Both authors treat the color patterns somewhat summarily and without illustrations or photographs to correspond with the written descriptions, which I found somewhat disappointing. They both say nearly the same things about each variety, though Alderton tops Barrie with a small paragraph on brown velvets, which are absent from Barrie's list, and he also includes an interesting side-note on the Zimbabwean nationality of the violet variety.

When she describes the size of the cage required for a chinchilla, Barrie seems way off. She suggests a two-cubic-foot cage, whereas Alderton recommends a cage no smaller than 2 feet by 2 feet, which, if you're into math, is missing a dimension and so it is impossible to calculate the volume of his hypothetical cage. But if Alderton's minimum cage were, say, 2'x 2'x 1', it would still be twice as large as what Barrie is suggesting. I always think bigger is better with a chinchilla cage, but 2 cubic feet is just incredibly tiny. At first I hoped that this was a typo, but Barrie goes on to describe a 12"x 16"x 18" cage that is in fact two cubic feet. If you are into metric, 2 cubic feet is 0.18580608 square meters, or about the size of an average hamster cage.

Barrie also recommends hard plastic shelves, which probably has our rabid posters frothing mad already. Alderton warns that plastic consumption can be fatal, but with a lesser degree of fascism, he recognizes that, in most cases, plastic causes some digestive problems.

On the subject of chinchilla dusting, Alderton prohibits using sand instead of dust, suggesting that it can cause cancer. I had not heard this before, but if you think about it, sand is not very much like the good stuff, volcanic ash, and is probably analogous to using sand paper instead of bathroom tissue. Good call on that one, Alderton, and thanks for the heads up.

Early on in Chinchillas, Alderton warns of the greatest threat to chinchillas: heat. This should be apparent from the earlier description of the care necessary to remove chinchillas from their natural habitat, but heat stroke is always something to be concerned about. Alderton's warning is placed in one of those aforementioned snippets, set off by a bright yellow border with an off-colored background, and featuring bold, contrasting text. Now that's a warning. And for a new chinchilla owner, that kind of information needs to be accessible, and not buried within page whatever of a monotonous text.

David Alderton is an expert on animal nutrition apparently, which gives his section on proper chinchilla diet much more credibility, although to be fair, the two authors essentially agree that store bought chinchilla pellets are the best diet. Alderton explains that because of the chinchilla furring industry Chapman induced, a great deal of research went into producing very healthy chinchillas (because, after all, a malnourished chinchilla has ugly fur). Chapman had saved some examples of the Chilean mountain flora the chinchillas had previously been surviving on, and before long, top scientists deduced the proper balance of fat and protein, among other nutrients, to create a dry food pellet that could be stored easily and would keep the chinchillas happy and healthy, just long enough to be, er, anally electrocuted.

Well, the point of the story is that all the hard work has already been done for the modern chinchilla owner, albeit funded with blood money of sorts, and both Alderton and Barrie agree that it's best to go with a manufactured pellet and supplement with the best hay you can find.

No, Hay is not for horses. Chinchillas love that shit. Really. Alderton says that chinchillas benefit from a wide variety of hay. Barrie ranks timothy hay first, alfalfa second. Alderton also recommends a high-quality timothy hay.

Additionally, in one of the aforementioned offset snippets of advice, Alderton writes that Rabbit food can harm your chinchilla's liver, resulting in a fatal condition. However, Barrie says it's ok to use Rabbit food short term as long as it's supplemented with timothy hay. Perhaps Alderton is wrong, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Alderton warns against sweets, too, and even mentions some slightly unsuspecting evils like avocados and salted nuts. And although the cover of Chinchillas depicts a chilla eating a raw leaf, Alderton warns the reader several times about the dangers of fresh foods.

All in all, it's as if Alderton read Barrie's Guide, edited and fixed some factual errors, filled in the blanks and filled out the basic framework Barrie set down, while also modernizing as he went. The similarities are numerous, but you might as well spend the extra $2.00 on Chinchillas to get a slightly more accurate, complete, and readable chinchilla care book.