I get a lot of people asking me how Chinchillas are as pets so I thought I would start off with a few tips on their behaviour, diet and everything you need to know when you first become a Chinchilla owner.

Chinchillas are nocturnal just like many other small animals, this can be hard for you to spend time with them throughout the day as they block out all every day noises. You can teach them to wake up through the day by giving them treats at certain times, this learns them to wake up throughout the day so you can spend a little time with them.

Chinchilla eating

A grey chinchilla eating. image byTerriko

Many small animals don’t need to be bathed as they clean themselves regularly, Chinchillas are different on this matter. They need to have a sand bath once every few days or so, just depending on your personally, you need to make sure its sepiolite dust they bath in, you can find this in all pet stores :)

Chinchillas live for around 20 years on average so please be aware when you buy them, you have them for a very long time :)

Chinchillas are very active animals and need a lot of room to run, a decent sized cage is a must (as with any animal) and like most small animals, they love human company but do not like to be handled. They can occasionally bite if they feel threatened but I guess that goes without saying. They are very sociable animals so are mainly kept in pairs, if they are kept on their own they need a lot of human contact.

As for their diet, you can buy just a normal Chinchilla mix but along side with that they do need fruit, try to give them fruits with seeds not stones or pips. They also love their veg (carrot, flaked peas, parsley, chard, romaine, a dandelion leaf)they also like to eat grains so many cereals which are low in sugar along with rolled oats and oat grouts.

Hope this has helped.

Steph x

Thanks to forum member steph*and*chinchilla for this post!