Meet our New Chinchilla (Suprise!!)

Hey Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,

I know, I know… I never told you guys I was getting a Chinchilla… well that’s because we didn’t really know we were getting a Chinchilla either!

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from my old boss saying that a customer had to rehome/surrender her longterm Chinchilla. My boss said the customer was looking for good pet owners to take him in and was too worried to put him up on Kijiji, or Craigslist. (I can understand why!) She said the customer seemed very caring for her Chinchilla and that I shouldn’t be too wary that I’d be taking home a sick or mishandled Chinchilla. Although we trusted that the Chinchilla was in good health, my hubby and I were a bit hesitant since we just moved into a much smaller apartment, and didn’t know if we would have the room for a Chinchilla.

We were also nervous that with Carrie/Kalista on the way, and Beau already in the house, that they would torture the little guy, so we got to thinking… how can we make sure all three of them will be happy and harmonious. I mean we already had Beau introduced to a hamster in the past (who kind of like the Chinchilla was surrendered at the pet store.) So what have we got to lose?

I quickly called the owner, who I will not name for obvious privacy reasons, and she was one of the sweetest people I have talked to! You could hear how important Gary, the name she had chosen for the Chinchilla, was to her. I soon learned that he was approximately 10+, and that she actually rescued him from the streets. This completely melts my heart as Beau was also a cat that we had rescued from the street. I made a joke a few years back that my home was going to be filled with rescues that I just couldn’t say no to… and it’s actually becoming true.

It took us a bit of time to plan to pick up Gary since we don’t own a car and I wanted to make sure I was prepped for his arrival, so I did a bunch of reading and luckily the sweet owner offered to answer any questions I had about his care and of course if any of you have advice on how to take care of a Chinchilla I appreciate it. I will share interesting facts about Chinchillas I learn, and little tricks we learn from him as I do with the cats, fish and hamster, but boy am I excited to start this journey!

The kind owner also gave us a pretty big cage, and a bunch of hiding places, food, litter, hay etc! It’s quite big, so I’m not too worried about “upgrading” just yet, especially because I want to do some research in what his habitat needs, and what cages do well. He does have lots of things to climb, chew and a cosy place to sleep! So again, not too worried!

Beau was immediately curious about Gary and came running into the room as soon as we put him in his cage. I’m glad the cage is big enough and that Gary has a place to run and hide so Beau can’t reach him, although I’m not super nervous because I can visibly see Gary from my office desk and Beau got along swimmingly with Twitch, Flub & Blub. He’s probably just trying to see who’s the new member of the family! I’m debating making a seat for him close enough to the cage so he can watch Gary, but far enough that he can’t stick his paws in.

I mean we did find the tubser like this, but he hasn’t reached his paws in, which tends to be a good sign. Again, we’ve put his home way in the corner so when Gary needs to hide, he’s covered by a few walls. Will definitely monitor over the next few days to see how Beau does and my office is already a “no pet space” at night so Gary will be safe.

Since Gary is still adjusting to our place, we let him rest in his cage and haven’t taken too many more pictures. I will definitely be updating you all and have actually come up with a bit of a schedule for the site to keep me regulated. My hope is to get 5 posts out minimum a week, one for each type of pet we have, and one photo dump/update about all of them to send you off for the weekend. That way everyone gets fair representation since I noticed the website was pretty heavy on kitties as of late (don’t worry we still love kitties!) Let me know what you think about the new rotation, and as always can’t wait to share our pets lives with you <3