Allow us to introduce ourselves: our names are
Aaron and Kristine. We are hobby breeders on the west coast of
beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We've got mountains, the ocean, lots of trees to hug
- we love our little corner of the world!
We've had
experience with chinchillas since the late 1980's, through the
standard pair that Kristine had as pets during high school.
They were gone by the time we finished university (well, one of
us finished university; one of us didn't... quite) and for a
couple of years we were chinless. Since then we've learned
a lot, experienced a bit of life, and renewed our passion for
chins. We bought the first of our current chin family in
2001 from a local fur rancher. Her name was Juliet and her
birthday was May 3, 2001 (she passed away in 2008).
Our second chin,
Romeo, came to us from a local breeder by the name of Chinchilla Kingdom. Romeo is as affectionate
and friendly as Juliet, though in more of an emphatic "bowl-you-over" fashion.
It's funny how their
personalities are so unique! Romeo and Juliet had their first litter on
February 17, 2003, right on their due date (while we weren't at home, of
course). Their two little babies flourished and found new homes.
Since then, we have added several more chins to our family, trying to do it
very slowly since we also have non-furry children. Life is
just too busy right now to have more chins than we can
comfortably keep as family pets. We wouldn't want to have so many chins that we didn't have enough time to spoil
each one of them rotten! Maybe when the kids are all in school or we're empty nesters with lots of time
on our hands, we'll build up a bigger "herd."
We continue to
learn as we go along. We've attended some shows, made a
couple trips to the vet, had lots of baby chins born under our roof, and made many
friends in the chinchilla industry. It has been a rich and rewarding
experience! Thank-you for taking a little time to get to know us!
Some of our chin care practices:
We provide our
chins with spacious accommodations, so that they always have
lots of room to themselves, should they want it (more often than
not, they sleep in a big pile on the top shelf anyway).
Cages are cleaned weekly and loaded with pine shavings at the
bottom to ensure a healthy environment for our chins.
We currently
feed our chins Oxbow Chinchilla Deluxe Pellet. They also love timothy hay,
timothy/alfalfa cubes, uncooked slow oats, raisins, dried rosehips, sunflower seeds and other dried
fruit and nuts (unsalted). Treats are given sparingly!
Our chins are
bathed generally two times a week. We tried chinchilla
sand, to minimize dust, and concluded that it didn't work very well. So, we're back to
chinchilla dust. We currently use Blue Cloud brand.
Baby chins are handled daily from birth, so that they grow up
tame and friendly. Our daughter is especially keen on helping us with
this!
