What can you tell me about chinchilla's as pets?

Chinchillas are great,i use a big cat cage(4 almost 5ft tall) i have 2 chinchillas and haven't had a problem with them.As long as you keep something for them to chew on your home should be safe, just remember that there teeth constantly grow.You should play with them at the store an get use to holding them, they like to feel secure or mine do, like in a blanket or shirt.They eat hay,raisins,wood,pellets,and even cardboard like paper towel rolls, watch out with plastic mine eat it all the time. giving them dust baths relieves there stress and makes there fur extremely soft,I use a glass type on bathhouse because they'll just eat the plastic.There good pets for children my baby nephew practically sleeps with them, an there fur is so fine they cant get bugs witch is a big plus. Iv also read they can live up to 20 yrs!

They don't tend to make very good pets. They are high-strung prey animals that take a long time to tame so they don't run away every time you try and catch them. They eat grasses and timothy hay. They can also eat chinchilla pellets but not as a whole part of their diet. They are not easy to housetrain and most will not be fully housetrained. They should live in a cage when you can't supervise them or they could get into dangerous situations or find their way into your wall. Many don't like being pet. As I stated above, they are high strung and always on the lookout for predators. Reaching your hand over them can just about give them a heart attack if they think your a hawk swooping down on them. They live typically 15 years, but not if they are kept alone. Chinchillas live in large groups in the wild and some play lookout for predators while others eat or sleep. If they live alone they will be stressed when eating and too stressed to sleep well because they have to be on guard all the time without another chinchilla to be the lookout. The biggest problem is eatstroke. If they are kept in a house over 75 degrees they can get heatstroke and die or suffer organ failure. They have a coat twice as dense as dogs and cats so they cannot handle eat. You must have air conditioning. The next most common problem is with their digestive system. Their natural diet is hard to replicate and they don't adapt as well to pellets and dead grass (aka hay) as domestic animals. Lastly, respiratory problems are an issue. They must be given proper bedding and real volcanic ash to take dust baths in. There are cheap sand products sold as chinchilla dust bath but they can kill your chinchilla if they breathe it in.