Twelve weeks ago today, Nikita from the reptile department came up to me. In her hands were two lifeless, wet figures. These were chinchillas. Their mother had discarded them, they were freezing cold and not able to regulate their own body temperature. They would have died without us intervening.
As Nikita dried and tended to the little ones, I went off to raid the internet for care tips on how to hand rear chinchillas. We used an infrared heater to warm them up and after a couple of hours they were dry and awake. I managed to find a good recipe for milk which they took to readily.
The picture above was taken two days later. Our new babies were doing really well. They had to be fed every two hours, this meant through the night as well. Unfortunetly one of the two young chinchillas was never as strong as the other and we sadly lost him in the first week.
The remaining chinchilla was strong, healthy and feeding ravenously. He went from strength to strength and we all became rather attached.
The aptly named Chinchi came home with us, and was loved by everyone. Being hand reared made him ever so friendly and he would sleep with you, play on you and on occasion go to the toilet on you!!! Nikita took on a full time role as mum towards the end of the weaning process. This process takes up to eight weeks and they are fully weaned at twelve weeks. Today we said goodbye to Chinchi as he was picked up by his new owner. He will be well looked after.
This tribute is to two best friends, Nikita and Chinchi, pictured below.
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