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Chinchillas are becoming increasingly popular. They are relatively
easy to care for. Once you've felt the coat of a chinchilla, you'll quickly see why they
were first raised for their fur. In the wild, chinchillas live in and around the Andes
Mountains in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. There are colonies of wild chinchillas living
today in the north of Chile. There is also a preserve in Chile dedicated to the
chinchilla. This preserve is managed by The International Chinchilla Industry Council
along with the government of Chile (donations are accepted with appreciation). The
Chinchilla, being a rodent, bathes in a volcanic dust. In the wild, chinchillas feed on
vegetation, flours, grains, and grasses in the wild.
| Order |
Rodentia |
Family |
Chinchillidae |
| Genus |
Chinchilla |
Species |
Lanigera |
| sexual maturity |
8-12 months |
LifeSpan |
10-25 years |
| Maximum Adult Size |
500-1000grams |
or |
1-2 pounds |
History
| The chinchilla is a native of the Andes region of South America where it
lives in the wild. In the early part of the 20th century, skins of this animal
were shipped into Europe and the United States by the bale. Chile alone shipped over
435,000 pelts in 1899. This mass trapping nearly lead to its extinction. The chinchilla
was put on the endangered species list around the turn of the century. To save the breed,
Mathias F. Chapman, a United States mining engineer, in 1923 caught eleven animals and
shipped them to the United States. These animals became the foundation stock for the
chinchilla farming in America. There were several thousand chinchillas imported into the
United States and Europe in the years after Mathias Chapman developed interest in raising
this animal for the fur market. Many of Hollywood's elite owned chinchillas. Today, this
industry is worldwide and there are several thousand ranchers and more then one million
chinchillas worldwide. These animals are being raised for their fur, for sale as show or
breeding stock and for use as pets. Small and inquisitive , they are easy to care for and
almost odorless. As a result of the domestic use of the chinchilla, mostly for the fur
market, it has been removed from the endangered species list and put on the threatened
list. |
Characteristics
| Chinchilla’s
are nocturnal (active at night), herbivores (plant eating animals), clean, practically
odorless, do not support fleas or other pests and require little housing area. Adults
weigh from 18 to 30 ounces or more and live up to 25 years of age. The fur of this animal
is incredibly soft and plush. They're the softest animal in the world. Microscopic
examination of an individual hair follicle reveals that it is composed of 80 to 100 hairs.
The original fur color of the chinchilla in the wild was mottled yellow-gray, to blend
with their surroundings. Through selective breeding, the standard color had been developed
into an attractive and appealing blue-gray with white belly. The ultimate goal is the
absents of yellow, brown, or red hues in the fur of the standard animal. Other
colors such as; Beige, White, Silver, Mosaic, Charcoal/Ebony, Sapphire, and Violet have
emerged as mutation colors.There are also variations of these colors. The charcoal/ebony,
violet, and sapphire are of the recessive genetic structure. The others are all dominant,
which means that the what you see is what you get. The animal will only produce the mutant
color it exhibits or standard. There have been other mutations over the years which did
not prove to be healthy or useful to breed. These animals have not been perpetuated or
just died out naturally. |
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