The Chinchilla Species

"This is Lauren on behalf of Expert Village and we are going to talk a little about what is a Chinchilla. This here is a Chinchilla. They have large ears, bush tail and small feet. They hop around a lot like a rabbit does. They eat pellets and hay. They have rodent like teeth and I usually like to describe them as a mixture kind of between a rabbit with the ears and kind of an almost like squirrel like tail. Chinchillas have small feet with fingers and they like to grip things a lot like people do with their hands. They will use their paws to eat their food and they will wipe their faces. Their sense of hearing is extremely acute that is why they have the large ears and they are also sensitive to noise. Although their eye sight is not very good, they usually go with a sense of hearing and that is why they don't make very good children's pets because they tend to be pretty fragile and don't do well in loud environments. They are not recommended for children under the age of 10. Chinchillas are very clean animals and they don't have an odor. They shed twice a year in little fluffs of cottony downy type of hair. That is about the only shedding you will see them do. Most people aren't allergic to Chinchillas. Their hair doesn't have the dandruff that a dog or cat might have but you do have to be careful because sometimes people can be allergic to the dust that they take a dust bath in. Stay with us for the next segment and we are going to talk a little bit more about what a Chinchilla is part to."