Speedy, Ayla and Tante Truus
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In April '94, we decided on getting a chinchilla. So, we started keeping an eye on the ads in a local newspaper. This led us to people that had a cage full of them, and could not accommodate all. They gave us a young grey male for free. We called him Speedy Gonzales.
But, we did not want him to be lonely. A few weeks later, we bought two females, Ayla (white-silver) and Tante Truus (beige) at a farm.
Speedy, Ayla and Tante Truus
Tante Truus did not get used to other chins easily, so that gave us some trouble, because we change breeding pairs often. When we were able to find a good house for her in a stable chin group, we sold her. She now lives with a family in Wageningen.
Then, in September '94, we saw a brown ebony female. Ah well, if you have 3, one more will not make a difference. We called her Sammy.
Sammy, taking a dust bath.
Unfortunately, Sammy and Tante Truus just could not get along. We tried for a couple of months, but ended up getting a separate cage for Sammy. We called our 'home breeder', and ordered a black ebony male to keep Sammy company, but it took some time to get one, so she was unhappy and alone in her cage. Sammy has moved to Ronald de Vries, since he had a group she could fit into.
In May '95, the black ebony male was old enough to leave his mother, and we picked him up at the breeders. We saw a extra black velvet female we liked too, so we took both of them home. We called these new adults O.J. Simpson and Nicole.
O.J. Simpson and his girlfriend, Nicole, both a couple of months old.
Nicole now shares a cage with OJ Simpson. We are really curious to see what this couple will produce. They had a black baby in the beginning of '96, but unfortunally it died 4 days later.
In August '95, one of our friends from the fire department contacted us, because he knew a couple that were having a divorce. They had 'some furry animal' that could be a chinchilla, and both of them did not want it anymore. Would we mind taking a look ?
We went over, and found one scruffy looking, lonely male chinchilla. It turned out he had had a mate before, but he/she died one year earlier. He had never had a dust bath in two years, did not get fed well, and was miserable. It needs no explaination we took him home. After a few days, he learned how to use a dust bath, and started enjoying the chin pellets and hay he was getting. We called him Remy.
He did NOT trust humans, and did not allow us to pet him.
After a quarantine period, we put him in a cage with O.J. Simpson. They became friends
within the hour. The first days, Remy followed O.J. around the cage, not allowing him to
walk more then 5 inches away from him. It was obvious he was scared of being left alone
again.
Remy and OJ, having fun with a piece of paper.
Remy, getting out of the cage to go for a walk, and playing.
We have since then spendig time with him, getting him patched up and trusting humans again. It tooks us a while, but now he has learned to come up to us and be affectionate. So, in January '96, we found a good home for him with a family in a neigboring town. We have visited him since, and he is doing well.
Wil also called us one day. I had
expressed some interest in a brown velvet on a previous show, but decided not to buy it.
She had a brown velvet baby in need of a new home. Would we like to have her ? We said
yes, and went over there one day to pick her up. We called her princess Leia.
Leia, posing
Since then, we have boght more animals. Leia now shares a cage with a blonde male and a black ebony female. However, i do not have good pictures of them yet. We also bought a beautiful Violet female from Mike Thurston.
You can also take a peek in our chinchilla room. and see our cage design, or look at the babies these chins have had.