When I first entered the world of Chinchillas, it was not my choice, I was dragged along by my oldest child to the Maine Chinchilla Ranch (MCR) because despite me being okay with a tarantula, the rest of the family was a solid “NO”, and let’s be real here: household harmony happens when everyone is on board with the new animal(s) moving in. Oldest did due diligence with research prior to contacting MCR thanks to my background in animal rescue, and we were fortunate to adopt two wonderful boys from the Maine Chinchilla Shelter (MCS), because our adoption came with 24/7/365 “tech support”.
Tech support? On a chinchilla? Yes. By adopting from MCR/MCS, I was connected to an established breeder who provided hands-on training with the chins, and was available after we left to answer any questions we had, calm down any fears that arose, and was an essential part in us understanding our new boys, how to care for them, how to interact with them, etc. I cannot stress how invaluable it has been to have this resource in my pocket, or on the phone, as it were. Now that I have made the leap from chinchilla owner to chinchilla breeder, having that “tech support” is a must.
Tech support in the breeding world comes in the form of mentors, and I cannot stress enough how critical it is to have these connections and the knowledge that comes with them. I’ll give an example: a few weeks back, a member of my personal herd, Mr. B, was making a horrific wheezing sound that was loud enough to be heard over my air handling unit. Of course, it was 10:00 pm on a Saturday and my stomach dropped out. Where I am in Maine, it would be a minimum of 1.5 hours to drive to the nearest emergency veterinary hospital that sees exotics, so before packing him up and driving, I got out my stethoscope and listened to his lungs (normal), checked for cyanosis of the nose, tongue and gums (none present), wiped at his nose to see if there was mucous (no), and he was feisty (all good signs).
Baffled and stressed, I reached out to a mentor in Idaho who snuck into a bathroom at a banquet to take my call/watch the videos I sent. She promptly burst out laughing, because it turns out that Mr. B was cooing for the ladies in my barn. He has never been housed in the same room as females who are in season before. There may have been threats to turn him into a slipper at that point, but the amount of relief I felt in learning a new to me vocalization was invaluable. I didn’t stress Mr. B out with a ride and being seen by a vet or spend $1000 just to find out he was… feeling a bit randy.
Mentors aren’t just for new breeders like me, they are a critical part of the overall infrastructure of being in the chinchilla world and are incredibly helpful to pet owners as well. When I have a question about behavior, how to feed orphaned kits, what genotypes and phenotypes will lead towards the mutation I am looking for, what a certain sound means, and the list goes on, I call someone with more knowledge than I possess. The combined knowledge of all the breeders and chinchilla people is staggering, and having access to that knowledge is truly a gift. I have no fewer than 10 knowledgeable mentors in my “triage call tree”, and several more chinchilla smart people available on social media.
These people are worth their weight in platinum.
I let all people who adopt or purchase from me know that I am available for them anytime they need me, and I stick to that. There is nothing scarier than having a new, exotic pet that does something weird on a holiday or at midnight. Having someone with the chops to understand and explain is amazing. Even having the ability to shoot off a quick text message: “hey, is this treat okay?” is comforting to a new owner.
In that same vein: using the words “I don’t know, but I will reach out to someone who does” is also a hugely beneficial skill. I am never afraid to say that, because I don’t want to farm out incorrect and possibly harmful information. In these cases, I reach out to someone who does know, and I get back to the individual who originally asked the question with the proper information.
In the words of John Donne: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” All our brains working in conjunction with each other create a wonderful web of readily available information that can only be used to the benefit of our chinchillas and ourselves.
In case anyone is wondering: Mr. B is healthy and has yet to be turned into a slipper.
Yet