My Two Chins

Chinchilla Update:


I think that Leela & Fry are finally warming up to me. After the first few days of just playing with them in their cage and coaxing them out so I can carry them (which Fry was never cool about), I decided to let them run around a room. I chin-proofed a room and my nephew and myself let them go in there. It was a good choice. They started exploring and then really running around & hopping all over the place, but when it was time to get them back into the cage I felt like I had undone any progress I made as I had to chase them down to catch them. Well, that night they both actually let me rub their tummies through the cage bars and I felt like progress was acheived.


All that made me decide to go ahead and get the exercise pen slightly earlier than I had anticipated, so I had a little more control over where the chins could run. I found a PetSmart that carried the recommended brand, went on my lunch break and when I got home from work, I set it up in front of the tv, got them in there and sat myself in there as well, reading my Entertainment Weekly. They learned to crawl over me and jump and Leela actually squeezed her way through a corner space (about 2” wide, tops), so I jumped out and caught her, although it wasn't as hard as the day before since I just scooped her up.


Yesterday at work, I figured I should wrap the outside of the pen with chicken wire to make sure they can't sneak out again, so I bought some on the way home from work. I then cut it up into 2’x2’ squares and tied them up on the rails and then laid out an 8’x8’ corner in the basement for them to run around in and they had a fabulous time, again with me in the pen. After dinner, I changed the size of the pen to a 6’x4’ area and put them back in, while I cleaned their cage, so they had about 90 minutes of run around time and Leela found a way to climb up the pen and balance herself on the top like a tightrope before I grabbed her. After that, every time she started climbing, I would whistle loudly and she learned that when I whistled, she’d get off the sides.


The funniest thing last night was this Coke carton. It was flattened out and I didn't fix it back up to see what they would do. They still ran through it in its squashed state. Too Funny!


Here you can see my straight handyman work and they peer through the wire.




This is one of them crawling over my leg. It's really amazing how fast these little guys can go when they get up the energy. Leela, it seems bounces off the sides to get more leverage and almost reaches the top of the 36" rails of the pen.




This one is, I think, Leela. After a while, I just don't recognise them too well just yet. I even lifted them up and looked to see if I could tell which gender was which and they both looked alike to me. I then figured that I might have two boys, but after doing a little research, I'll need to look again tonight. I might have 2 Frys, so I call them "Yellow Butt" and "White Butt" (based on the colorations underneath their tails).