Chinchilla Facts: Information on Chinchillas

In their native habitat, chinchillas live in burrows or crevices in rocks. According to official chinchilla facts, they are agile, jumping up to 5 feet  high. Predators in the wild include Hawks, Skunks, Canines, Owls.

In Nature, Chinchillas live in colonies. Females chinchillas are significantly bigger than the male. Average weight is 500 to 900 grams, males are 450 to 800 grams,  Females normally don’t get put into breeding until they are 8 months or older. According to official chinchilla facts, they can breed any time of the year, but mostly fall and spring. Summer may show to be to hot to be pregnant. Females estrus goes every 25 to 31 days, lasting 2 to 3 days.  Gestation is 107 to 113 days, normally they are right on at 111 days, most births will happen very early in the morning. According to official chinchilla facts – they have a long gestation, thus being, kits are born with their eyes open, fully furred, with in days of birth they are jumping around, eating hay, then feed, and water, moms will start weaning kits about 6 to 8 weeks. Litters can be from 1 to 7 kits, though 7 is very rare. Normally they will have any where from 1 to 3 kits. When a chinchilla miscarries, the fetus is frequently absorbed back into the mothers body.  Most of the time you wouldn’t even know that she was pregnant. Signs of a Chinchilla Being Pregnant, they will start to sleep more, eat more, and in the last month to last weeks, they will start to lay on their side, start to look larger. According to official chinchilla facts, most of the time you really don’t know they are pregnant until the last weeks, if they are having 2 or more kits, if they are having 1 kit you may not know at all. There has been times where I didn’t even know when one of my girls was, until I had a little surprise in the morning. If you think your chinchilla is pregnant don’t lift or hold  or take her out of the cage, unless necessary, this may cause them to miscarriage.

According to official chinchilla facts, there are several types of Chinchillas, there is the Brevicaudata (short-tailed chinchilla) Areas where the Brevicaudata, includes the Andes, of southern Peru, Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, and northern Chile. They are found in mountain shrubs and grassland areas at elevations between 3000 and 4500. According to official chinchilla facts, they live in dens in rocks crevices. The Brevicaudata body length is 12-13 inches and the tail is about 5-6 inches.

According to official chinchilla facts, then there is the Lanigera, They are currently in the mountains of northern Chile. They are found in the barren, arid areas of mountains at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 meters. They live in crevices and holes among the rocks. Body length is about 9 to 13 inches, their tails can be 7 to 10 inches.

According to official chinchilla facts, Costina is smaller than the Lanigera, they are found in the lower elevations.

Most of our Chinchillas today are the Lanigera type. As Mathias F. Chapman, was searching for the chinchillas, most of the Costina had already been trapped, and their fur used for coats, over 400,000 were trapped and killed for their fur, over period of a couple years, though they had been trapping chinchillas since the 1500′s for it fur. M.F. Chapman, Acquired only 11 Chinchillas, not knowing how many were Costina or Lanigera Type. According to official chinchilla facts, out of those 11 chinchillas, only 3 were females. 1919 is when M.F. Chapman started his hut for chinchillas, and by 1923 he  was able to bring them to the U.S. They traveled by a coastal steamer, From Callao to San Pedro, California. During the trip one chinchilla had died and another had 2 babies. Mr. Chapman had built the First Chinchilla ranch in the high desert area of Tehachapi, California. According to official chinchilla facts, it took many years of trial and error to get the right living conditions for the chinchillas to live and thrive and multiply.  One of the original  11 Chinchillas lived to be about 22 years old,  though his exact age is unknown since he was born in the wild. According to official chinchilla facts, South America, Ande Mountains are along the west coastal side of the country, where it is all tan is the mountains.