Chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera)

chinchilla

Photo credit: Darekp via Wikimedia Commons

Natural history

The chinchilla is a small mammal native to South America. Originally found in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Republic of bolivia, Chile, and Argentine republic, chinchillas were hunted and trapped for their pelts to near extinction in the early 1900s.22 The last free-living chinchillas are establish in the mountains of northern Chile.13 Chinchillas are perfectly adjusted to the rough conditions of their natural habitat: air current, cold, and dryness.22

Taxonomy


Course: Mammalia

Order: Rodentia

Suborder: Hystricomorpha

Family: Chinchillidae

Genus: Chinchilla

Chinchilla lanigera, likewise known as the long-tailed chinchilla (formerly Chinchilla velligera) has a smaller torso, large ears, and a long tail.

Chinchilla brevicaudata, or the brusk-tailed chinchilla (formerly C. chinchilla chinchilla), has a relatively large body, small ears, and a short tail.

Conservation status


The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists both long-tailed and short-tailed chinchillas as endangered due to loss of natural habitat and hunting and trapping of animals.21

Color


The normal wild-type chinchilla is a smoky blue-greyness (standard gray).17 The are many other colors including black velvet, beige, white, ebony, violet, and sapphire. These colors serve equally the basis for color mutations such as tan, brown velvet, mosaic, pink-white, etc.12


Nutrition


The natural diet of chinchillas consists of grasses, cactus fruits, dry out roots and tubers, besides as the bark and leaves of pocket-size shrubs and bushes. Well-nigh all food items are high in dietary fiber with trivial fat, sugar, or poly peptide.28 The digestive system of chinchillas is perfectly adjusted to these nourishments, the long intestine guarantees an optimal utilization of the sparse nutrient.14 , 27

Captive animals should be fed a high-fiber diet, similarly depression in protein, sugar, and fat. The majority of the nutrition should consist of loftier-quality  grass hay. The hay must always be freely available, dry out, and free of odor, mold, or dust.28 Dried herbs and high-fiber chinchilla or rabbit pellets, approximately 15-30 ml (1-ii teaspoons) per animal per mean solar day, tin can be offered. Pocket-sized quantities of fresh vegetables can too be fed (run into of import medical conditions below).

The digestive organisation of the chinchilla is perfectly adjusted to extract energy and nutrients from a barren nutrient supply, which puts captive animals at take a chance for obesity and hepatic lipidosis. Practise not feed high-fatty foods, like basics and seeds, or foods rich in sugar, like fruits (east.m. raisins).

H2o has to be freely available. In the wild, chinchillas crumb rain drops from leaves or stones, either water bowls or water bottles are suitable and have unlike advantages. While h2o intake is larger from bowls, which may reduce the gamble for urolithiasis eleven, water in bottles stays clean longer.19

Husbandry


Chinchillas are crepuscular to nocturnal, although they tin can be active during the 24-hour interval.

Caging Chinchillas crave a great deal of space with multiple levels for jumping and climbing. The minimum dimensions should be 50 cm (20 in) wide and 150 cm (sixty in) high with a volume of at least 3 m3 (800 gallon). For each additional animal at least 0.5 m3 are required. The cage floor should ideally be solid and covered with aspen shavings or recycled newspaper product. Select small-gauge wire (15 mm x 15 mm) to prevent limb injury.1

The best enclosure for chinchillas is a chinchilla room with branches and wooden platforms (S. Mayr, written communication). A latrine surface area can be cleaned daily, but the residue of the room tin exist cleaned in one case a week. The floor is covered with recycled paper bedding or aspen wood shavings.
Muzzle furniture Provide visual security, such as PVC piping, cork caves or sleeping cottages with a minimum size of thirty ten 20 10 xx cm. Provide a separate hiding box to each brute. The hiding boxes should exist placed on unlike levels in the cage, nevertheless the highest hide box will probably exist the preferred sleeping place.

Provide complimentary option access to grit baths, whenever possible. Use commercially available chinchilla dust. Clean or sieve sand regularly (see important medical conditions below ).

Chinchillas besides crave textile for gnawing or chewing to reduce the take a chance of dental overgrowth. Branches of unsprayed deciduous trees (e.1000. hazelnut, willow, birch) are suitable; do not offer branches from stone fruit trees or conifer trees.
Enrichment If not kept in a room especially fix for chinchillas, animals crave at to the lowest degree 30 minutes of exercise or play outside of their muzzle daily.

"Flying saucer" do wheels are preferable over "regular" exercise wheels to minimize the risk of back and limb problems.  The larger "flying saucer" wheels do not strength the animal into an aberrant hyperextended back position, simply individuals can nonetheless develop limb bug due to abnormal loading of joints and muscles.
Numbers Chinchillas are social animals. Pairs, trios, and harems equally well every bit unmarried-sex groups tin can live together peacefully.18 The best period to socialize animal is before sexual maturity.
Temperature Chinchillas easily succumb to estrus stress at temperatures exceeding 26.seven°C (80°F). Temperatures betwixt 18.three-26.7°C (59°F-seventy°F) are best for holding and ambience temperature.19 One source describes optimal temperatures every bit depression as x°C (50°F).26
"Neighbors" Rodents should not be housed near rabbits. Fifty-fifty healthy rabbits can harbor a multifariousness of bacteria that can cause morbidity or bloodshed.

Normal physiologic values

Note: Physiologic values reported are for C. lanigera unless otherwise notedix , nineteen , 20


Rectal temperature 98.5-100.iv°F 37-39.5°C
Pulse 150-350 bpm
Respiration xl-eighty bpm
Trunk weight Adult male 400-500 g
Developed female person 450-700 one thousand Females are usually larger.
Mean life span 8-10 twelvemonth. Up to twenty yr. has been reported
Sexual maturity 8 , 9 F: 4-vi months M: 8-9 months
Convenance maturity 9 F: viii-12 months, minimal weight 600 m
Suitable castration age F: n/a 1000: 6 months
Heat or oestrus 4-5 days Spontaneous ovulation
Estrous cycle ii 28-35 d (range 15-90) two , 19 Straight subsequently birthing, the female person is receptive again (until 10 days subsequently the nascence) Seasonally polyestrous (Nov to May in the Northern Hemisphere)
Gestation C. lanigera 105-118 days (average 111 + three days)nine C. brevicaudata 128 days
Birth weight xxx-l yard
Parental investment Precocial Newborns are fully furred with open eyes
Litter size ane-half-dozen (average two)
Weaning historic period 4-8 weeks
Target environmental temperature 50-68°F ten-20°C 25
Target ecology humidity < 40% i Should not exceed 55%

Anatomy/physiology


Dermatology Chinchillas have more than hairs per square inch than any other animal.26 This dense glaze, along with a lack of sweat and sebaceous glands, makes chinchillas very sensitive to heat and increased humidity.

Chinchillas can reflexively release tufts of hair ("fur sideslip") as a predator avoidance machinery leaving a patch of smooth skin, which takes several months to regrow.19 The skin on the tail can too tear when an inexperienced individual attempts to catch upward a chinchilla.
Dental formula I (I/i) C (0/0) PM (1/1) M (3/3)

The front of the incisors is yellow to orange due to iron in the enamel.5 The sides and posterior part of the incisors and molars are colorless or homogeneous white.

The teeth are open-rooted (hystricomorph) and evidence lifelong growth (approximately 12 mm or 0.4 inches per week).24 The upper incisors grow more rapidly than the lower incisors.6

The occlusal surface of the morals is parallel to the jawbones, and masticatory motility is craniocaudal.
Hematology Adult chinchillas accept a lymphocytic hemogram (upwards to 94% total leukocyte count).

Their neutrophils are hyposegmented and are also known equally acidophils or pseudoeosinophils.three , 4 , 20 , 29

Musculoskeletal The skeleton is very delicate, especially the tibia/fibula.

Males possess an os penis.15

Respiratory All rodents are obligate nasal breathers.
Special senses Chinchillas possess large ears with thin-walled pinnae and well-developed bullae.
Urogenital Females accept a prominent urinary papillae (or cone). The vaginal membrane is closed except during oestrus and parturition. There are two uterine horns and 2 cervices.xix

Male person chinchillas lack a truthful scrotum and the testicles sit within the inguinal canal. Males possess an os penis.15


Chinchillas are relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to restrain, however they can go can exist quite quick and decumbent to struggle. To accept the animate being out of an enclosure, it is easiest to gently grasp the tail base of operations first. The second hand supports the body effectually the breast. Most chinchillas are at-home if they are wrapped in a towel; others like to hide their head in the crook of the handler's arm.

Never concur the tip of a chinchilla'south tail.

When frightened or held overzealously, 'chins' can shed patches of fur (see Dermatology to a higher place).


Large volumes:  Jugular vein, cranial vena cava4 , 9 , xix , 23 , 29

  • Use a 22-to 25-gauge needle; aspiration with 1-to three-ml-syringe.
  • Caval sticks should just be performed under anesthesia.

Small volumes:  Cephalic vein or lateral saphenous vein4 , 9 , 19 , 23

  • Apply an insulin syringe, a 25-gauge needle with a ane-ml syringe, or a 20- or 21-gauge needle with the hub broken off, free dripping or Multivette (5. s. lateralis).
  • Sedation or shaving is generally non necessary.

Preventive medicine

Important medical weather


Ordinarily seen weather condition include:

  • Barbering or fur chewing
  • Dental disease, dental abscess
  • Gastrointestinal stasis
  • Gastroenteritis (Since the natural chinchilla diet is depression in water, pregnant amounts of fresh produce can lead to diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disturbances.)
  • Rut stress
  • Obesity, hepatic lipidosis
  • Orthopedic injury (fractures)
  • Penile hair rings

Less common conditions include:

  • Conjunctivitis (This clinical problem is rare, when chinchilla sand is used, however this  condition is more likely to exist seen when in that location is unlimited admission to dust baths paired with poor ventilation OR when volcanic ash is offered for dust bathing. In animals with a history of this problem, offer dust for a few hours daily or at minimum a few times weekly).
  • Dermatophytosis has also been reported.
  • Diabetes mellitus and subsequent cataracts: Although not a common disease in chinchillas, this status has been reported. Affected animals are near ordinarily presented for changes in eye color.
  • Motion stereotypies, such as cage scratching and backflipping, accept been described in fur subcontract chinchillas.
  • Vitamin-E deficiency or "xanthous ear disease" is sometimes seen when chinchillas are fed low-quality feed.

Antibiotics to Avert


Avoid antimicrobials that attack merely gram-positive bacteria such as beta-lactam antibiotics or bacitracin.vii , 20

"P.L.A.C.Due east." is a helpful mnemonic for antibiotics to avoid:

  • Penicillin
  • Lincosamide, lincomycin
  • Amoxicillin, ampicillin
  • Cephalosporins, clindamycin
  • Erythromycin

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References

References


1. Banks RE, Precipitous JM, Doss SD, Vanderford DA. Exotic Small Mammal Care and Husbandry. Durham, NC: Wiley-Blackwell; 2010.

two. Busso JM, Ponzio MF, Fiol de Cuneo M, Ruiz RD. Reproduction in chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera): Electric current status of environmental command of gonadal action and advances in reproductive techniques. Theriogenology 78(1):1-eleven, 2012. doi:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2012.03.016

3. Campbell T. Veterinary Hematology and Clinical Chemical science, 2nd ed. In: Thrall MA, Weiser G, Allison RTC (eds). Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell; 2012. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/vcp.12181

4. Campbell T, Ellis C. Hematology of small mammals. Avian & Exotic Brute Hematology & Cytology, 3rd ed. Ames, Iowa: Blackwell Publishing; 2007: 113–38.

5. Capello Five, Gracis M. Rabbit and Rodent Dentistry Handbook. In: M. CV and G, editor. Arnes: Zoological Didactics Network, Iowa Land Academy Press; 2005.

vi. Crossley DA. Dental diseases in chinchillas. University of Manchester. 2003.

7. Donnelly TM, Brown CJ. Republic of guinea squealer and chinchilla care and husbandry. Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract vii(ii):351–73, 2004. doi:10.1016/j.cvex.2004.02.006

8. Ewringmann A, Gloeckner B. Leitsymptome bei Meerschweinchen, Chinchilla und Degu (in german). 2d Editio. Enke Verlag in MVS Medizinverlage Stuttgart GmbH&Co KG; 2012.

ix. Fehr Yard, Sassenburg L. Diseases of pets. / Krankheiten der Heimtiere (in german). eighth ed. Krankheiten der Heimtiere. Hannover: Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG; 2015.

10. González C, Yáñez JM, Tadich T. Determination of the genetic component of fur-chewing in chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera) and its economical impact. Animals (Basel) 8(9): pii: E144, 2018. doi:10.3390/ani8090144

11. Hagen Grand, Clauss M, Hatt JM. Drinking preferences in chinchillas (Chinchilla laniger), degus (Octodon degu) and guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus). J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl) 98(5):942-7, 2014. doi:10.1111/jpn.12164

12. Jezewska G, Tarkowski I, Niezgoda GA, Al E. Results of crossbreeding different color varieties in chinchillas (in polish). Ann Univ Mariae Curie Sklodowska Sect EE Zootech. 1997;15: 197–201.

xiii. Jiménez JE. The extirpation and current status of wild chinchillas Chinchilla lanigera and C. brevicaudata. Biol Conserv 77(ane):ane-6, 1996. doi:10.1016/0006-3207(95)00116-6

14. Kohles M. Gastrointestinal anatomy and physiology of select exotic companion mammals. Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract 17(2):165-178, 2014. doi:10.1016/j.cvex.2014.01.010

15. Laber-Laird Thousand, Swindle MM, Flecknell P. Handbook of Rodent and Rabbit Medicine. 1996, xi + 278 pp. 1997;

sixteen. Mans C, Donnelly TM. Disease bug of chinchillas. Quesenberry KE, Carpenter JW, eds Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Saunders-Elsevier; 2012. pp. 311–338.

17. Mayer J. Natural history of the chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera). Exot Mammal Med Surg two(1):9, 2004.

18. Mösslacher Due east. Breeding and caring for chinchillas. Neptune City: T.F.H. Publications; 1986.

19. Quesenberry KE, Carpenter JW. Biological science, husbandry and clinical techniques of guinea pigs and chinchillas. Quesenberry KE, Carpenter JW, eds Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery. 3rd ed. Elsevier; 2012. pp. 279–338.

20. Riggs SM, Mitchell MA. Chinchillas. In: Mitchell MA, Tully TN (eds). Transmission of Exotic Pet Practice. St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier; 2009: 474-492

21. Roach N, Kennerley R. Chinchilla chinchilla. IUCN Red List Threat Species. 2016; doi:ten.1002/jbm.b.30563

22. Spotorno AE, Zuleta CA, Valladares JP, Deane AL, Jiménez JE. Chinchilla lanigera. Mamm Species. 2004; doi:ten.1644/758

23. Tappa B, Amao H, Takahashi KW. A elementary method for intravenous injection and blood collection in the chinchilla (Chinchilla laniger). Lab Anim 23(one):73-5, 1989. doi:10.1258/002367789780886939

24. Verstraete FJM. Advances in diagnosis and handling of small exotic mammal dental disease. Seminars in Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine 12(1):37-48, 2003. doi:x.1053/saep.2003.127877

25. Webb RA. Chinchillas. In: Beynon PH, Cooper JE (ed). Manual of Exotic Pets. Cheltenham: British Pocket-size Animal Veterinarian Association; 1991. pp. 15–22.

26. Wilcox H. Histology of the skin and hair of the adult chinchilla. Anat Rec 108(three):385-97, 1950.

27. Williams C. Practical Guide to Laboratory Animals. St. Louis: CV Mosby; 1976.

28. Wolf P, Schröder A, Wenger A, Kamphues J. The nutrition of the chinchilla as a companion animal – basic data, influences and dependences. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl) 87(3-4)129-33, 2003. doi:10.1046/j.1439-0396.2003.00425.x

29. Wuck A. Labordiagnostische Referenzbereiche bei Chinchillas (in German language). Inaugeral-Dissertation. 2010.

To cite this page:

Pollock C, Parmentier S. Basic information sail: Chinchilla. Jan 24, 2019. LafeberVet Web site.  https://lafeber.com/vet/basic-information-for-chinchillas/