Can You Have A Chinchilla As Pet? 6 Great Reasons to Do So!

Are you looking for more reasons to own a pet chinchilla? Are you still hesitating because you are not yet convinced that chinchillas are one of the best home pets in the world?

6 Reasons to Keep a Chinchilla as a Pet

Let us convince with you the 6 reasons below:

1. Chinchillas are So Cute and Exotic!

Chinchillas are super cute and adorable due to their physical appearance being round and furry. Although they look fat and clumsy, they can be extremely swift and high jumper to your surprise.
Unlike the common rodent counterparts like guinea pigs and hamsters, chinchilla are exotic pets and less common as pets. This is especially in warm countries, because chinchillas prefer cooler habitats. Therefore chinchilla owners are often proud owners.

2. They are Attached to Their Owners

Chinchillas can bond with their owners and become extremely bonded with them.
When you first buy or adopt a chinchilla back to your house, you may notice that they can be very shy and always try to evade your hands.
Do not try to catch or hold them by force because this may frighten your chinchilla. Instead, try to hand-feed them for a few days to let them slowly gain trust towards you. Before long, they will recognize you as a friend and begin to be closer to you. They may even jump onto you during playtime!

3. High Intelligence Level

Chinchillas are one of the smarter rodents among others. They have better memory and therefore are able to be trained to do repetitive actions. For example, you can actually toilet-train chinchillas through a few different methods to help them get used to the habit. And if you introduce some chinchilla toys and accessories to your pet, it takes no time for your chinchilla to interact and play with it!
Chinchillas can also be trained to perform simple tricks, like holding a card, standing on your shoulder, etc. The training of these tricks usually involve hand-feeding some treats so I usually would not encourage owners to be too obsessed with it. After all, feeding too many treats can be unhealthy for the chinchilla.

4. Super soft fur

If you keep a chinchilla as a pet, by now you should have known that chinchillas’ fur is the softest fur in the world. The feeling of holding them in your hands or cuddling them is amazing.
Whenever I come back home from a long day of work, it feels great to be able to hug them in my arms.
However, be careful not to hold onto their fur too hard because they tend to fur slip when intimidated or trying to escape.

5. Not confined to Cages

Yes, most likely your pet will sleep in a metal chinchilla cage. However, they can roam around your house or room during play time because they love to have a bigger space to explore.
Just remember to chinchilla-proof your house before allowing them to roam freely.
By letting them out to play, you give them the chance to bond with you in the room. This is important especially when you are trying to gain the trust of your new pet.
Keep tab of the duration of the play time as you do not want to over-tire your new chin.
For a start, let them play for 10 minutes. Then gradually increase the duration little by little to build up their stamina.
You will be surprised that once a routine is built up, your chinchilla will even voluntarily return to her cage after she had enough fun outside for the day.

6. Long Lifespan

Chinchillas have a long lifespan, as long as you take good care of your pet and the environment. When handled with good care, house-kept chinchillas can live up to 20 years. That is very much longer than most other small animal house pets.
So, if you are looking to keep a chinchilla as a pet, they will undoubtedly be a great choice to consider!

Still not convinced? Then you must read my recent post about the interesting chinchilla facts here!