For the month of April, eight (8) chinchillas were surrendered, and six (6) chinchillas were adopted. One chinchilla kit was born of a surrendered female and six females just completed their pregnancy watch without babies. Whoo hoo!

We are still dealing with overflow surrenders here where our current chin count has exploded back up to triple digits. We have exactly 100 chinchillas currently, with about half of those available for adoption right now.

Rescue work is an interesting lifestyle. Sometimes people jump into the decision to "do what we do" without much forethought, but with tons of heart and spirit.  To choose this route one must have unlimited patience, time, space and *cough* access to funds. Our store items-- cage accessories, chew toys, food and other chinnie products-- ensure we can continue providing for the fuzzbutts. We supply our store with handmade, hand selected and often hand harvested materials.

As much as we appreciate the support of store orders, there are some ways to maximize the mutual benefit. Whimsy made the following post on our Facebook page recently that summarizes this point exactly:

"Hey everyone, we've had a bunch of requests for teeny tiny orders lately. This is heartbreaking, let me explain why. The postal service charges a base price on deliveries, then the price goes up according to weight, size and distance. It's the base price that's a killer. So if someone wants to order a single chew toy it's going to cost more than the item is worth just in shipping! As a single mother of four, I've had to live on a very tight budget and recognize the power of combined shipping and stocking up. For roughly the same cost, you can fill a box with multiple items and pay very little more in additional shipping cost. Just FYI"

As a reminder, we are now offering a free chew toy with orders of $50 or more. Is that incentive enough? Hmmmm....perhaps a ticker tape announcement on the store page would help....

For the month of March,  ten (10) chinchillas were surrendered and nine (9) chinchillas were adopted. We have an unusual number of single chins who do not get along with others. So if you or someone you know is looking to spoil just one, then we have plenty to choose from.

We've found that most of the time when people first learn about what wonderful pets chins are, they tend to want MORE. This is great, from a herd perspective, but precautions must be in order to prevent unwanted, unethical, or unnecessary breeding. 

Another option would be to keep singles who don't like to share space, single. The Ferret Nation and Critter nation brand cages are our favorite choice. If you have space limitations, these dividable cages can stack three high!

Some people feel that more than one pet can be overwhelming in the amount of care needed. In actuality if you have a group of compatible animals sharing a cage, the amount of "work" is still basically the same as a single. You clean one cage, fill the food bowl, refresh the water, play, etc with a group as you would one. It's really kind of neat to see how they interact and the amount of extra time spent on multiples is negligible.  

Have I convinced you yet? We have lots of pairs and mini-herds that are waiting for their new families too.  *wink, hint*

For the month of February twelve (12) chinchillas were surrendered and a whopping twenty-one (21!) chinchillas were adopted. This was a record breaking month for adoptions. Our last high adoptions number was (only) 16 ;)

Special thanks to Jennifer who stepped up to help by taking in two of our more troubled chins who would otherwise stay un-adoptable.

It looks like our chinnie population is well under control but we still have many, many fuzzbutts who are waiting for a permanent home…*cough*. Ok, some are not so permanent.

We often receive questions about the reason why people surrender their chins. Most of the reasons encompass one of 8 basic responses;

•  allergies
•  moving
• loss of interest
• change in lifestyle 
• fear for the chin’s safety with dog/cat/children
• too much mess/care
• can no longer afford
• Just plain incompatibility

All reasons for surrender are valid. We do not (typically) judge or condemn. We are here to serve the animals who need a home as well as the owners who have to make the difficult decision to give up the animal. The only time Whimsy has serious issues are when the chins come in obviously poor or neglectful condition or when a parent is attempting to “teach their child a lesson” by getting rid of a beloved pet.

As a psychology major, Whimsy recognizes this method of parenting never works.  Not only will it breed contempt of the child for the parent, but neither does it guide the youngster in the responsibility of taking care of a living being. It is the parent’s duty to teach their progeny how to follow through on commitments. How can that be accomplished when the animal is disposed of like an unwanted toy? Perhaps this same dumping mindset is what has helped contribute to the rise in divorce, or vice versa. 

Selah.

For the month of January, nineteen (19) chinchillas were surrendered, five (5) were born of rescues, and twelve (12) chinchillas were adopted. It's been a remarkably sad month with the unusually high number of surrenders coming in. Two of those were in hopeless condition and passed away soon after their arrival.

We've seen over and over simple chin care facts gone ignored or unknown. Chinchillas are easy to care for, but have some very specific requirements. We've had chinchillas surrendered with bags of high fat, high sugar treats, paper based bedding, plastic exercise balls and even seeded hamster food!

It is for this reason that we've come up with a handy dandy top 10 list of chinchilla care no-no's. Click the preview below to see a PDF of the whole, printable sheet.

Happy New Year everyone!

For the month of December, four (4) chinchillas were surrendered and eleven (11) chinchillas were adopted. For the year 2012 a total of 107 chinchillas were surrendered and 100 chinchillas were adopted.  Since our first adoption back in the beginning of 2009, we have found homes for nearly 300 chinchillas!

Month to month our numbers are generally pretty stable with the surrendered and adopted chinnies roughly equal. However, the mass surrender that we took in back in March, plus the babies born of pregnant surrenders still leaves us with more than 40 chinchillas that are still waiting for new homes.

Since our inception at the end of 2008, the Menagerie has experienced growing pains and stretched to accommodate. Where the chinchillas once shared the office with Whimsy, they now have not one, but two rooms to themselves. 

The Montgomery County mass surrender in March was one of the year’s highlights. Some other notable ones include the article on chinchillas in Critters USA magazine where Whimsy was quoted *cough* rather extensively.

Jamie Glaser singer/songwriter/musician/chinchilla web forum overseer extraordinaire surprised us with his goodwill and commitment to extending monetary support through a percentage of his CD sales and many, many people have extended support in a variety of other ways whether it be in time, donations or spreading the word.

We at the Menagerie look forward to another amazing year serving the chinchillas and their owners.