Hi everyone!

[Aurora?]

My name is Natalie, my boyfriend and I decided to get a chinchilla a couple weeks ago and I have been researching getting one. We put a deposit on one through a breeder, but we are not able to go and get it for another month or so so we are excitedly waiting until when we are able.
Aurora is the name we are thinking of, and her picture is in my signature. She was born in April of this year. If anyone has any advice or anything I should know about raising and caring for my chinchilla I am very happy to hear it. I will probably be very active on the message boards here for the next week or so, so I hope to hear from a lot of you! :high5: Thanks!!! [SIZE=2]

[Chinmama]

Hello Natalie and welcome to Chins-n-Quills!

Congrats on the upcoming new chin! Take your time and read everything you can. Here is a link to the FAQ section: http://www.chins-n-quills.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=55. Also, read through old threads and don't be afraid to ask questions. There is a lot of helpful information and people here.

[Aurora?]

Thanks I actually read that already, I started reading the forums here a couple days ago and decided why not just join? So here I am.

Boyfriend and I had been considering getting another pet, My dog is 11 years old and I cannot imagine ever having a better dog. He wanted a guinea pig or something and when I was younger we had a lot of pet rats so we decided a rodent would be best. I wasn't real keen on guinea pigs and we went to the pet store to price the animals and look around and they didn't have ANY guinea pigs but they had a chinchilla and a very eager employee came and saw us looking at him and practically forced us to hold him and he pooped down my shirt and then snuggled into the crook of my arm and wanted to sleep there and I fell in love. I realize that isn't typical behavior of most chins but we decided on the spot to get one. After we got home boyfriend was more excited than I was about it...almost. :laugh:

[mistywaterwoman]

She is BEAUTIFUL and I just adore the name Aurora!! That is Sleeping Beauty's name, you know, and she was the BEST Disney princess!! I think it fits her well! Good choice!

[FurryAnimalsOhMy]

:welcome8: Natalie! :)

[Aurora?]

Thanks!! I will check out your website definetly

[Idgie]

Hi Natalie :) . I think that you have the right idea reading everything on the forum before Aurora comes home. I had a chinchilla for 13 years--before I had internet--and have learned so much from this site before getting my second chin a week ago. I'd recommend being sure that the cage and contents are right as well as the food & treats. A lot of the pet stores and even books don't give you the correct or specific information that this site can give.
I also have an 11 year old dog. I'm guessing that you researched that your dog will be okay with a rodent in the house? Before I got my dog, I had tried to adopt a dog from a rescue. They told me that the dog would be okay with the chin, but when I brought it home it sat drooling at the cage and was obsessed with the chin. Had to take it back to the shelter. But my dog now pays no attention to the chin. Not in her nature to hunt plus I taught her as a puppy to stay away from the chin's cage. (I had the chin before the dog.)
Enjoy learning and soon you will be able to give info and share experiences with Aurora. Chins are much more interesting and less smelly than a guinea pig, IMO.

[Aurora?]

I love that name Idgie is that from fried green tomatoes? My dog is 11 too! But she doesn't have any idea, she thinks she's still a puppydog most of the time which is good that she doesn't act her age. I don't know if I mentioed it in this thread but I grew up raising rats (14 of them at one time) and she was always just fine with them, never paid them any mind. She is very docile and I am almost guaranteeing that she will be afraid of it at first. My mom got a yorkie puppy a few years ago when I still lived with her and she was frightened to death of it for about a week and 1/2. I won't let her near it when it's out of its cage for a good long while just to gage it's reaction to her. And even after that I won't let them play together or anything like that. Reading everyone's stories just makes me want her even more. We are building a big cage this weekend, and we have almost everything we need already except for things i bought on eBay that are being shipped. We bought a few wooden ledges and a sleepn ledge, A chin "chiller" (I just love saying that) A container that will be suitable for taking dust baths in as her breeder told me she is going to grow up to be very big. And a little wooden hidey house. I'm not buying ANYTHING plastic as I know how much they like to chew. When we had rats they went so far as to rip the wallpaper off the walls so my dad put laminate faux wood panelling that they couldn't get at. I bought a waterbottle and am getting a backup one on ebay. The list goes on. and on. I really just want to be prepared before she gets here. I bought online Blue CLoud chinchilla dust, and mazuri feed which is the brand her breeder uses as wel as some hay cubes. The thing I am most interested in hearing about is first meetings of your chinchilla and what to do the first night she's home. I am writing a novel here so I will have to cut this.

[susansheila]

Congrats! You must be so excited.

[mistywaterwoman]

All the books say to leave them completely alone at first to give them time to adjust, but I found that talking softly and hand-feeding her chew twigs won my chinchilla over really fast! You're supposed to really limit "treats" so I use apple twigs to bribe them with! Have fun!