Chinchilla Chinchilla

Chinchilla is a genus; the animal kept in captivity, farmed for fur and seen in practice is the long-tailed chinchilla, Chinchilla lanigera, and the figures here refer to that species. It comes from arid, rugged mountain country in north-central Chile, was first domesticated in the 1920s, and is now kept worldwide for fur, for research and as a pet. Adults weigh about 450 to 680 g and are long-lived for a rodent, commonly reaching ten to fifteen years and sometimes twenty. The pelt that made it a fur animal is also its main clinical liability: up to sixty hairs emerge from a single follicle, and the coat that suits a cold, dry mountain night makes heat and humidity dangerous, so rooms are held near 18 to 27 C. Dust bathing, offered several times a week, maintains the coat. Dentition is the second dominant problem; the cheek teeth grow continuously, reported at 55 to 65 mm a year, and dental disease was the commonest complaint in a survey of ill pet chinchillas. Reproduction is slow and unrodent-like: gestation of about 105 to 115 days yields one or two fully furred, sighted, mobile young.