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A chinchilla is a very cute little animal that could be described as looking like a chubby squirrel with big ears - a mixture between a giant hamster and a squirrel or an animal with a rabbit's body, large mouse-like ears and a squirrel's tail. An adult is on average around 8 inches long and 4 inches wide. |
| Chinchillas have extremely soft fur with a tail similar to a squirrel, the fur on the tail is more coarse than that on the body. |
| Chinchilla means "little chinta" a name supposedly given by the Indian tribes. The chinchilla is native to South America, more specifically in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Chile in the high altitudes of the Andes Mountains. Their class is Mammalia (Mammals), their order Rodentia (Rodents), and their family is called the Chinchillidae (Chinchillas and Visachas). Although they are generally classified as rodents there are people who dispute this. |  |
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Chinchillas are clean, have no natural odour, and are generally very healthy animals. Their fur is the most luxurious in the animal kingdom with around 500 hairs per follicle. |
| Chinchillas have a great temperament, and they each have their own personality. They are very curious, they love to investigate the area, running and hopping about. They then may come back to see what you are doing too. Some love their noses stroked, others love their bellies or chins to be tickled - others may refuse attention of this kind. It is fun to watch them when they run in an open area, as they run and hop. They have strong back legs which allow them to move fast and jump several feet high. Apparently they have been compared to a squirrel in terms of intelligence and they can be trained to come to certain signals - ours know that when the box full of raisins is shaken they only need to come and sit on you or go back into their cage and they will get one. |
