Chinchillas are pretty easy to keep. They’re generally gentle and love staying clean. Prices for chinchillas range from a few hundred to several thousand yuan. You can get a fairly common one for 500-800 yuan, while those with good looks might cost 3000-5000 yuan each. So, what are the downsides of chinchillas? What should you pay attention to when raising them? If you’re interested, fellow pet lovers, let’s check it out together~!
1. What’s the Average Price of a Chinchilla?
Since chinchillas were introduced into our country and after extensive breeding, market prices have actually been dropping. Right now, the cheapest standard grey chinchilla is about 300-500 yuan each. Slightly better ones are generally around 800-1200 yuan, while purebred, good-looking beige and silver chinchillas cost around 2000 yuan. As for pure white, black velvet, and coffee-colored chinchillas, they’re even pricier, possibly costing around 3000-5000 yuan.
The reason chinchillas are so expensive is firstly because they’re relatively rare—you don’t often see them in regular pet markets; only a few pet shops carry them. Also, chinchillas have a pretty long lifespan; if cared for properly, they can live over 15 years, so they can accompany us for a long time. In contrast, the average lifespan of a hamster is only about 2 years, and they reproduce a lot, so it’s normal for their price to be lower.
2. Are Chinchillas Easy to Keep?
Chinchillas are relatively easy to keep. Compared to pets like cats and dogs, raising a chinchilla doesn’t require too much effort, and compared to ornamental fish, the cost isn’t that high.
Advantages of Chinchillas:
- Gentle Temperament Chinchillas are more affectionate than hamsters. They’re gentle and rarely bite people. Plus, chinchillas are pretty quiet and won’t make noise like cats and dogs do, so you don’t have to worry about them disturbing the neighbors, and you don’t need to let them out for exercise all the time.
- Cute and Soothing Chinchillas look super cute and chubby, and their fur is very soft and thick—it feels amazing to touch. So when you hold them, you’ll feel especially soothed, and once they bond with you, they also like being petted.
- Cleanliness Chinchillas groom themselves to keep their fur clean and fluffy. As long as you provide them with volcanic ash, they’ll bathe themselves, so you don’t have to worry too much. Also, because their fur is so thick, they rarely have parasites.
- Small Appetite Even though chinchillas love to eat, they don’t actually eat much. Their daily food intake is less than 100g, so they don’t produce a lot of waste, and you don’t need to clean the cage very often. Also, since chinchillas are herbivores, their poop doesn’t smell much—only their urine has a slight odor. So as long as you use absorbent bedding, cleaning is pretty easy.
Disadvantages of Chinchillas:
- Timid and Sensitive Chinchillas are quite timid and can get stressed easily if frightened. So you need to provide them with a quiet living environment and not be overly enthusiastic with them.
- Very Sensitive to Heat Because chinchillas have dense fur, they feel uncomfortable when the temperature goes above 25℃, and if it exceeds 30℃, they could suffer heatstroke and die. Also, if the environment is too humid, it affects their ability to dissipate heat, so in the summer, make sure to keep them cool and the environment dry.
- Not Very Affectionate Interaction between chinchillas and humans is relatively limited, and their intelligence isn’t very high, so they can’t be as affectionate as dogs, and you can’t train them to understand much human language.
- Delicate Digestive System Like rabbits and hamsters, chinchillas have delicate digestive systems. If they eat foods with high water content, they can easily get diarrhea. If they eat snacks too often, they might have soft stools or indigestion. So you shouldn’t feed chinchillas randomly—just give them chinchilla food and hay daily.
That’s the price and the pros and cons of chinchillas. Actually, chinchillas have many more adorable aspects—you can discover them gradually once you start raising them. Also, as long as you have enough patience and are careful, you won’t find any pet hard to keep. If you have any other questions, you can also directly consult an online pet doctor!
