Scooter is my chinchilla. I got him in late November, 2000, and I assume he was a few months old at the time. So you do the math if you want to know how old he is and stuff like that. If you've met Scooter (because you know me, or because you've snuck into my apartment when I'm not here) you already know most of this, but if you've never seen a chinchilla this might give you some basics for understanding the diaries. When I have photos to put up, they'll go here so that you get a sense of what his cage looks like and so forth. I'm going to do a lot of links to Chinworld.com because I buy a lot of supplies from them, and they're really cool.

Home

Scooter has a luxurious cage that's around 24"x34"x46". It's about twice the size of the cage he had originally, which is good because I don't let him out as often as I should. It has three plastic shelves to make levels, and he gets around by hopping on little wooden perches that bolt onto the sides of the cage. There's also a "house" -- a little wooden box (bottom right in the picture) he can fit inside, but he likes to sleep in a little cave I made by bending a set of "Fiddlesticks" into an arch and setting it on the cage bottom (bottom left). Oh, and a hammock that hangs from the top, which he only uses when I'm not around. I don't know why. But sometimes I come home from work and see him in it, but he jumps out as soon as he sees me.

He's got the usual water bottle, and bowls for food and hay. I actually use a birdfeed bowl for his food, because it hangs off the cage bars and takes up less space, plus it's easier to clean than a ceramic bowl. Hay goes in a plastic bowl that also bolts onto the cage frame. Other decorations include a chew-toy for birds that he can gnaw on, and the best wheel in the world. That's the giant white bowl at the back of the cage. It's still quiet after nearly two years. Best investment I ever made. The cage does rattle when he runs really quickly in it, and that's kind of noisy too, but that's still a giant improvement on a squeaky wire wheel. Plus, it's safer for him.

Habits

I think Scooter's version of a day is either a little longer, or a little shorter, than mine. His schedule will rotate a bit -- for a week or two he'll be awake when I get home, then he'll only start to wake up when I'm getting ready for bed, then he'll be asleep all evening, but awake in the morning before I leave...

He has a favorite perch in the cage -- he'll sit there and stare in the direction of the television, and sometimes he'll stretch up to reach the hay (the bowl is up above him, but if there's anything hanging out of it he can grab it) instead of just climbing up to eat out of it normally. I love that, because he has to stand up on the tips of his toes and streeeeetch to get it.

Baths

Chinchillas bathe in dust. Not just any dust, sadly, or he'd be a pet and a maid all in one. The dust keeps their fur from getting oily and gross, so they don't need water to get clean. I get "chinchilla dust" at the pet shop, which is this soft powder that's a lot like talc. I sprinkle a little bit in a plastic pan, and Scooter rolls around in it ecstatically. They love their baths. And it's wonderful to watch him roll around -- it's hard to describe, he just spins onto his back and wriggles around. And when he's done, he looks dazed. Like, "I'm not sure what just happened, but damn, it felt good!" When Scooter escapes, or I need to lure him out of the cage to clean it, all I have to do is grab the dust and he's eager to jump in the bathing pan.

I give him a dust bath a few times a week. Advice varies on how often they should get a bath, so I play it by ear. He always gets one after I clean his cage, as a reward for having to be traumatized -- I put him in an old cat carrier while I clean the cage, because I can't do that and keep an eye on him at the same time. And he gets a bath if I notice that he looks a bit rumpled, or if he starts trying to roll around in the shavings in the cage as if that's a bath. I figure that's a sign that he feels dirty. And, okay, sometimes he gets a bath if I have to show a friend how utterly adorable he is.

Personality

Chinchillas are very curious, and Scooter is no exception. If I do anything to his cage -- reach in to move something for instance -- he starts running around sniffing, trying to see what's new. Which can be annoying, since he'll get in the way of what I'm doing. He's, uh.... okay, I'm definitely anthropomorphizing, but that's what pets are for! So I'm going to pretend that he's very thoughtful. Contemplative, that is; it's not like he remembers birthdays. I'm not that far gone. But if I'm puttering around the house he'll sit on the top level and stare at me, and he looks so darn intelligent that I'd love to think he's trying to figure out what I'm doing. I know he's really thinking, "I hope I get a raisin soon!" but grant me my delusions.

Over the years he's gotten pretty comfortable with me petting him. I still don't handle him as much as I should, as far as carrying him around and stuff. But I can pet him and brush him (if he gets a treat afterwards) and he's not nearly as jumpy as he used to be. I don't handle him much outside the cage because my living room has gotten harder to chin-proof and he's shown a definite taste for chewing electrical wires. I have bought some covers to put over the wires -- now I just have to get up the energy to do that. I would really like to let him run around in the living room again. I also got a leash/harness that I may try getting him used to.