Sheldon the Chinchilla

Sheldon loves people! He is our grey chinchilla. This is the most common color of chinchilla, however they also come in ebony, black velvet, beige, brown velvet, white, and even violet! Sometimes when you cross breed the different colors you can get what they call a mosaic, this is when you have a couple shades of color instead of just a solid color. Chinchillas have extremely soft fur and are on the endangered species list because of this. Chinchillas were hunted for their fur in their native land, the Andes Mountains of South America.

Chichillas take dust baths is a very fine “volcanic dust.” This is what helps keep them so soft and helps to keep their fur from matting. Sheldon does not like to take baths. We often have to help him bath because he will not roll around in the dust like most chinchillas to get clean!