Welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy your visit. ChinTrek is designed to introduce you to the chinchilla, to give an overview of many of the aspects of chinchilla ownership, to provide useful information and links, and to share the fun and joy of owning a chinchilla. If you have anything you'd like to see added, if you want to link to the site, if you have any questions, if you'd like to submit a story etc, or if I've goofed up somewhere please feel free to e-mail me. In this section you'll find information about my chinchillas, me, and this website in general. Enjoy!
The Chinchillas:
Daisy (mosaic female) and Joey (black velvet male)
Daisy:
Daisy is a 3 year old mosaic female with a sweet and laidback temperment. She's not much into running around and getting into trouble, but she likes to be held and to explore at her own pace. She's an excellent mother and a wonderful chin.
Joey:
Joey is a 4 year old black velvet male. He's the exact opposite of Daisy; she's sweet and gentle, and he's loud, sassy, and outgoing! He makes a lot of noise until someone lets him out and then he runs around and makes a general pest of himself. He loves to be out and thinks he's quite the ladies man. He hasn't been a very productive father, but he makes a great pet.
Starry Ice:
Starry Ice is an 8 month old mosaic male. He is the son of Brio (mosaic male) and Swallow (standard female). He's a little shy around strangers, but once he gets to know you he's outgoing and very personable.
Kitten:
Kitten is a 6 month old pink-white female. She's the daughter of Indian Summer (beige female, daughter of Bunny (beige male) and Raisin (standard female)) and Willow (mosaic male). She's very outgoing and loves people and attention. She isn't shy around strangers and just loves life in general. She's very sweet, energetic, and is an awesome chin.
Where I started and where I'm at:
My interest in chinchillas actually started with a hamster! We had a pair of Siberian hamsters when I was in 9th grade. I joined FFA and needed an SAE (supervised agricultural experience, which basically means you get a job or start your own business somehow related to various aspects of FFA). While I was pondering what on earth to do, our hamsters had a litter of pups and that gave me an idea. I started raising dwarf hamsters and by doing so I ended up spending quite a bit of time in the pet shop. On my visits to the local pet shop I got to see the chinchillas on occasion and my dad got really interested in them/ I thought they were cute, but not $100 worth of cute. As it turned out we ended up getting one. My first chinchilla was a gray male (Dusky) and he came from the local pet shop. He was a great chinchilla and needless to say I got hooked! I bought found an ad in the paper for 3 females (though one somehow turned into a male 3 months later;) and our chin population went from 1 to four. I ended up scaling down my hamster population and got more involved with the chins. Nine months after I got my first chinchilla our first litter was born. We eventually sold the rest of the hamsters and focused on the chins. By the summer after I graduated we had about 27 chinchillas. I started college in the fall and my dad took care of the chins while I was at school, but by the summer after my freshman year of college I knew I had to sell most of my chins. I found someone to take the entire herd, except for the 4 I have right now. I kept my favorites and 2 of my most promising babies (Starry Ice and Kitten). I miss my "herd" but I'm glad that I still have a few of them!
About ChinTrek:
ChinTrek is my first website and I've really enjoyed working on it. I love Chinchillas and I really enjoy watching Star Trek as well so I thought it might be fun to combine the 2. If you are familiar with Star Trek I hope you enjoy the "theme" of ChinTrek, but if you aren't familiar with it the "theme" shouldn't detract from your comprehension of the topics on the page. Enjoy!
About Me:
At the moment I'm a sophmore at Luther College in Decorah, IA. I'm a biology major and I'm going Pre-vet. Besides for chinchillas, I have 2 dogs (shiba inus) and 2 cats (heinz 57's). All my pets must reside at home because Luther doesn't allow any pets in the dorms except for fish, and I haven't been able to convince the chins that being aquatic isn't all that bad (even though a wet chin isn't a pretty site;) I'm from Minnesota and live about 10 miles south of Rochester. I'll stop there before I bore you to death!
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