Chinchilla breeding as a business: growing, keeping, breeding at home

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Our planet has long been inhabited by thousands of species of living beings and plants, many of which are still not studied or poorly studied. Species that have gained particular popularity among humans are listed in the Red Book. As a rule, these are animals with valuable fur, one of which is the chinchilla. This animal is used for the production of fur, but it is more humane to breed chinchillas as a business: at home, to sell live animals to beauty lovers. And it brings no less profit, breeding for the purpose of obtaining furs.

What are chinchillas

Chinchilla is a fluffy animal of the chinchilla family, belongs to the order of rodents. The chinchilla is native to South America. Northern rocky areas at an altitude of 400-5000 m above sea level are their habitat.

The animal is 22-40 cm long, of which 10-17 cm is occupied by the tail. Chinchilla is an animal with a short neck and a rounded head, its body is covered with thick ash-colored fur, thanks to whichrodents are not afraid of the climate of the mountains. The weight of an adult is 800 g. The eyes of a chinchilla are black, with vertical pupils, which allows them to navigate at night. The chinchilla has a mustache 8-10 cm long, rounded ears that reach 6 cm and have membranes, which made it possible for the animal to close them when taking sand baths. The skeleton of chinchillas is designed in such a way that the animal can shrink in an upright position in order to crawl into narrow gaps between rocks. The front paws have five toes, the hind paws have four. The hind limbs are 2 times longer than the front ones, due to which chinchillas make high jumps. Chinchillas have a developed cerebellum, so they have excellent coordination of movements, which in rocky terrain is simply necessary for survival. Chinchillas live up to 20 years, in captivity this period is halved.

Chinchilla breeding history

When the Spanish conquerors landed on the coast of South America, there was no limit to the admiration of the warm fur clothing of the locals. Chinchillas got their name from the name of the tribe of the Indian people - Chinchas. It was the beginning of the fur trade for delivery to Europe. The wild chinchilla was almost exterminated. All attempts to move them from the mountains for breeding ended in failure, since attempts to breed chinchillas at home as a business failed. The conditions for keeping chinchillas were not known at that time.

M. Chapman was the first to successfully transport 11 chinchillas to North America. The females brought offspring, after which the development of Chapman's experience in breeding chinchillas in captivity began. North America, Canada, Europe and South Africa successfully began to breed animals. Today, chinchillas are very popular with exotic lovers who breed chinchillas as a business. At home, this is a fairly profitable business.

Chinchilla breeding business

In today's economy, you need to choose unoccupied niches to open a business. Breeding chinchillas at home as a business is a great idea that does not require special skills and large initial capital.

This type of business has a high profitability and a quick payback, so if you develop a competent business plan and take its implementation seriously, you can get a good income. Are you interested in breeding chinchillas at home as a business? Where to start, how to succeed - you will learn about all this briefly. As in any business, the main thing here is patience, accuracy, following all the rules for caring for delicate animals.

In the process of getting acquainted with this type of activity, you will find that breeding chinchillas at home as a business provides several opportunities for profit:

• selling chinchillas as pets;
• sale of cubs for breeding;
• sale of animals for fur production.

Chinchilla keeping at home

Before you start breeding chinchillas at home as a business, you simply need instructions for keeping chinchillas in an apartment.

The first thing you need to start organizing a business is the arrangement of the place of residence of the animals. Chinchilla is a very active and agile animal that needs enough space to jump and run. For these purposes, it is necessary to purchase or build a cage with a minimum size of 100 cm wide, 80 cm high and 40 cm deep. The cage should be located in a dry and bright room and be made of unpainted metal with a cell size of 1.5x1.5 cm for the bottom and 1.9x1.9 cm for the walls and ceiling.

It is desirable that the cage has a pull-out tray for changing the bedding. Chinchillas are very clean and odor free, so bedding can be changed once a week.

Breeding chinchillas (as a business at home) has only positive reviews. There are opinions about chinchilla sellers as people who are passionate about their business, not only selling rodents, but also helping buyers take care of their new pets.

In the cage, it is necessary to place shelves 15 cm wide at different heights so that the animals can move along them. It is also necessary to have a holiday home.

A drinking bowl and a feeder should be installed on the front wall of the cage. The best option is drinkers and feeders with fastening to rods, since bowls placed inside the house are doomed to be turned upside down during the games of animals. A hay nursery should be set up a little nearby.

It is necessary to install an area for taking sand baths in the cage, but not on a permanent basis. It is enough to put a bath filled with cyalite for half an hour. Excessive sand bathing is bad for chinchilla skin.

If you started breeding chinchillas at home as a business, the maintenance must be carried out in accordance with all the rules, one of which is the mandatory presence of an air conditioner. It is necessary to install a thermometer next to the animal's house so that you can regulate the temperature level. Chinchilla does not tolerate heat, this is especially true for the summer period. The range of comfortable temperature for a chinchilla is 18-23 degrees, the minimum is 14-15, the maximum is 28, going beyond the minimum and maximum can lead to the death of rodents. Animals do not like the sun and prefer silence.

Feeding

Chinchilla is a herbivore, so you can feed it with herbal plants and specialized food for chinchillas. Dry hay and water should always be freely available in the cage. Chinchillas are very fond of eating, you can give her a piece of dried apple, carrot or hawthorn berry.

He alth and treatment of chinchillas

Chinchillas are no more prone to disease than other animals. However, difficulties may arise here due to the narrow profile of doctors. Therefore, often the veterinarian cannot determine what the pet is sick with. Basically, chinchillas are prone to problems with their teeth and gastrointestinal tract.

Home breedingconditions

Chinchilla breeding (as a business at home) imposes a very big responsibility on you. Before you bring chinchillas into your home, you need to find worthy parents for future babies.

Choose animals of the colors you want to work with in the future, do not start multi-colored animals. Analyze the reputation of chinchilla breeders from whom you can buy adults, find out the purity of lines, pedigrees.

If breeding chinchillas (as a business) at home is your first experience, you should not immediately start a lot of individuals, it will be enough to try your hand at one family consisting of a female and a male. Chinchillas are dominated by females, so when meeting future cohabitants, it is better to plant the female with the male.

Pregnancy and childbirth of chinchillas

Chinchillas in the wild gave birth and looked after babies on their own, and this skill has remained with them to this day. Usually, childbirth occurs in the morning and unnoticed by the owner, as a rule, it is only a couple of hours. Pregnancy of the female lasts about 105-115 days. In one litter, 1-3 cubs are usually born. The female is able to produce offspring up to 3 times a year. A distinctive feature of chinchillas is the birth of pubescent and sighted cubs weighing 35-50 g. Babies can immediately move, and after a couple of hours they can run around the cage. But the cubs can be weaned from the mother no earlier than the 8-10th week.

Several conditions must be met:

• During the week after the birth of the offspringchinchillas should not bathe in the sand, so it is better to remove the bath from the cage.
• It is also necessary to provide mom with vitamins - give raisins, almonds, dandelion leaves, nettles.
• For the safety of babies, remove all high shelves.
• Cover the cage from drafts.
• Keep the house completely clean.

Inventory

Chinchilla is an active animal that needs tools for grinding teeth and things that stimulate curiosity and interest. Therefore, it is important to equip the chinchilla house with items that will provide the animal with physical activity and serve as a source of entertainment. If you do not provide toys to the chinchilla, she will begin to gnaw on shelves, houses, a drinking bowl, this will not only bring additional costs for home improvement, but also cause problems with her teeth. Toys must be made from natural material, without sharp edges.

You can use as toys:

• driftwood, thick branches;
• tunnels made of cardboard, wood, plastic;
• pendant toys in the form of wooden balls, bars;
• ladders.

Business with pleasure is the key to success

As you can see, keeping a chinchilla will not cause any difficulties. Not only breeding chinchillas at home as a business has high profitability, it is also a very exciting process. If you are a fan of not only exotic, but also small animals, then this activity will appeal to you.