What is standard gray chinchilla?
Chinchilla (scientific name: Chinchilla lanigera Molina): is the collective name for rodents, chinchillas, chinchillas.
The short-tailed chinchilla is larger, with a body length of 30-38cm and a tail length of about 10cm; the long-tailed chinchilla is smaller, with a body length of 24-28cm and a tail length of 14-15cm. Generally, female mice weigh 510-710g, and male mice weigh 425-570g. The front half is like a rabbit, the back half is like a mouse, the ears are big and round, and the tail hair is fluffy. The eyes are bright and there are many long whiskers on either side of the nose. The standard chinchilla has a bluish-gray fur with a fading to white belly with a clearly demarcated white band in the mid-abdomen.
This species is gregarious, docile, and nocturnal. It is a rabbit-sized chipmunk native to the Andes region of South America. It is famous for its soft and beautiful fur, and it is on the verge of extinction due to mass hunting by humans.
What does Standard gray Chinchilla look like?
The chinchilla’s dorsal and flank coats are grey-blue, and the belly coat gradually becomes lighter to white. Body hair is mainly composed of villi, which are dense and uniform. Each hair follicle is clustered with 50 to 60 hairs, each with a diameter of only 5 to 11 μm, which is thinner than spider silk. The coat is a beautiful gray-blue color, and the hair shaft shows alternating shades of color bands. The base of the hair is dark blue, and the middle of the hair shaft is white. The color of the hair tip is different. Individuals can be divided into light, medium and dark. The back of the ridge from the tip of the nose to the tail is nearly black, the sides are slightly lighter, and the abdomen has a narrow and clearly demarcated white band. Sapphire, beige, charcoal, black, white and silver have been bred through artificial crossbreeding.
The chinchilla’s incisors are well developed, orange-yellow, and exposed on the outside of the lips.
Standard gray Chinchilla living habits
The chinchilla is docile, does not bite, likes to live in groups, is good at jumping, is timid and afraid of being disturbed, is used to sleeping peacefully during the day, foraging at night, and likes to lie on its back in a cage under the soft sunlight. Usually male and female individuals get along harmoniously, rarely quarrel, and only occasionally fight during the breeding season. When the female and male chinchillas mate, they make a soft “coo” sound like a dove.
The chinchilla likes a dry and cool environment, the suitable temperature is 2-30 ℃, the temperature below zero, or above 30 ℃ are not suitable for its growth. Too much rain, humidity and cold wind are not good for the growth and development of chinchillas. Therefore, chinchillas are generally kept indoors in a darker environment.
Chinchillas like to eat fresh, succulent plants, as well as bark, hay, and seeds. In captivity, hay, grain and green fodder, or compound feed, are usually fed. The feed intake of adult chinchillas is about 5% to 6% of body weight. When the chinchilla eats, the posture is very similar to that of a squirrel, sitting on the hind legs, grabbing the food with the forelimbs, and feeding it into the mouth bit by bit. The life span of chinchillas is generally 15 to 20 years, of which 8 to 10 years are fertile.
Sand bathing is the most important habit of chinchillas. Likes to roll in the sand table, play, clean the body, and have the habit of rodent bite.
Standard gray Chinchilla rearing
The chinchilla is a small herbivorous animal with a wide range of feed sources, simple feeding equipment, convenient management, less labor input, and low cost (the cost of raising an adult rat for a year is about 1,000 yuan), with quick results and more benefits , has a great development prospect.
The chinchilla has a particularly long digestive tract and developed cecum, so under artificial feeding conditions, it is usually fed hay, grain and green fodder, or compound feed, including herbs, vegetables, wild vegetables, mulberry leaves, elm leaves, alfalfa, grains, etc. , vegetables with too much water content such as cabbage should not be fed. In addition to various grains, concentrated feed can also be fed to wheat bran, cornmeal, and soybean meal. Add a small amount of refined salt, yeast powder, bone meal and other minerals, such as calcium, zinc, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, iron, copper, cobalt, manganese, etc. The addition amount is generally calcium 1%, phosphorus 0.5%, potassium iodide 0.3/10,000 , copper sulfate 0.5/10,000, zinc sulfate 1/10,000, ferrous sulfate 1.5/10,000, manganese sulfate 1/10,000. For example: alfalfa grass 22%, corn 10%, soybean meal 18%, wheat bran 17.5%, wheat 14%, barley 12%, bone meal 2%, salt 0.5%, yeast powder 4%. The adult feeding amount is about 25g per animal per day, and then supplemented with hay and green feed such as alfalfa, clover, barnyard grass, clary, wild vegetables, plantain, dandelion, bitter herb, water celery, carrot, etc., which is beneficial to Growth and development, and fresh and juicy, good palatability, can stimulate appetite. The combination of green fodder and concentrated fodder should be determined according to the season, temperature and dryness of chinchilla’s feces. Pregnant females should be fed more vitamin E and protein. For female animals in labor, yogurt powder and multi-vitamin dextrose should be added in an appropriate amount (one spoon per meal). After the pups are born, continue to supplement nutrition, which can improve the survival rate of pups. The feeding amount of chinchillas should be scientifically controlled according to their biological characteristics. Excessive feeding is not only wasteful, but also increases costs, and chinchillas are too full to reduce exercise, which will affect their growth and development, and even cause gastrointestinal diseases. The chinchillas are less active during the day and eat less; they are active at night, so they feed a lot at night. The adult body weight is generally about 500g, and the daily feed intake is about 5% to 6% of the body weight. Among them, pellet feed accounts for 80%, and hay and green feed account for about 20%. Each animal is fed 1 level spoon of pelleted feed (about 15g), and the forage is not limited. Generally, it is fed twice a day, at 8:00 am and 4:00 pm every day, and the effect of feeding at night is better. When feeding fresh green fodder such as fresh grass, it should be dried first. Wet grass with dew should not be fed. The hay should be cut short and the grain should be ground. The fine powder feed is easy to choke the throat, often causing foreign body pneumonia, the wet feed is easy to spoil, and it is easy to cause enteritis after feeding. The variety of feed to be fed should be stable. From dry feeding to fresh feeding or from fresh to dry, it must be carried out gradually. The excessive time should not be less than 1 week. At the same time, clean drinking water should be kept in the drinking fountain throughout the day.
