IcyWolf
New member
- Jul 5, 2011
- 1,542
- 3
- Parrots
- ~Alexandrine Parakeet~2 Red Lored Amazons~Blue Fronted Amazon~Black capped conure~4 Green Cheeks~4 Parrotlets~2 lineolated parakeets~9 American budgies~9 English budgies~ And lots of babies :)
When my boyfriend and I met a little over four years ago, he had a chinchilla that he bought for his nephew, who he was living with at the time. A few weeks after we had been hanging out, he was told that he had to move out, being the person I am, I told him he was more than welcome to stay with me(at this point we were just friends and that was all I had intended 
) Chico(named chica at the time) stayed with his cousin and his nephew. About 6-8 months later, we get a call that his nephew isn't spending any time with the chinchilla and they wanted to know if we would take "her" back. Of course we did, and on the ride home, I looked at "her" and said, "Um, hun, chica is a chico...." lol. It was kind of funny because they had an umbrella too named chico as well. We had him for about a year and then had a bit of a financial crisis and ended up having to move, we didn't have any idea where we would stay and our main priority was making sure all of our animals had stable roofs over their heads. I called up my mom and asked her if she would mind keeping chico for us until we found another place, she was a bit hesitant but eventually said yes. We took him over there and she instantly fell in love. I was going over weekly to clean his cage and I was so happy to see that almost every week there were new bags of treats next to his cage, she really spoils her animals. When it came time for us to take him back, she told me that she had been wanting to ask if it was okay for her just to keep him, of course I said yes(it's my mom after all) and he lived with her from then on out.
I just called her today and she said she had bad news, that a couple days ago, chico had passed away. She has no idea why, she said he was fine one day, and then she found him dead in his bath house He couldn't have been more than 8 which is very young for a chin, they usually live 12-20 years. She quit smoking a couple years ago and doesn't allow smoking in her house and the chinchilla is in his own room(it's actually my old bedroom) so the dogs couldn't bother him. He had a big cage and she kept him on carefresh bedding. The only thing that is bothering me is that she said that her friend that works at a pet store came over and was playing with him a few days before he died, I didn't say it to her but I'm wondering if it's possible that he got something from her from working at a pet store? I don't know if she came straight from work or not either, but I know when I worked at petsmart we had a chinchilla with giardia that we had to keep in ISO because it is highly contagious. Is there really anything that would have killed him so fast though? I know it wasn't temperature either, chins aren't prone to dying of cold(they are used to cold mountainous temps) and I know her house isn't too warm because it's the middle of winter and she is crazy about her thermostat staying around 66-68(I always find it a bit chilly there). I've heard of chins and rabbits being scared or excited and breaking their necks but he was in his bath house, I don't really know how he would have hurt himself in there. I don't know, I guess things just happen sometimes, I just hate when a seemingly healthy animal just dies and you never know why, like I said, I didn't ask too many questions about her visiting friend, I don't want her to think it's her fault, that's not going to accomplish anything but making her feel worse and she just lost her 15 year old husky between thanksgiving and christmas. I just wanted to share, maybe see if anyone had any insight on what could have happened, here's a picture of my friend and chico RIP little buddy
) Chico(named chica at the time) stayed with his cousin and his nephew. About 6-8 months later, we get a call that his nephew isn't spending any time with the chinchilla and they wanted to know if we would take "her" back. Of course we did, and on the ride home, I looked at "her" and said, "Um, hun, chica is a chico...." lol. It was kind of funny because they had an umbrella too named chico as well. We had him for about a year and then had a bit of a financial crisis and ended up having to move, we didn't have any idea where we would stay and our main priority was making sure all of our animals had stable roofs over their heads. I called up my mom and asked her if she would mind keeping chico for us until we found another place, she was a bit hesitant but eventually said yes. We took him over there and she instantly fell in love. I was going over weekly to clean his cage and I was so happy to see that almost every week there were new bags of treats next to his cage, she really spoils her animals. When it came time for us to take him back, she told me that she had been wanting to ask if it was okay for her just to keep him, of course I said yes(it's my mom after all) and he lived with her from then on out.I just called her today and she said she had bad news, that a couple days ago, chico had passed away. She has no idea why, she said he was fine one day, and then she found him dead in his bath house
He couldn't have been more than 8 which is very young for a chin, they usually live 12-20 years. She quit smoking a couple years ago and doesn't allow smoking in her house and the chinchilla is in his own room(it's actually my old bedroom) so the dogs couldn't bother him. He had a big cage and she kept him on carefresh bedding. The only thing that is bothering me is that she said that her friend that works at a pet store came over and was playing with him a few days before he died, I didn't say it to her but I'm wondering if it's possible that he got something from her from working at a pet store? I don't know if she came straight from work or not either, but I know when I worked at petsmart we had a chinchilla with giardia that we had to keep in ISO because it is highly contagious. Is there really anything that would have killed him so fast though? I know it wasn't temperature either, chins aren't prone to dying of cold(they are used to cold mountainous temps) and I know her house isn't too warm because it's the middle of winter and she is crazy about her thermostat staying around 66-68(I always find it a bit chilly there). I've heard of chins and rabbits being scared or excited and breaking their necks but he was in his bath house, I don't really know how he would have hurt himself in there. I don't know, I guess things just happen sometimes, I just hate when a seemingly healthy animal just dies and you never know why, like I said, I didn't ask too many questions about her visiting friend, I don't want her to think it's her fault, that's not going to accomplish anything but making her feel worse and she just lost her 15 year old husky between thanksgiving and christmas. I just wanted to share, maybe see if anyone had any insight on what could have happened, here's a picture of my friend and chico RIP little buddy
