Just wanted to introduce myself.  =)  My name is Heidi and I have had chinchillas for over five years now.  It all started when I met my first chinchilla at a friend's house, his name was FooZoo and he was something I've never seen or heard of before.  I started researching online, and I found a breeder near by. 

When I was finally ready to go pick out my first chinchilla, I was just overwhelmed!  The breeder had 100's of chins to choose from.  But she had one little chin that was different then all the others, he was a fur chewer.  He chewed so bad, that he was practically naked with exception to the fur on his head.  Apparently, he had lost his mate and became so depressed that he started chewing.  His owners no longer thought he was "pretty" and just dropped him off at the breeder's.  I felt bad for the little guy, and after all that he's been through with losing his mate that he's been with his whole life, his family deserts him and dumps him off at an unfamiliar place. 

He had every reason to be depressed and fur chew, and I didn't blame him for it.  He needed a home more than any of the other chinchilla's at the ranch did.  And the breeder happily gave him to me, and that's how I got my first chinchilla Doggy.

After a few months of having Doggy and spoiling him, he stopped fur chewing completely and started looking like a normal chinchilla again.  He definately opened up my eyes, and made a huge impact on my life.  He's made me a better person, and I feel so much more accomplished knowing that I'm making a difference one fur ball at a time.

The rising amount of rescues and neglected chinchilla's out there is one of the main reasons why I do not breed chinchilla's at all.  More than a third of the chinchilla's I currently own are rescues, retired breeding, or just chins I've adopted from owners who could not or did not have the knowledge to take care of chins in the first place.

My life revovles around them now, and I'm always looking for new ways to keep them as spoiled as possible!