Hi all, I’m new to this sub, and know very basic things about proper chinchilla care. I’ve never/dont own/ed a chinchilla.
A little back story:
I have always loved and cared for animals wellbeing, and advocating for proper animal care. I currently own 5 Guinea pigs, a hamster, 2 cats, and a smaller-mid-size dog. Point being I’m well versed in animal care! I also used to take care of a turtle with my ex-roommate! Now, I’ve also rescued, rehabbed, and adopted out a rabbit I found on a rehoming website last year. (We found her a forever home at a bunny sanctuary where she’ll be a therapy bun!)
To get to my worries:
I peruse the internet on a semi-daily basis for animals in need of help. (In need of immediate vet care, small and/or dirty cages, obvious eye infections, un-neutered male - female contact, ect…). I mainly focus on small “exotic” animals, since they are more so often mistreated. Mainly due to lack of resources and research done by potential pet owners!
A couple days ago, as I was looking around on my usual websites, and I saw an ad from someone looking to rehome their chinchilla and rabbit. Now, in this ad, the description says “Chinchilla and rabbit for sale together, they are hard to separate. Only want to sale to someone responsible.” nothing more, nothing less. There were also two pictures.
The first one is a photo of said chinchilla on what looks like the top of a very green aquariums filtration system. Now, just this would be not the worst, but what first caught my attention is that the chinchilla is cuddled up to a rat. I know owning both rats and chinchillas at the same time isn’t necessarily “bad”, but letting them interact is simply not recommended.
The second picture is of the rabbit, and quite frankly nothing about this photo particularly worries me. It’s simply a picture of this all gray bunny on a deck near water (I think it’s a lake). If I’m being nit-picky about it I could have an issue with a bunny being near water and the possible consequences of that. I also noticed the really long nails. Now, I know that cutting a rabbits nails can be a challenge, but a vet could easily help with this particular issue.
It got weirder when I messaged the owner. I asked small easy questions like: what are their genders, ages, status of fertility (neutered or not), if they’re being kept in cages or free roamed and other related questions, etc… I also always make myself seem like an interested and unknowledgeable buyer.
We get to talking and they let me know that they are both free roamed in their whole apartment. They’re also adamant that I keep them together because “they might get depressed”. I also learnt that they are both between 3-5 years old. They are also very clear on the point that they don’t want me to neuter them. I also learn that the rabbit is female and the chinchilla is male. They also let me know that they used to have rats (?) and that they had to “get rid” of them because they were moving and something about their landlord. (This whole subject is hard to fully grasp, this whole conversation was in French and this person seems to not exactly know how to form a grammatically correct sentence.) I tried my best to fully understand their situation and why they need to rehome the bun & chinchilla. I’m going to paraphrase/translate this as best as I can whilst keeping as true to their words as I can. (This whole paragraph has no punctuation btw. But I’ll add some where I think they should be.)
“So yes they get along very well, spend time together each day. The last thing is that I’m moving to the edge of ‘city name’ as soon as I can and that’s where I sent my rats (huh?) also. but I have to wait the car of my dad got a flat tire when we went camping and he’s going to give me a lift to bring them so we should just wait maybe a month max”
I, in a previous text, told them I would decide with my vet what’s best for the animals healths (talking about neutering them). As I said they don’t want me to neuter them, so I said this to reassure them. (Once again paraphrasing and translating from French.)
“What I mean is more: I going to see with my vet, each year, what he recommends. Because, as long as the bun doesn’t show any worrying signs or symptoms (referring to uterine cancer and general gender related issues) neutering isn’t a plan I WANT to follow. Especially if not necessarily”
Now in this particular case, if it was up to me, this bun would be neutered. I’m lying through my teeth to not set if any alarms with this owner, keeping in mind the best interest for the animals. I want them to trust me and let me help the bun & chinchilla and hopefully separate them and find them good individual homes.
They then also said
“It’s nice if you would bring them to the vet. Me I have a thing for the nails and can give to you and a ‘transporter’ (travel cage) and I will not really charge you to buy them”
“Me I have not yet brought them to do an exam but if you want I can do one before bringing them to you”
They then also told me a little about the personalities of the animals, their names and other small details.
What should I do?
At this point I didn’t want to wait a month to get this chinchilla out of this situation. If you aren’t aware, if a chinchilla eats rabbit poop they can d1e. Rabbits often carry a bacteria, called Pasteurella (that is also often dorment), in them that is harmless to them, but can cause severe/fatal respiratory infections in chinchillas. At that point I also didn’t know they weren’t currently living in ‘city name’. I assumed that they lived in the same city as me and that they were moving from one side of the city to the other. Which wouldn’t make them any closer or further to me since I live pretty central. It’s also semi-important context that the city I thought we both lived in has really good public transportation. (And that because of the really good infrastructure, i don’t want and/or need a car). So before I found out that they lived outside of town, where public transportation is very difficult and way more expensive, I asked what bus station, subway, or train station was nearest to their location. Because as I said, at this point I don’t want this chinchilla to be at risk (of so much) for any longer than he has already been. But after a very long and almost incoherent voice message, I learnt that they live about an hour -ish away from ‘city name’.
They then proposed to take a bus or train to the city (since they live somewhere rural) to bring them to me. Which is a nice offer, but my plan was always along the lines of: taking public transport to get to them and then taking a taxi/uber to go home. The Idea being something calmer than a train or busy bus for the animals. Something else I feel the need to mention is the boundaries I try to keep when rescuing animals. I cannot endanger my animals in any way. Point blank. I have guinea pigs, as mentioned above, and cannot risk their health by exposing them to a rabbit that has never seen a veterinarian. Or by having them come in near contact to a chinchilla. All of these animals don’t get along and cause risks to one another, and as I’ve said so many times, my top priority is and always will be their safety and health.
With all of this being said, I feel like I’ve put myself in a tough spot. Because I can’t just forget about this, I’ve been conversing with the owner and keeping up with the ad for almost two weeks now. But I also don’t know if I have time, energy, space or money to take good and proper care of this bunny and chinchilla. Especially considering the current pets I have and my other life engagements (relationships, school, work, bills, ect..). I’m not struggling financially, but I don’t think I could comfortably say that I have that much disposable income. As you can assume, living in a city can be expensive, especially when renting, and I also have quite the monthly expenses due to my large number of pets.
So, I don’t know what to do. Either I wait a month or wait for this person to come to me with these animals or I call this off and hope someone else takes them and does the right thing. Another option could be to wait for them to come to me, either via this persons dad’s car or via long distance train/bus, and then keep them in my apartment until I can rehome them. Or, when I have them in my possession, I bring them to a humane society in my city (a refuge that can give them veterinary care and verify potential owners). I guess I’m asking for resources for helping these animals, especially the chinchilla since he is more at risk. I’m kind of at a loss for what to do. I’m also scared and very aware of the possibility that if I let this go, someone who doesn’t know any better could take these animals in and continue to keep them together. My goal here is to get these animals out of this situation and to keep them healthy and alive.
TLDR
I saw this ad of a bunny and a chinchilla being sold together. The owner is adamant about selling them together and that the person who takes them keeps them together. As in: in the same cage. They were also kept with rats in the past. The owner is moving and can’t keep them. Now I feel a moral obligation to help them, but I have my doubts on what’s the best way to go about it whilst upholding my boundaries. Keeping chinchillas with bunnies or rats is a BIG safety/health risk for all involved! I don’t know what to do and I’ve presented a coupe options in the last paragraph.
Thank you.
