This is one of those things I will never understand. People asking about chins and wanting everything basically done for them... and then saying, oh well not everyone's on board with this, sorry.
So this one lady contacted me, asking if I had any chins of a specific color that doesn't sell well. I said no, and I don't get them often, and I told her, if she for sure wanted one, and would put down a deposit on one just based off pics (which I could send from Jim's), I would get one. She sort of hemmed and hawed and said, well, if you get one, let them know.
So, I didn't have one for a few weeks, and I told her, check the website, maybe they'd find something else they'd like. So she said, oh they have, but the son really likes this one color in females. Which is fine, no big deal. Again, she says, if you get one in, let us know.
So I get one in, and I think about these people, so I find their email, and email them saying I got in this female, color you wanted, this age, yadda yadda, were you interested? Because you know, it's been a few weeks, they may no longer be.
The email back says basically, well, not everyone's on board with the chin, the significant other still isn't feeling it, but definitely send pics. So I did, and told them, if everyone gets on board, just let me know.
But... I don't get it. Why would you even go looking for a chin (or any pet for that matter) if the family's not all on board? I mean, let's be honest. ANY rescue you do this to will find you aggravating. You waste their time, wanting pics, wanting to know, did you get it in? Oh you did!! Wait!! We're not quite sure we want to adopt it. Thanks though!!!
I just don't get it. WAIT until you're ready.
Now, I don't mean, ok, next month you're moving and once you're settled in you're going to get a chin. By all means, email early, we can have time to go through the whole thing. But at least then everyone's on board with all of it and just waiting until the timing is right. But if you're not sure... or someone's not sure... on behalf of rescues everywhere that have enough to deal with, without entertaining people like this, wait until everyone's positive they want to adopt. Thank you.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Rabbits and Oddball Questions
So, I have one rabbit listed right now -- BunnyLove. Before I go on, let me copy and paste the relevant part of her ad:
... I got a call yesterday asking about the rabbit. Said she wanted to know how old she was. Now, look back up at the ad. Do I mention how old she is? Oh yes! Right at the top! Well, actually, we mention that we don't know how old she is, but regardless, it's in there.
The lady then says, oh, well how big is she? Honest to God. Also in the ad.
This is followed up by the lady telling me that she wants to get the rabbit as a rabbit for her little kid. Pardon me for not being a fan of rabbits being Easter presents, but let's put that aside for a moment -- did she not read the freaking ad????? It specifically says, we don't recommend a household with kids. So then she asks, oh, why not? I actually said something to the tune of, she must not have read the ad, because I said, as it says in the ad, she's cage aggressive, not for little kids. So the lady says, oh well then I wouldn't want her with my boy. No shit, sherlock, that's why we don't recommend her for a household with kids, cause kids aren't careful (in general) and the rabbit is cage aggressive and has lunged and nipped before.
So she then tells me, well she's going to continue her search. She could have avoided this phone call entirely if she had just READ the ad. Must be DIFFICULT FOR SOME PEOPLE. Jeez.
So then I got a call today from Minnesota asking if this was a rescue or a shelter or what. So I told them, this is a chinchilla & small animal shelter. So the guy says oh, he's looking for a shelter, for himself, a human shelter. Sorry, not one of those. So he asks, am I sure we can't take him in? Sorry, not that type of shelter. Oh, well do I know of any? Sorry, unfortunately I don't. Actually, I don't know of any shelters locally, much less in Minnesota. I'm not making fun, don't get me wrong, this is just an example of the oddball calls that I get all the time...
This girl originally came from a
hoarding situation, we were told in Kentucky, and was taken in by
another rescue. She was fostered out, but unfortunately, her foster
home was unable to care for her after some time, so she came to our
rescue…and now she is available for adoption.
Unfortunately,
we do not know how old BunnyLove is. She’s definitely an adult, but
past that, no one knows. We’re also not sure exactly what type of
rabbit she is. We believe that she is a lop x lionhead mix, possibly
with something else in there, but not positive as far as what. She is a
larger rabbit, at least 5-7 pounds, so the lop part would need to be a
larger lop, if she is a lop x lionhead mix.
She
is cage aggressive. She’s not the rabbit for you if you have little
kids that want to help clean the cage. We use a litter scoop to scoop
her litter pan, and she will take her front paws and swat at it. She
will also lunge for you from across the cage while you’re cleaning it.
She has nipped, once, while doing this, so we advise that she not go to a
home with little kids. Ideally, the solution is to take her out when
cleaning her cage.
Other
than the cage aggressiveness, she is fine. If you reach through the
bars to pet her, especially on her forehead, she will just sit there and
enjoy the pets. When out of the cage, she is fine as well… she just
does not like people reaching into her space.
She
is litterbox trained, for the most part (few spare poos here and
there), which does make cage cleaning easy. It’s scooping up the loose
poos which is when we notice the cage aggressiveness. She will come
with her litterbox, although it’s nothing special. But she does use it.
She
will need a larger rabbit cage or an x-pen, as she is a large rabbit.
Keep this in mind. If you need a rabbit cage, we do have some larger
ones for sale.
She
loves her carrots and leafy greens (though is not a fan of spinach),
and is happy to munch on them as well as her pellets. She is eating
MannaPro Pro Rabbit and will come with 4 pounds to start you off with,
as well as a printed out version of our Rabbit Care Packet.
We don’t know if she gets along with other rabbits.
As far as we know, she is not spayed.
... I got a call yesterday asking about the rabbit. Said she wanted to know how old she was. Now, look back up at the ad. Do I mention how old she is? Oh yes! Right at the top! Well, actually, we mention that we don't know how old she is, but regardless, it's in there.
The lady then says, oh, well how big is she? Honest to God. Also in the ad.
This is followed up by the lady telling me that she wants to get the rabbit as a rabbit for her little kid. Pardon me for not being a fan of rabbits being Easter presents, but let's put that aside for a moment -- did she not read the freaking ad????? It specifically says, we don't recommend a household with kids. So then she asks, oh, why not? I actually said something to the tune of, she must not have read the ad, because I said, as it says in the ad, she's cage aggressive, not for little kids. So the lady says, oh well then I wouldn't want her with my boy. No shit, sherlock, that's why we don't recommend her for a household with kids, cause kids aren't careful (in general) and the rabbit is cage aggressive and has lunged and nipped before.
So she then tells me, well she's going to continue her search. She could have avoided this phone call entirely if she had just READ the ad. Must be DIFFICULT FOR SOME PEOPLE. Jeez.
So then I got a call today from Minnesota asking if this was a rescue or a shelter or what. So I told them, this is a chinchilla & small animal shelter. So the guy says oh, he's looking for a shelter, for himself, a human shelter. Sorry, not one of those. So he asks, am I sure we can't take him in? Sorry, not that type of shelter. Oh, well do I know of any? Sorry, unfortunately I don't. Actually, I don't know of any shelters locally, much less in Minnesota. I'm not making fun, don't get me wrong, this is just an example of the oddball calls that I get all the time...
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Going on's....mid Feb.
So... the webstore will be back open soon! Yayyyy!!
Working on currently making toys, houses, everything, so everything will be ready for the webstore to open again. Soon. Very soon.
And almost caught up on orders.
But of course, we have the fun people, as always. For the rats, for example. I have that unless someone already has a rat that they want to get a buddy for, they need to get the rats in pairs. So naturally, what email do I get? "So, do I have to adopt both?" Yes. Just as the ad says. And this person went on to say that they had one rat before and they played with it everyday, and it wasn't like it was going to be a child's neglected pet. Now, not to say it would be a neglected pet... but the reason we now have the policy of adopting out rats in pairs (the exception being single rats or rats that don't like buddies) is because when we'd get back rats adopted out singly, possibly due to the fact they weren't handled, played with, what have you, they always came back aggressive. This did not happen with the pair rats. And when I have to clean up the mess people make, I try to find a way to make it a cleaner mess for when I get it back. And not to say that she wouldn't interact with the rat great... but let's be honest... how many adopters SAY that they're going to always take out the animal, and always play with it.... oh yeah, all of them... and some do... but for others... that doesn't last long. So, not taking my chances.
Then of course we had the people who back out at the last minute after dragging on and on. Had one person who wanted to meet. They were a few hours away, and I told them, I'd meet for mileage, and they had their chins picked out. A few days before pickup, they email asking if the chins have a pedigree, because they heard they should get chins with a pedigree. I told them, those specific ones don't... so they asked, as a breeder, shouldn't I have pedigrees. Yes, sure do. On all my breeding animals. But I went on to explain, most breeders sell pet-only animals without a pedigree (cause people see the pedigree and go, "oooooooh!! I can breed and make $$$$!!!" -- which the $$$ never happens but you know...), but regardless, I did not breed these animals, another breeder did, and while they technically came from pedigreed parents, they are not coming with a pedigree. So the people want to know, can I get it later. No. They're pets. I explain to them, a pedigree wouldn't mean much to the average person. It's a series of ranch brands, numbers, and letters. That's it.
For example -- What does MNWI D8 mean to you? Probably nothing. To me, that's Dillon, my Reserve White male at Nationals last year. I bred him, so he has my ranch brand, MNWI, he was born in 2014 (year D) and he was the 8th baby born that year (so D8). He was out of Nikki (MCBD B5, a hetero beige, Lemler bred, out of JAGS T726 and MCBD V2) and Ace (5R9 B-something, a standard grey male, out of 5R9 V1828 and 5R9 V1889). Now, as a pet person, is any of that particularly useful to you if I was selling Dillon to you as a pet? Probably not.
Anyway, I explain this to her, and I don't hear from her for a few days. It's drawing near to the day we're supposed to meet, and they have not yet confirmed that we're meeting at the place we talked about, so I send another email asking them to confirm that, what sort of car they're going to be driving, what their cell phone number is. The boyfriend emails back, said someone gave them some rescue chins that they're going to rehab and rehome and then they might still be interested in adopting. Um... right. Somehow I see that as an excuse. Just like, years ago, I had this one girl that had to check with her landlord about getting a chin, a medium ebony male, Kayto. She told me to check back in a few days....so I did... and then, oh check back in a few days... so I did... and so on. Every time, she kept saying, oh her landlord hadn't gotten back to her yet. Again I feel like that's an excuse. Not saying landlords couldn't be like that, but if they really wanted an answer, they'd bug the shit outta the landlord... cause this dragged out for weeks. Finally, it occurred to me they were just avoiding saying they didn't want the chin (which would have been fine, honest to god people, just tell me that), so I sent an email saying, well if the landlord ever does say you can have the chin, let me know. Never heard back.
And actually, that worked out just fine, cause I didn't have to drive the 5 hours roundtrip (the mileage fee doesn't actually make me money, it just allows me to not lose money), and I sold the chins a few days later anyway to someone else.
But then there's another person. If you've talked to me in person lately, you've probably heard about this one. Someone contacted me awhile back about adopting a dark ebony chin. Fell off the planet right about pickup time. So then, contacted back maybe 6 months later (maybe a month ago now) wanting a tan. I told her, I didn't have any. So she wants pics of all these chins I have, so I send them to her. Then she asks if I could pleeeeeease try to get a violet wrap. So through some miracle, I get one in. Which I thought was awesome cause she wouldn't leave me alone about the chinchilla. I get it in, show her pics... it's not dark enough. People, this violet wrap would have been in the "dark" class at a show, no question, and they don't come darker unless you'd like an extra dark ebony. So then later, she asks if I can get in something else for her. Now, personally, not a fan of personal requests unless it's something I can easily sell anyway, because otherwise it tends to sit here... and since she didn't like the first chin, even though it was exactly what she wanted, I told her, nicely enough, what was my last open cage is now holding that violet wrap. Sorry. So she finally decided on my beige female. Then asked how I know it's not a tan. Well, cause that one I bred, and there's no ebony in the lines, and she has a white belly. Not the greatest, crispest white belly, but it is white. No ebony, no tan. So she asks for a picture of the belly, so I send that over. She decides she likes it and wants that chin. So then she asks if I can meet her in Ohio, because she can't drive all the way to Indiana. Mind you, this person has known for months at this point where I live. I tell her, I can meet her at a gas station I stop at in Ohio every Monday, which she was fine with. So, we're working to arrange all this, and she decides she can't get the chin for a few weeks. So I tell her, she needs to put down a deposit. The chin was $150, so she needed to put down $75. She sent $15. Was not happy about that, and I told her, she needs to send more money to keep that chin on hold, because I don't let people hold chins for 10%. So, she says she'll send more in another few days. So then, a few days before pickup, she decides she also wants my black velvet female, and asks if I can put the two together and see how they do. They do fine. So then, this same person who, mind you, has just told me they have no money, tells me they went, the previous day, to a large chinchilla ranch, and purchased four chinchillas. Now, even if they bought cheap chins, there's no way they paid less than $100 per chin, so at least $400 spent. But this person could not manage to put down more than a $15 deposit for me. But I leave it alone, because I think, well, I'm going to see her in a few days and she's going to get these two chins. Then I get a text, oh her one chin was sick, had to be put down. She wasn't sure if the cagemate was sick as well, so she wanted to watch her, but besides that, didn't want to bring in any more chins at the moment. Mind you, after just bringing in four chins from a large ranch after she had already agreed and put a (miniscule) deposit down on the one I had here. She ended up saying, oh maybe she'll come to Nationals and pick up some chins then. Not from ME she won't. I am DONE.
And here's the thing. I tried to be nice. When she put down the $15, I told her, breeders are not going to let you do this shit. I told her to send $75, she sent $15 -- I told her, you do this for anyone else and that chin will not be on hold for you. Heck, most chins I've ever had on hold from another breeder, for example, one that I'd pick up at a show, I've either paid for completely or had a significant deposit down on (and pay the rest at pickup). No $15 on a $150 animal, nope. And she always said, oh she appreciated me being helpful and willing to work with her and all that. Uh-huh. Appreciated it enough to walk all over me and go buy chins from a larger breeder (who I guarantee had her pay in full) while telling me she couldn't pay the money for mine at the moment. Not dealing with her again, nope.
I should mention, I write a lot about the bad apples. I realize that. But most people are very sweet and very nice and very understanding. Multiple people email, call, text, wanting to adopt. They show up, pick out a chin, fill out the adoption form, get supplies, a cage, what have you. And so on their merry way with a chin. Nothing bad about it. It's just one of those things, the bad ones stick out like sore thumbs cause when they're bad apples, they're not just people who email once and dissapear, they email like 40 times and waste hours of my time, and THEN disappear.
Anyway, that's about it for now. Have people coming today, so need to get ready for them.
Working on currently making toys, houses, everything, so everything will be ready for the webstore to open again. Soon. Very soon.
And almost caught up on orders.
But of course, we have the fun people, as always. For the rats, for example. I have that unless someone already has a rat that they want to get a buddy for, they need to get the rats in pairs. So naturally, what email do I get? "So, do I have to adopt both?" Yes. Just as the ad says. And this person went on to say that they had one rat before and they played with it everyday, and it wasn't like it was going to be a child's neglected pet. Now, not to say it would be a neglected pet... but the reason we now have the policy of adopting out rats in pairs (the exception being single rats or rats that don't like buddies) is because when we'd get back rats adopted out singly, possibly due to the fact they weren't handled, played with, what have you, they always came back aggressive. This did not happen with the pair rats. And when I have to clean up the mess people make, I try to find a way to make it a cleaner mess for when I get it back. And not to say that she wouldn't interact with the rat great... but let's be honest... how many adopters SAY that they're going to always take out the animal, and always play with it.... oh yeah, all of them... and some do... but for others... that doesn't last long. So, not taking my chances.
Then of course we had the people who back out at the last minute after dragging on and on. Had one person who wanted to meet. They were a few hours away, and I told them, I'd meet for mileage, and they had their chins picked out. A few days before pickup, they email asking if the chins have a pedigree, because they heard they should get chins with a pedigree. I told them, those specific ones don't... so they asked, as a breeder, shouldn't I have pedigrees. Yes, sure do. On all my breeding animals. But I went on to explain, most breeders sell pet-only animals without a pedigree (cause people see the pedigree and go, "oooooooh!! I can breed and make $$$$!!!" -- which the $$$ never happens but you know...), but regardless, I did not breed these animals, another breeder did, and while they technically came from pedigreed parents, they are not coming with a pedigree. So the people want to know, can I get it later. No. They're pets. I explain to them, a pedigree wouldn't mean much to the average person. It's a series of ranch brands, numbers, and letters. That's it.
For example -- What does MNWI D8 mean to you? Probably nothing. To me, that's Dillon, my Reserve White male at Nationals last year. I bred him, so he has my ranch brand, MNWI, he was born in 2014 (year D) and he was the 8th baby born that year (so D8). He was out of Nikki (MCBD B5, a hetero beige, Lemler bred, out of JAGS T726 and MCBD V2) and Ace (5R9 B-something, a standard grey male, out of 5R9 V1828 and 5R9 V1889). Now, as a pet person, is any of that particularly useful to you if I was selling Dillon to you as a pet? Probably not.
Anyway, I explain this to her, and I don't hear from her for a few days. It's drawing near to the day we're supposed to meet, and they have not yet confirmed that we're meeting at the place we talked about, so I send another email asking them to confirm that, what sort of car they're going to be driving, what their cell phone number is. The boyfriend emails back, said someone gave them some rescue chins that they're going to rehab and rehome and then they might still be interested in adopting. Um... right. Somehow I see that as an excuse. Just like, years ago, I had this one girl that had to check with her landlord about getting a chin, a medium ebony male, Kayto. She told me to check back in a few days....so I did... and then, oh check back in a few days... so I did... and so on. Every time, she kept saying, oh her landlord hadn't gotten back to her yet. Again I feel like that's an excuse. Not saying landlords couldn't be like that, but if they really wanted an answer, they'd bug the shit outta the landlord... cause this dragged out for weeks. Finally, it occurred to me they were just avoiding saying they didn't want the chin (which would have been fine, honest to god people, just tell me that), so I sent an email saying, well if the landlord ever does say you can have the chin, let me know. Never heard back.
And actually, that worked out just fine, cause I didn't have to drive the 5 hours roundtrip (the mileage fee doesn't actually make me money, it just allows me to not lose money), and I sold the chins a few days later anyway to someone else.
But then there's another person. If you've talked to me in person lately, you've probably heard about this one. Someone contacted me awhile back about adopting a dark ebony chin. Fell off the planet right about pickup time. So then, contacted back maybe 6 months later (maybe a month ago now) wanting a tan. I told her, I didn't have any. So she wants pics of all these chins I have, so I send them to her. Then she asks if I could pleeeeeease try to get a violet wrap. So through some miracle, I get one in. Which I thought was awesome cause she wouldn't leave me alone about the chinchilla. I get it in, show her pics... it's not dark enough. People, this violet wrap would have been in the "dark" class at a show, no question, and they don't come darker unless you'd like an extra dark ebony. So then later, she asks if I can get in something else for her. Now, personally, not a fan of personal requests unless it's something I can easily sell anyway, because otherwise it tends to sit here... and since she didn't like the first chin, even though it was exactly what she wanted, I told her, nicely enough, what was my last open cage is now holding that violet wrap. Sorry. So she finally decided on my beige female. Then asked how I know it's not a tan. Well, cause that one I bred, and there's no ebony in the lines, and she has a white belly. Not the greatest, crispest white belly, but it is white. No ebony, no tan. So she asks for a picture of the belly, so I send that over. She decides she likes it and wants that chin. So then she asks if I can meet her in Ohio, because she can't drive all the way to Indiana. Mind you, this person has known for months at this point where I live. I tell her, I can meet her at a gas station I stop at in Ohio every Monday, which she was fine with. So, we're working to arrange all this, and she decides she can't get the chin for a few weeks. So I tell her, she needs to put down a deposit. The chin was $150, so she needed to put down $75. She sent $15. Was not happy about that, and I told her, she needs to send more money to keep that chin on hold, because I don't let people hold chins for 10%. So, she says she'll send more in another few days. So then, a few days before pickup, she decides she also wants my black velvet female, and asks if I can put the two together and see how they do. They do fine. So then, this same person who, mind you, has just told me they have no money, tells me they went, the previous day, to a large chinchilla ranch, and purchased four chinchillas. Now, even if they bought cheap chins, there's no way they paid less than $100 per chin, so at least $400 spent. But this person could not manage to put down more than a $15 deposit for me. But I leave it alone, because I think, well, I'm going to see her in a few days and she's going to get these two chins. Then I get a text, oh her one chin was sick, had to be put down. She wasn't sure if the cagemate was sick as well, so she wanted to watch her, but besides that, didn't want to bring in any more chins at the moment. Mind you, after just bringing in four chins from a large ranch after she had already agreed and put a (miniscule) deposit down on the one I had here. She ended up saying, oh maybe she'll come to Nationals and pick up some chins then. Not from ME she won't. I am DONE.
And here's the thing. I tried to be nice. When she put down the $15, I told her, breeders are not going to let you do this shit. I told her to send $75, she sent $15 -- I told her, you do this for anyone else and that chin will not be on hold for you. Heck, most chins I've ever had on hold from another breeder, for example, one that I'd pick up at a show, I've either paid for completely or had a significant deposit down on (and pay the rest at pickup). No $15 on a $150 animal, nope. And she always said, oh she appreciated me being helpful and willing to work with her and all that. Uh-huh. Appreciated it enough to walk all over me and go buy chins from a larger breeder (who I guarantee had her pay in full) while telling me she couldn't pay the money for mine at the moment. Not dealing with her again, nope.
I should mention, I write a lot about the bad apples. I realize that. But most people are very sweet and very nice and very understanding. Multiple people email, call, text, wanting to adopt. They show up, pick out a chin, fill out the adoption form, get supplies, a cage, what have you. And so on their merry way with a chin. Nothing bad about it. It's just one of those things, the bad ones stick out like sore thumbs cause when they're bad apples, they're not just people who email once and dissapear, they email like 40 times and waste hours of my time, and THEN disappear.
Anyway, that's about it for now. Have people coming today, so need to get ready for them.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Updates and going on's.
So, I know it's February, and I know the store isn't back open yet. Hopefully soon. But lots of other things have been going on.
As you may have noticed, we have a current sale on chins. Lots of chins available, lots more that I've taken pics of and have notes on... just need to write up descriptions and get them all listed. Sounds really quick and simple but it really isn't...
Had a few people lately that I've been talking to and mentioning how if I only had to do the orders, or if I only had to deal with adoptions, basically one or the other, things would go quicker. Things wouldn't get behind (or at least, as far behind). So they were asking what else goes on that takes up my time... so the other day, I wrote down the different things that I was doing. Some of which pertain more to my own chins than to the rescue ones, but since when I sell mine, the money goes to the rescue... it's still related.
So... the other day I was going around to all the runs and looking to see which needed closed off. See, when a female has babies, typically you want to make sure you close off the run (and the male chin) from her within a day or two. But easier said than done, because I don't always have the run close-offs handy, so that's one of those things that sometimes get done on day 2. Anyway, so I was going around looking for ones to shut off, and I noticed Ace's run had two chins in it. Like IN the run. Well, that sure ain't right. So, I could tell which one was Ace, and which one wasn't, so I tried to corral the female back into her cage. Well... she somehow got in the run with her collar on, and couldn't seem to get back through the run-hole with that stinkin collar on. I could see that the rivet was out of the collar, but this specific female is known for biting, so I didn't want to really chance getting too close to her head, because you know, sharp pointy teeth attached. So I had the runway forks in there and tried and tried and tried to get her to jump back in her own cage. Cause come on, she got in the run with that collar on, she could surely get out of the run with that collar on.
She refused.
So, that's one of my older sets of runs, which are on stands on wheels. So, I moved everything to the left of the left set of runs, and scooted that entire stand over about a foot. So I had about a foot of space to work with in between these two runs. Now, the top run is just clipped closed, because it used to be clipped together... so it's not ringed together (which would be more difficult to open and close). So I come back to the front of the cages and corral Ace into the other female's cage and close off that hole, so they had to stay in there. The idea being, so I could corral the female that was in the run, all the way to the one side and open the run and grab her out that way. And then, before she took a chunk out of me, get her back into her cage. Well, I go to the side. Get on the step stool, open the run, grab the runway forks to corral her to the left... and she jumps back into her cage! AHHHHHHH.
So then I moved everything back, opened up the run hole Ace was in, and got this female a new collar.
Then, at the same time I was checking which ones I needed to close, I was checking some of these chins to see if they were pregnant. Not like you see some breeders palpitate them, I don't do that, but I'll stick my hand under their belly, and it does feel noticeably different if they are pregnant. And they hop around but you try to get a quick little feel and see, and fingers crossed for some of these girls.
Then I came across one that was matted. And my chins all have regular dust baths, so it's worth mentioning that matting isn't always the result of bad care. Sometimes they just mat. So I spent time working those mats out of her fur before I was able to move on.
Then I found a female who I'd brought in a bit ago as a new breeder, and never opened up her run hole. Oops! Opened that.
Then I found some babies!! Who-hoo!! One of Bentley's females (standard x standard pairing) had four, get that, FOUR babies! Ok, that itself I'm not that happy with, because that's quite hard on the mom to raise that many, if she even can raise that many, but this was a few days ago now, and so far, so good! All standards, though that's all you could get out of this pairing, and they all look good! And then Marty (med ebony) and one of his dark ebony females also had two babies, a dark ebony and a medium ebony. Also looking good, very happy with them as well.
And then because someone made a comment the other day on the phone, asking what a curly looked like...
...they can be more or less curly, but this gives you an idea...
And then one last thing, before I go. Let me remind you all, that this is a rescue. When you adopt a chinchilla, you fill out and sign the adoption contract, which states, among other things, that if you need to return the chinchilla, you will do so without return of money. Which also means, we're not doing anything like a trade! I can't believe I even have to say that. But let me tell you -- I had someone message me yesterday asking if one of the baby chins was still available, one of the ones that was $200 on sale. I told them yeah, and they said they had adopted a pair of chins from me, and now they weren't getting along so well, and now they thought that it would be better to just have one. So they wanted to know, could they surrender the pair and get the baby instead? I told them, sure they could... but they'd have to pay for the baby. Look, here's the thing. It doesn't matter that the pair they adopted, they paid $200 for. That doesn't make any difference, we're not swapping chins. Try going to the humane society, and tell them, you adopted a dog awhile back, but it's not working out... so you want to bring it back, and just swap it for another one. They will look at you like you've lost your mind. And rightfully so. That's just not how it works.
And that's all for today... til next time... which hopefully will be sooner than it has been lately....
As you may have noticed, we have a current sale on chins. Lots of chins available, lots more that I've taken pics of and have notes on... just need to write up descriptions and get them all listed. Sounds really quick and simple but it really isn't...
Had a few people lately that I've been talking to and mentioning how if I only had to do the orders, or if I only had to deal with adoptions, basically one or the other, things would go quicker. Things wouldn't get behind (or at least, as far behind). So they were asking what else goes on that takes up my time... so the other day, I wrote down the different things that I was doing. Some of which pertain more to my own chins than to the rescue ones, but since when I sell mine, the money goes to the rescue... it's still related.
So... the other day I was going around to all the runs and looking to see which needed closed off. See, when a female has babies, typically you want to make sure you close off the run (and the male chin) from her within a day or two. But easier said than done, because I don't always have the run close-offs handy, so that's one of those things that sometimes get done on day 2. Anyway, so I was going around looking for ones to shut off, and I noticed Ace's run had two chins in it. Like IN the run. Well, that sure ain't right. So, I could tell which one was Ace, and which one wasn't, so I tried to corral the female back into her cage. Well... she somehow got in the run with her collar on, and couldn't seem to get back through the run-hole with that stinkin collar on. I could see that the rivet was out of the collar, but this specific female is known for biting, so I didn't want to really chance getting too close to her head, because you know, sharp pointy teeth attached. So I had the runway forks in there and tried and tried and tried to get her to jump back in her own cage. Cause come on, she got in the run with that collar on, she could surely get out of the run with that collar on.
She refused.
So, that's one of my older sets of runs, which are on stands on wheels. So, I moved everything to the left of the left set of runs, and scooted that entire stand over about a foot. So I had about a foot of space to work with in between these two runs. Now, the top run is just clipped closed, because it used to be clipped together... so it's not ringed together (which would be more difficult to open and close). So I come back to the front of the cages and corral Ace into the other female's cage and close off that hole, so they had to stay in there. The idea being, so I could corral the female that was in the run, all the way to the one side and open the run and grab her out that way. And then, before she took a chunk out of me, get her back into her cage. Well, I go to the side. Get on the step stool, open the run, grab the runway forks to corral her to the left... and she jumps back into her cage! AHHHHHHH.
So then I moved everything back, opened up the run hole Ace was in, and got this female a new collar.
Then, at the same time I was checking which ones I needed to close, I was checking some of these chins to see if they were pregnant. Not like you see some breeders palpitate them, I don't do that, but I'll stick my hand under their belly, and it does feel noticeably different if they are pregnant. And they hop around but you try to get a quick little feel and see, and fingers crossed for some of these girls.
Then I came across one that was matted. And my chins all have regular dust baths, so it's worth mentioning that matting isn't always the result of bad care. Sometimes they just mat. So I spent time working those mats out of her fur before I was able to move on.
Then I found a female who I'd brought in a bit ago as a new breeder, and never opened up her run hole. Oops! Opened that.
Then I found some babies!! Who-hoo!! One of Bentley's females (standard x standard pairing) had four, get that, FOUR babies! Ok, that itself I'm not that happy with, because that's quite hard on the mom to raise that many, if she even can raise that many, but this was a few days ago now, and so far, so good! All standards, though that's all you could get out of this pairing, and they all look good! And then Marty (med ebony) and one of his dark ebony females also had two babies, a dark ebony and a medium ebony. Also looking good, very happy with them as well.
 |
| the quads with mom |
And then because someone made a comment the other day on the phone, asking what a curly looked like...
...they can be more or less curly, but this gives you an idea...
And then one last thing, before I go. Let me remind you all, that this is a rescue. When you adopt a chinchilla, you fill out and sign the adoption contract, which states, among other things, that if you need to return the chinchilla, you will do so without return of money. Which also means, we're not doing anything like a trade! I can't believe I even have to say that. But let me tell you -- I had someone message me yesterday asking if one of the baby chins was still available, one of the ones that was $200 on sale. I told them yeah, and they said they had adopted a pair of chins from me, and now they weren't getting along so well, and now they thought that it would be better to just have one. So they wanted to know, could they surrender the pair and get the baby instead? I told them, sure they could... but they'd have to pay for the baby. Look, here's the thing. It doesn't matter that the pair they adopted, they paid $200 for. That doesn't make any difference, we're not swapping chins. Try going to the humane society, and tell them, you adopted a dog awhile back, but it's not working out... so you want to bring it back, and just swap it for another one. They will look at you like you've lost your mind. And rightfully so. That's just not how it works.
And that's all for today... til next time... which hopefully will be sooner than it has been lately....
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