Specific Ages

I've had this happen from time to time, so I wanted to mention it...

Had someone email the other day asking for a female chin, could I send pics?  Well, out of 30ish chins available... at least half are female... so I asked, what are they looking for?  I asked if they could be more specific as far as age or color.  I get an email back, they're looking for a "standout color" chinchilla, not a grey because that's what they have, and chin should be 18 months.

The 18 months is what this post is about.  I don't know if people are trying to match the age of the chinchilla they have at home, and want the two to be the same age for some reason, but age is a hard thing to match up.  You want a beige?  Oh, sorry, I don't have, but I have a lighter tan!  Some things you can use similar, and still make people happy, but when people want a specific age, they often want that exact age.

I've heard people tell me, they want two chins the same age because they'll grow old together and, apparently, die around the same time, so one won't have to live without the other.  Now, not to burst anyone's bubble... but even if you have two siblings, where genetics really doesn't come into play that much as it might with two random chinchillas.... one can die at 3 years old and the other can make it to 20 years and still be going strong.  Just because they're the same age does not necessarily mean they will both live to be ripe old chins together and die within a week of each other.  That'd be nice, but it doesn't tend to happen.

Anyway, so I looked through the chins here... I have a pair of grey females who are roughly around that age, but they didn't want grey (or a pair), and the only other one I had that matched the age (forget color for a second here) was a beige female.  For most people, beige is hardly a "standout color," as they'd worded it, but I sent them an email back, mentioning that that one, single chin, was the only non-grey chin that I have, that is right about 18 months old.

I also suggested, if they're at all willing to expand their age range, I have alllllll sorts of colors in the younger ages, and for older adults, if they went up to 3-4 years of age (which I realize is doubling the age, but for animals that live to 20 years, it's a drop in the bucket), I have two ebonies... a medium / dark and an extra dark, available, as well as a mosaic / white ebony, and any of those would be more of the "standout" color they are looking for.

This all said, if they're really set on the 18 months, then these are not what they are looking for.  And that's fine.  Though it's useful to realize that while I may have everything under the sun, out of probably 30-40 chins that could be available (including ones not ready), there's only three that age.  If they asked for a 2 year old, or 6 year old, or a 1 year old, I have none.  While of course, I'm happy for people to inform me of what they specifically want, it's useful to keep in mind that with only (only! haha) 30-40 chins to pick from, and many of the adults being rescues that people have surrendered after getting tired of them (the average age of a rescue chin is 3-5 years old... most people don't get tired of the chin and decide to give it up, for free, at the age of 6 months), there may not be chins of each and every age, oh and at that specific age, each and every color available.  Just so everyone's aware.  So, we shall see what happens with this person.