Messages!

Hey all!

Just wanted to give a quick announcement -- if you ever call, or text, or email, or whatever... and DON'T hear back... try again!

I occasionally get someone, like today, where they send an email.  The email basically says, in so many words, that hey they reached out through the contact us form on the website... and they haven't heard back.

Now, sometimes, I admit, we get behind.  Well, *I* get behind, there's no "we" in checking and responding to emails / messages / etc.  Especially after long expo weekends, or vacations, or whatever.

Anyway... the thing is, I can check for messages that come through my website, through either the adoption forms or the contact us forms... and sure as shit, I WAS able to find the person's initial message.  However... I NEVER received the notification of such. 

You see, normally someone submits a form, and I receive an email which includes whatever they typed and their contact info.  Most of the time this works!  But sometimes... I guess not.  The same can go for messages and whatnot.  People have sworn up and down that they've left a voicemail... that is completely in-existent. 

I definitely do not mean to ignore anyone, so if you've ever felt like that, I apologize.. and likely was just behind... or possibly didn't ever get the message. 

So if you don't hear back and you still need something -- reach out again!  Thanks!

Donations vs. Recurring Donations

So, awhile back, we talked about how a customer suggested that I set up the ability for people to be able to sign up for recurring donations.

...we're now talking about it again, because someone... well... either didn't realize what they did, or didn't know how to cancel it, or... something.

So, someone signed up for recurring donations, of $5 / monthly, back in October.  October donation comes through, no problem.  November donation comes through... and the person opens a PayPal case against me, saying that I caused them an unauthorized transaction.

Somehow, one would think that PayPal would be able to view the history and see that this person signed themselves up for the recurring transaction, but whatever...  I logged on, and there were several options.  One of the options was simply to refund the transaction.  It didn't say that refunding admitted fault, or anything of that nature, it just said, you can refund the transaction.  Stupid me, I thought that would make it go away... so I did.

I also sent an email to the PayPal account that had started that recurring donation, advising them that I believed that THEY had to cancel the recurring donations, as they had started them.  I did not receive a response.

A couple days later, I received a message from PayPal-- see below --

-- it says they debited the amount from my account.  As in... the refund I sent?  Or a second time?  Not sure, since my PayPal account is showing a ton of stuff pending right now...  AND, did you also notice the $20 penalty they are throwing at me for this?  That's bullshit.  I refunded to end the thing... had I realized there would be a penalty in just refunding and moving on -- even though this transaction was NOT me fraudulently charging someone's account -- I would have contested it.

Maybe this isn't clear to a lot of people, so I want to show you a screenshot of my site, and how it looks if you go to donate (and I love everyone who donates!  Just don't get me a penalty of $20 for your $5 donation, please!).  The donations page is here -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/donations.htm --:

Let's just make that even a bit clearer, as I know that's teeny...

So as I have marked, the one on the left, where it simply says "Donate" -- this is meant for a one time donation.  Of course, you are welcome to go back as often as you'd like, and donate more, if that's your thing (and we wouldn't complain a bit), but the point is, it does not re-occur for you.  Now, if you would rather set up a recurring donation, the one on the left, which says "Donate $__  month / $___ USD -- monthly" -- that is for recurring donations.  That bar is a drop down menu where you can select the amount you'd like for your recurring donation.  Then, that day that you set it up, the amount you selected comes out of your account... and that happens every month following, on the same date.  So if your first donation is 10/1, then your second will be 11/1, and then 12/1, until you stop the recurring donations.

I guess to me, recurring means, well... you know... it re-occurs.  It's going to happen again.  That's why it says "monthly," right?  Well anyway, please only select that one if you really do want to donate monthly to our rescue. 

I somehow was able to turn off this person's recurring donations -- thankfully -- but I would rather not do this again.  In the future, should this happen.  I will try to again, figure out how to turn them off... but I'm not so sure that I will just "refund" -- because of that penalty.  Mind you, it's not that I DON'T want to refund (like, say, if someone wants to stop their recurring donation and is unsure how... though I'm not sure opening a case is the best way to do that, but I digress)... but if I get enough of these cases opened and decided against me... that will be the end of my PayPal account.  That will be the end of the webstore, and Etsy, and all that.  So please, watch what you are selecting.  Thank you!

Food Bowls

This is one of those things that probably very few people notice, unless you really are eyeballing the website and watching for changes... but we now have new food bowls.

The place we used to get the previous ones has gone a bit... wonky... since I ordered the time before (probably about a year ago).  When I looked at it recently, you could only add one food bowl at a time to the cart, it shows $0 shipping (that can't be right... maybe with a minimum quantity, but not for one item), and you had to "check out" with a credit card for that one food bowl.  No ability to add other items, no ability to put in an address... just a spot for credit card info, to pay for one item, and nothing else.  Maybe not for everyone, but for me... it seemed a bit sketchy.  Yeah, no.  Not doing that.

Not to mention, I'd usually order like, 20-40 at a time (depending on price, how much money I can afford to swing at that given time, etc), so I can't order one at a time, and have 20 transactions, even if that did work out.  Now, before you think that I just moved on, I didn't -- I emailed the site using their contact us form, said what I was seeing and asked if there was a way to change the quantity and whatnot.  No response.  Even checked junk mail.  Nothing.

Weeks passed. 

I basically forgot about this... until someone ordered two food bowls.  By some grace of God, I had two hiding in one of my expo totes.  But the time had come to change the listing!

Unfortunately, that also meant the price had to change.  I can no longer find neutral colored food bowls / stoneware in the type I want, at the price I was able to get.  Is it a huge difference in price?  No.  But now I'm paying almost $4 per bowl (not including shipping), and before, I was selling them at $4 per bowl (and making a small profit for the rescue, even with shipping figured in).  So unfortunately, that itself could not continue.  

The price of the bowls has now risen to $5, however -- and I can hear that collective groan out there... stop it! -- the QUALITY of the bowls has also risen!  The new bowls are heavier, gorgeous stoneware bowls.  They come individually packed, each in their own bubble wrap, each in their own bowl-box, which is all inside a larger box.  So, you will no longer hear me whining about ordering bowls and 2/3 of them coming broken -- this packaging and these higher quality bowls should prevent this.

So, without further adieu, I present to you, our new $5 food bowls:

Aren't they pretty?  The chins in the future will thank us for having nice heavy duty bowls.  That is all for today.

Donuts!

You know what's kind of funny, is talking to people sometimes.  I had someone call the other day and they were asking about various colors of chins, and they got to the point where they were mentioning what they were looking for.

Them:  so, I'd like a violet male, and then for the second one, maybe an extra dark ebony, or one with a spot on it.

Me:  so like a white?

Them:  well, any color with a spot.

Me:  well, whites are the only ones that can have spots, the others are uniform colors.

Them:  oh, ok, well how about a solid white one and then a violet, let me get one of each of those?

Me:  I'll take one of each of those too, do you know where we can get the hookup?

Them:  *laughs*

---It reminded me of someone picking out donuts.  Oh I'll take the bavarian creme, and that one over there with sprinkles, and...

The thing is, this person just thought I had oodles of chins upon oodles of chins, and if they said they wanted two adult males, in the colors mentioned, I just had them in the wings and could find two of those specific colors that would get along. 

I wish!

If you've followed us for any length of time, you probably know that most of our rescues are grey.  Even the ones that we get in that aren't grey... well, they tend to be an ebony.  Like, a medium ebony, or a sapphire, or something that can easily be mistaken for a grey.  They rarely are solid whites, and if they are...well... usually there's a not-so-great personality to match.  Not saying we've never gotten in any fun colors with nice personalities... but the average person with a solid white chin, likely knows 10 other people that will take that chin, long before the will take it to rescue.  You know why?  Because I also know a ridiculous amount of people that would take a solid white chin, before I'd ever have to list it.  That's just how it goes.

I also had someone ask if we ever got angoras in through the rescue.  Not yet!  Maybe one day, when they're not a fortune each, but at the current time... nope.  Sorry! 

The thing is, most chins here are pretty basic colors. And that's fine, they all deserve love!  Unfortunately, that means, there's not a lot to pick from.  Usually in the fall (like, now) we have more of a variety of colors, and right now, it's kind of slim pickings, so we got a good laugh out of the guy donut-picking chins.  Nothing wrong with having specific wants!  Just, we can't always meet those wants.  I get people wanting to go to a rescue for their new family member... but there's a lot less of the fancy stuff in rescue.  That is all.

Houses!

What did we do today?  We built houses!  Lots of houses!  And hay holders! 

We try to build quite a few at once, so we have them ready for when people want them.  They dry for 24 hours and then go on the shelving until someone requests one.  Yay for houses!! 

Creative Thinking!

This came up a little bit ago... when we had our remaining two rats here out of the Mom + babies group... the two left were the most shy of the bunch and the most reclusive.  Mom liked to nibble on hands.  Not bite, mind you, as you will KNOW if a rat wants to bite you and you WILL be bleeding... but just reach out and chew on you, gently.

The difference between people coming by who were somewhat familiar with rats, and very familiar with rats, was interesting to see.  The sort of familiar ones were scared of Mom.  To them, she was going to "bite them" and they did their best to keep away from her.  One set of people actually brought treats to try to lure the rats (as I had listed that they were more or less un-socialized -- other than our efforts here -- and very shy and leery)... well when Mom kept coming up to them and making them nervous, they'd hand her a treat, so she'd leave them alone.  Well, Mom got smart and showed actually a ridiculous amount of interest in them (smart little thing).  So they'd hand her a treat, and she'd go put it aside and come right back up.  It was kind of funny to see!

Anyway, we got down to the last two rats, Mom and one of the female babies.  So, I changed the ad to list them as having to go to the same home as a pair.  Got a text message the one morning about someone asking if we still had some of the rats.  I had updated the listing on my site, though the listings on other sites still listed the normal ad and said check website for updates on who's remaining.  So I told this person, we still had Mom and a young rat, and they needed to go together.  I mentioned how they were shy and needed a home that understood that, as the past people were very wary about this.  She said they understood.  I told them about the adoption form, they filled it out and everything, and we made an appointment for them to come see the rats.

When they came to see the rats, these people were like night and day to the others.  Not afraid of Mom and her nipping... to the point that the rats were comfortable enough with them, to go back to their hammock to sleep.  Well, these people decided they did want to take the two of them home, which led us to the next issue -- how to get them out of the cage.  But in very rat person fashion, they had an idea!  They wanted to know if they could buy the hammock, so we could just transport them in their hammock!  What a great idea!

The hammock had already been chewed and used and I wasn't going to have them buy it, I told them they could have it, and unhooked the hammock with the rats still comfortably nestled inside.  I was able to put that in the carrier, no problem whatsoever, and that made for the easiest transition for those nervous rats into the carrier ever!  It worked great! 

Sometimes thinking outside the box can yield great results!!

Gates! Cages! Latches!!

So, I was talking with someone about this the other day, about animals getting out of their cages.  They asked, does that ever happen here?  Sure!  Even though I'd like to think we secure our cages well, it's not always me closing all the cages, and sometimes animals are crafty and can get out.

We even have springs on the doors of certain cages, where despite the fact that I can't picture how the animals get out... they sometimes do.  It happens.

Sometimes it's out faulty closing of the cages... sometimes it's just the cage design.  Certain cage designs are of the type where if the animal shakes the cage, juuuust enough, the cage will open.  Or whatnot. 

It happens!  If you have an animal get out, don't fret!  Rather, find a way to secure it!

We even had this problem with our fence gate.  You see, we have a double gate at the back of the property, which opens wide.  Well... if the wind hits it just right, that gate can even be LOCKED... and it will blow open.  This happened a couple times, irritating every time of course, until one morning I went outside and the gate was wide open. 

Thankfully, I had peered outside, rather than just letting the dogs out.  But, rather than be like omgggg, I fixed it.

For the wind to open this latch, the entire chain would have to be lifted vertically 2 inches on the right hand side.  Prooobably not happening. 

I mention this, because the same thing is true of chinchilla (and other animal) cages.  No matter the cage, I guarantee you there is some way to secure the door, in which the animals cannot get out.  You just have to figure out what works for you!

Blowing Out Filters!

One thing that many people don't think of when owning chins, well, a LOT of chins, is how much dust is constantly in the air.  Much of this, of course, is from their dust bath.  But in addition, there's dust in shavings, in their dander, and so on and so forth.

Because of this, I change my furnace filters, often.  You will find, people who have a furnace running near their chinchillas (like, someone with a herd / group of chins), will also be doing the same.

To save money, we blow out our filters with an air compressor.

That's Jim blowing out my filters.  The bottom one REALLY needed done, as you can see.  

My furnace has that much dust and ick on the filters, since my chins are downstairs.  Most people's won't be that bad, but we blow them out and re-use, so that we can change them more often, and give the chins (and us!) better air to breathe.  That's something you know now :)

Waiting List

So, this was something different that I don't believe I've experienced before, so I wanted to write about it.

This morning, I was calling people on the waiting list, to tell them we had room for their chins.  For two numbers, I called the number... several rings... and then you could tell, they declined the call.  They didn't send it to voicemail, they just declined the call.  Called back, even less rings, declined the call.

So for both people, I sent a text message, detailing who I was and why I was calling.  So far, no response.

While I understand people don't always pick up numbers they are unfamiliar with... declining phone calls from those numbers, while the person is on a waiting list at a rescue, does no good for anyone.  I suppose this can tie into the post from the other day, where I talked about one thing affecting many others -- I give everyone on the waiting list 3 days to respond.  So, if the person doesn't respond (because, to be fair, they can  respond and say "no longer need to bring the chinchilla in"), that pushes the next person back at least three days.  Multiply this by multiple people who don't respond, and then not only does it seem pointless to even have a waiting list sometimes, but also makes it so that people who really DO want to bring their animals in, have to wait forever to do so.

I even have one person who emailed me in the middle of October... they were on my list and wanted to check where they were on the list, because they were "really in a bind" and needed to bring the chins in ASAP.  So we exchanged a couple emails... and then I didn't hear from them for like 10ish days.  So I called them.  They said they had some stuff going on, and hadn't had a chance to get back to emails.  Ok.  So we talked about when they could bring them in.  Oh, maybe the 2nd or 3rd, if not then, maybe the 16th.  What happened to being in a bind? 

Now, I understand that people have lives outside of chinchillas, and other things to do.  I do.  But it's so easy to get frustrated when someone acts all rush-rush to get their chinchilla in... and then suggests a day, a month out, when they miiiiight be able to bring it in.

And maybe it's just me that looks at it like this, but the point of a waiting list is so that when you get the phone call... you bring it in.  Reasonably soon.  Not like, you bring it in, at whatever your convenience is, in the next couple months.  Unfortunately, it's that sort of thing that makes the waiting list take so long to get through! 

Holes in Wood Shelves & Houses

Someone asked the other day, how do we create the holes in our wood shelves and houses?  With drill presses!  Like this:

Even people sometimes want holes in kind of oddball things, we can do that too:

What do YOU want a hole in?  Haha.

"Blue"

When we talk about a chinchilla being "blue" or having that sort of coloration, a lot of people can't quite grasp what that means.  I get it!  It's one of those things that can help to "see" to understand.

But I found a great example for you all!  At Jim's house, here's some lights:

I'm pretty sure, in looking at that pic, you can see that the light on the left has warmer / yellow tones and the light on the right has cooler / blue tones.

Is it bright blue?  No.  The same is true on an animal.  Are we expecting robin's egg blue?  No.  But you can definitely tell the difference in the lights, and the same is true on animals!  It's easier to see on the lights, which is why I give that as an example, but you can also see this on chins.  The easiest way to see this (to an untrained eye) would be to put chinchillas under show lights and look at them that way.  By the way, blue is desirable.  Yellow / red coloration is not.

Curlies!

If you've been here lately, you may have seen that Sheep, our resident curly, is back.  Sorry, no pic of her, cause she still hates me. 

I wanted to bring this up, because everyone sees her, and she looks like a sheep (in case you've never seen her) and wants curlies like that.  Heck, I do too!  I get it!  However, most curlies do not look like that.  Most curlies look more like this:

... see the curl on the belly?  Maybe you'd only call that "wave" -- that's a typical curly.  Disappointed?  Yeah, me too. 

Often, curly babies are born super curly... and then as they dust, and as they grow, the fur sort of relaxes.  Sort of how a perm can relax over time.  That's curlies!  It'd be nice if they all stayed curly, but often, just like you see in the photo, we end up with just a bit of curl / wave on the belly, and that's it.  Maybe one day there'll be more!  But so far, this is it for the majority of them...

No Call No Shows, and Deposits

So, if you've talked to me lately, you know my patience / tolerance has gone down to an all-time low.  We've had more tire kickers, missed appointments, "family emergencies" *rolls eyes* and whatnot, and not only is it frustrating to me... it's unfair to the animals.

I think I posted about the one rat, where he had a deposit put on him, and then the person missed the 14 day cutoff for pickup, then asked for an extension to the weekend, then missed their weekend appointment.  They didn't respond to my question if they were still coming, so I sent another message, basically saying they had so many days to pick him up, and whatnot.  They then replied, saying they had been evicted, lost their place, had a cat and worried about his safety, yadda yadda.  That may all be true, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they're lying.  But think about the rat.  How many people, in the meantime, could have potentially adopted him... if they'd just told me all of this, earlier on?  And yes, in case you're wondering, there WERE people who asked about him in that time, that I told, oh he's on hold.  Well... he's still here.

Fast forward to today... took him off hold when this happened, and had someone else come and want to adopt him.  We set the appointment for today for pickup.  They called yesterday to ask, could they come a half hour later than their scheduled time.  I told them, that was fine, though I had someone a half hour after that, so it would need to be a quick appointment.  No problem.  I suppose you know from my writing this, they didn't show.

So I texted them... they had a family emergency.  Because of course they did.  Now... I realize, family emergencies do happen.  But apparently, they happen at some exponentially high rate to people who are adopting animals, as almost every missed appointment is due to a family emergency.  What's the chance?  Not very good.  Someone, out of those people, is not being completely honest.

So I replied saying I was sorry to hear, and asked when they wanted to reschedule.  I still have not heard back. 

I feel like I talked about this at an earlier point in time, this year, and maybe I intended to put it up... but never did....  We are now going to implement the policy that if you have a deposit on an animal, and then no-call no-show your appointment, you forfeit the deposit.  In case you think this is overly harsh, let me tell you, this would only have affected like 3-5 people in the course of the last 16 years... so no, it's not going to completely change how we do things and affect a ton of animals... but hopefully it will entice people to send a message when something happens.  Do things come up?  Sure!  But does it only take 30 seconds to send a text?  Also sure!  And it's really that simple.  Don't want to lose your deposit?  Call when you can't come.  That's all... it's really that simple.

How What You Do Affects Others

So, I know I go on and on about people missing appointments or showing up late, or whatnot, and yes, that is annoying (though most people do show up, albeit often late), but I wanted to share a real life example, which actually kind of upset me, of how something one person did, affected several other people / animals.

I have two seniors at the rescue right now, Mojo (12 years) and Dobie (13-14 years).  Both standard grey chins, very nice boys, but, well, seniors.  Seniors take a long time to be adopted, if they ever get adopted, unless we get people who are intentionally looking for seniors.  It does happen, but it's not as often as the people looking for the oh-so-cute babies.

Anyway, someone called the one day, asking about senior chins.  I was like YIPPEEE cause I actually HAD some seniors (sometimes people call and want seniors, and I don't have any... and then get in some right after).  So we scheduled her for Sunday evening.

Now, Saturday evening, I had an adoption going on, where one of my fosters was bringing their foster chin back to the rescue to be adopted, and was going to take home new fosters.  Because I was assuming the Sunday person would show up, and would want to see both seniors, and pick which one she wanted to take home, I did not send a senior home with the foster home.  I wanted to!  But I thought I had an adopter lined up, and didn't want to pass that up.  So, I sent a trio of chins home with the foster anyway.  I'm sure they will benefit, just fine, from more one-on-one attention, but not as much, IMO, as a senior that is already at the end of their life, and we want to make the end as great as the beginning.

I'm sure you have gathered from reading thus far, that the Sunday appointment did not show up.  Nor did they call / text to say the would not be showing up.  Nor did they answer my call / text to see if they wanted to reschedule.  I have choice words for that.

They probably think, no big deal, because the chins may be adopted by someone else.  And they may be.  But there are a limited number of fosters, and all of them have recently taken new chins.  So, figure, it'll likely be a couple months before either senior gets another chance to go into a foster home.  Now, maybe they'll be adopted before that happens.  That would be super!  But by one person not showing up for their appointment, she likely set these chins back a couple months from being in a home environment.  And to me, that's not ok.  Why is it so hard to call?

Pic of Mojo below (haven't taken pics of Dobie yet, he's still under health evaluation):

Lots of Chins!

So, this was kinda funny.  When I was at the Wisconsin show at the beginning of the month, I had another breeder tell me that one of my customers went to her, to get another chin.  Why?

Because we are very nice here, but we have too many chins and they didn't understand how we care for them all.

Ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Now let me share why that's funny.  At last count, we had around 60 chins, and around 120 animals total (guinea pigs, prairie dogs, rats, etc).  The breeder they went to?  700+ chinchillas.  And remember, the reason they went there was because was they wanted to go to a place that had less chinchillas and had more time to spend with the animals.

Here's the thing -- here at NWI Chins, we are VERY transparent.  We let everyone into our rescue, you get to see the animals, where they live, and whatnot.  Most places, well, simply do not.  At the show, I talked with quite a few breeders and even a few people who run rescues, and most people will bring out a chinchilla that someone wants -- oh they want to see a beige?  let me go get it for you -- rather than let the person in with the animals.  Or they meet, away from the home.  So what you see here is VERY different than the norm.  But I try to be transparent.

Think about those people who don't let you in.  Now, by no means am I saying they have anything to hide.  I am NOT saying they abuse animals, or have poor conditions, or anything like that.  But very simply, people who have never been to a large-scale animal operation are often shocked to see large numbers of animals, often in smaller cages, packed into a large room / barn.  So, they don't let those people in.  The meet at a parking lot, or in their kitchen, or whatever.  So, the consumer sees that and doesn't realize, oh there's hundreds more.

Compared to almost every breeder / rescue I know, we are SMALL.  Does that surprise you?  I think the reason it often does surprise people is because we have "so many"... but because we are transparent and let people in, it is OBVIOUS that we have that many.  When a rescue / shelter / breeder only brings out the animal you ask about, and the rest are behind closed doors (doors, mind you, that you are not allowed through), the thought may be that there's not that many.  In reality, there's often many many MANY more than what we have... you just don't see them.  Just something to think about.

Asking for a Discount

So, I have a little story to tell you.  True story, for once, this has nothing to do with chinchillas... though I will, of course, relate it to chinchillas.

So I had someone message me about a dishwasher I have for sale.  The dishwasher is a portable countertop one, and retails for $300 new.  This one that I had was in pristine condition, worked great... I just never hooked it up (and for how long it sat around, probably never would).  So I put it up on fb marketplace for $125. 

The first offer for it was $20, which naturally, was simply no.

The second person messaged me, told me their name, asked if it was interested, and said they had a couple questions.  Ok, so I asked what the questions were.  His first message was basically, "well, there's one for sale for $50, yours is $125."  So I responded, saying, "why don't you get the one for $50?  I'm not sure what your question is."  He responded by saying that he lived near me, and the other one was in downtown Chicago (30 mins away) and he'd rather get the closer one.  So I responded saying that I wasn't going to drop the price to $50, sorry.  He responded, "get used to people going and buying the cheaper ones."  Ok, whatever.

Here's the thing though -- this guy wanted me to drop the price $75... for his convenience.  The only benefit to me was that I would sell the item, albeit at 2/3 off.  But he wanted the discount, simply because it would be more convenient to him.

I looked up the ad for the $50 dishwasher, and there really was one.  It had a picture that looked all dingy and dinged up, and absolutely no description.  Did it work?  Who knows?  Did it include the inside racks / trays?  Who knows, cause it only had one pic of the outside.  What struck me is that, yes, it was cheaper, but without messaging the seller and asking more about it, you have no idea what you're getting.

The same goes for chinchillas.  I occasionally get people who will message me and say, "well I really like this chinchilla you have for $200, but I can find one on craigslist for $75 and that includes cage and everything with it."  And I have no doubt they can.  I have actually asked people in the past... if it's such a great deal on craigslist, why are they messaging me?  Well, as you may guess, there is a reason for it.  See, these people like my health guarantee.  And they like the way my animals look healthy, versus the animals on craigslist that, well, don't always.  And they like the variety of colors.  And they like that they're babies, and the one on craigslist is 8 years old.  And they like the fact that I describe what the personalities are like, versus on craigslist, they don't, at all.  But... for some reason, they think that, despite the fact that I have all these additional things to offer, I should offer the chinchilla, with everything, at the super cheap price.  Sorry, but no. 

It's simple... you want additional benefit, you will pay for it.  Not just here.. anywhere!  You buy airline tickets... if you want those refundable, they cost a bit more.  You buy a used car, if you want the extended warranty, it costs more.  Sure, you can get it cheaper, but if it breaks and you don't have that warranty, well, you get the idea.

If you've followed us for any length of time, you know that we have sales, periodically.  So I'm not above lowering prices, at times.  Nothing wrong with that.  But I won't be price-matching people on craigslist any time soon, and just like for the dishwasher guy, I won't lower the price just because there's a better deal elsewhere.  People are welcome to shop wherever they like.  This isn't Walmart, where the margins are sky high.  I'm not sorry about any of that, because this is a small business / small rescue, and it all just is what it is.  That is all.

Low Chinchilla Prices

So, when people email me asking about lower priced chins, that's fine.  Nothing wrong with not wanting to spend $200 on a chinchilla... I mean, most small animals are CONSIDERABLY cheaper than even a $75 chinchilla, so I get it.  But at some point... it gets ridiculous.

I had someone email the other day, asking if we had any chinchillas available under $100.  Sure!  Those would be our standard grey adults, which are $75 for adults and $50 for seniors.  So I wrote up an email for his guy and sent him a list... I think there was like 5-7 chins on the list, mostly adults and one senior.

The response back asked where I was located and if I would lower some prices to 50, please.  I mean, he wasn't mean about it or anything, but... no.  Before I could even send a reply email, I received a second from him saying, "what about this one chin you mentioned?  (a 4 year old, the youngest on the list) how low can you go for her?"  Then ANOTHER email, "or do you have any females under 2 years old for $100 or less"

Now, first, I don't have any females under 2 years old for $100 or less (at least, not at the time I write this).  But also... note.. it has to be a female.  Hmmmmm. 

I hate to say it, but often times the people lowballing like this, are the ones that SEE the chins selling for high prices, and think "OOOOH!! I CAN BREED AND MAKE THOSE PRICES TOO!!  NOW TO GET CHINS DIRT CHEAP!!!"  They don't take into account... there's a reason my chins are selling for certain prices, and when you take $50 chins... the babies often LOOK like they're out of $50 chins (and may have all sorts of health problems to boot).

Anyway, at this point I know that he's not getting any of my chins, so whatever... I replied back saying, "The prices are what they are.  This is not a garage sale, this is a chinchilla rescue.  Would you go to the Humane Society and ask for lower prices?  I bet not.  If you cannot afford $75, you will have a hard time affording the monthly cost to care for a chinchilla."

Now, he did send me back an email saying thank you.... but I mean... no.  The prices of $75 for your average adult are reasonable... especially considering that MOST are not old (our average age is 2-5 years for adults) and they can live 15-20 years!  And I really do believe, if you can't afford that, it's gonna be hell paying for upkeep and all that.  That is all.

Good Things to Know Before Getting a Guinea Pig

So, we had someone reach out to us a bit ago asking about things that we felt she should know before she jumped in head first and got a guinea pig.  I wrote up a reply, and then thought, this would be beneficial for more than just her, so here we go:

First thing I would suggest is to take a look at our guinea pigs care packet, here -- https://www.nwichinchillas.com/guinea-pig-documents -- and I will elaborate on some additional things as well:

They do tend to be (and tend to remain) flighty animals, as far as when you reach in the cage... and this seems to be the case, no matter how much you handle them.  They can be LESS flighty / terrified over time, but it's rare to just be able tor reach in the cage and pet one (to be fair... this is true of most small animals).  Once you pick them up and hold them, most just melt and you can pretty much hold them forever.  That's what makes them so loveable!

They drink a LOT of water.  16 ounces, for a guinea pig or two, is probably a couple days.  We use 32 oz. water bottles on our guinea pig cages, and I feel like I spend half my life filling them (course, I also have a bunch here at the rescue).  Definitely would advise to go bigger on water bottles, as small ones will be a pain to keep filled, right from the get go, and definitely have a spare or two, so you can take one off and wash, and still have another one on there for them to drink (or swap them out, or however you'd like).

They also eat a lot of veggies... about a cup per pig per day.  That adds up quickly, so stock up!  If your family eats a lot of veggies, this may not be a big deal, as you'll already have them in the home, but if not, you will be stocking up weekly at the store, as the stuff they eat isn't all that long lasting, especially the leafy type stuff.  

Because of the water intake, and the veggie intake (which contain a lot of water), they pee and poo, a lot.  The poo is relatively dry, but obviously, pee is pee, and we change our guinea pig cages about 2x per week.  You can definitely tell when they need to be cleaned, as they can get icky quick!  Obviously, the bigger the cage, the less frequent you will have to clean it... if you go with a 30 x 18 cage (which would be similarly sized to what we keep our piggies in), it's going to need the weekly cleaning (if not 2x... depends on your preference as well), but if you move up to a larger cage, you might be able to go 1.5-2 weeks between cleanings, and potentially even longer if you spot clean and just remove the soiled areas.  I think the cleaning, for the guinea pigs, is what takes awhile.... probably no longer than say cleaning a rabbit, but I'm used to chinchillas, and they can go a week... so to me, it seems the guinea pigs get dirty quick!

They make all sorts of cute noises!  Unless those noises are irritating to you, and then... they're less cute.  Haha.  They can easily learn what the sound of the veggie bag is, or scooping pellets, or whatnot.  For us, we use metal coffee cans to haul around the food and scoop from those to feed the animals.  The guinea pigs here know EXACTLY what the sound is when we scoop from our feed bins into those coffee cans and start wheeking away!  Basically, it's one of those "I want something!!" noises.  It's usually cute.  Usually.

They do like to hide, so some sort of hide or igloo is good to have for them... if they get spooked, the first place they run is in their hide, so for security purposes and their wellbeing, there should be a hide.

They need their nails trimmed.  I can't tell you how many guinea pigs I get in with horrible nails, simply because people didn't know it had to be done.  Just periodically, like trimming a dog's nails.

I think that's the main stuff... definitely take a look at the care packet and let me know if you have any additional questions.

Yelp and Other Online Paid Marketing Sites

So, I've had people who've wanted to be helpful, and a lot of people suggest, oh get a paid listing on yelp, get a paid listing on the local paper website, that sort of thing. 

I believe I did post about this way back when (I know I did for yelp, but more specifically for the local paper), we did have ads running on their website... it never generated any real traffic, but it did zap the cash in our wallet.  That was a couple years ago, so that's ended.  Yelp, on the other hand, does have a free version, and periodically, they call me and try to talk me into the paid version, saying that my page will be more visible to more people who would be interested, and yadda yadda.  I know I've talked about this before, because this happens every so often.  Anyway, the thing is, I already get 400000 phone calls asking if (1) we found their lost dog, (2) we can take in their dog / cat, (3) we provide shot / veterinary services to animals, (4) we can help them when there's a loose dog in their yard.  Actually, about 80% of phone calls we receive are that type of phone call.... and I don't think Yelp is helping that.

Oh but it gets better.  When people are on Yelp, and they find your page, they can request a quote for services.  I don't get these often, but maybe 1-2 a month, and they always seem to be completely off the wall things, that of course, we do not do.  I think the last one was that someone was looking for a kitten.  Now, I can reply to these and say, we do not take in (and therefore, do not adopt out) kittens... and I do... but it does say, right on the Yelp page these people are looking at, what we are, what we do, and so on.

This was from a couple days ago:

So, John from San Francisco, CA, is looking for a c-section in zip code 60609 (Chicago, IL).... and they choose to reach out to...  a chinchilla rescue? 

...and they want me to pay, to share my details with MORE people.  Because, um... I wouldn't just end up with more like this?

I once (well, probably multiple times) have expressed my concern about how I'm getting more calls about unrelated issues, things we don't handle, to the Yelp people who incessantly call me, and their response is, "oh well it'd be targeted, you'd be under the "rescue" category" -- I ALREADY AM!  That's why people are calling about cats / dogs / strays / etc.  Um... no.  I'm good.

Picking and Choosing Animals

Now, let me start this by saying, there is nothing wrong with having preferences. 

Say someone wants to adopt a chinchilla -- great!  Let's say they want a grey -- great!  Let's say they want a white -- great!  May take more time for that white to show up at the rescue, but it's possible!  Let's say they want an angora -- eh, getting too picky.

I've noticed this trend lately... and of course, people will want what they want, but the trend has been for wanting things that don't end up in rescue.  "Oh, I want an angora chinchilla... as a rescue."  Well.... they're still like $750+ for those, so... chances are they are not ending up at a rescue.  None have ever ended up here, nor have any ended up at any rescue I've ever been in contact with.  Why?  Because they are sellable.

The one that has really been prevalent lately has been regarding rabbits.  As you may have seen, we have Ellie up for adoption.  So, people have been calling, not wanting to adopt her, mind you, but to ask if we have other rabbits up for adoption.  Specifically, mini lop-eared rabbits, preferably super super young.  Uh, no.  In the 16 years of running this rescue, for about 14 of those, we did take in rabbits (and even now, we still occasionally have them at foster homes)... we have rehomed over 1000 animals.  Only ONE of those was a lop-eared rabbit, and if I remember correctly, he was at least an adult, if not an ancient senior.

The thing is, I appreciate people wanting to adopt.  I do.  But to some extent... I feel like you can't be overly picky.  Rescues and shelters will get in what they get in.  I can't go somewhere and post, "hey, if anyone wants to re-home a baby lop-eared rabbit, I'm happy to take it cause we have a home lined up!"... that's unfortunately not how that works.  Again, a rabbit like that would be highly sellable, cause almost everyone loves lops and those floppy ears.  And that's fine, but that tends to mean that not a lot of little lops, that are also young, tend to end up in rescue.  When we would take in rabbits, a good chunk of the ones we would take in would be cage aggressive, large-breed rabbits that would not do well in the average home.  That's what rescues get!  And that's fine... but it's not the rabbit that homes tend to think of, when they say, "oh I'd like a rabbit."

Adopting is great... the selection, not always so much :/ 

What Does It Cost to Care for a Chinchilla? & Costs of Running the Rescue

I think I once priced this out before, but let's do it again, to sort of piggyback on the previous post. 

The cost to care for one chinchilla per month:

Pellets -- 3 pounds -- $3.75
Hay -- 2 pounds -- $2.00
Dust -- 2 pounds -- $2.50
Chew toy -- $5.00
Bedding -- $8.00
---------------------------------
$21.25

(obviously, this is not including the necessities like water, food bowl, water bottle, that sort of stuff, this is assuming you have all that... this is just monthly cost)

Now, these are the prices if you were to buy the stuff from us... so it is slightly cheaper for us to do it, since we are buying in bulk (and it would be a bit more expensive, if you were to go get these supplies at the pet store).  However, you may or may not know... we do not make a lot of money on stuff!  For example, the last batch of bedding that I bought, I paid I think $7 per bag... and sold at $8... so not making loads of profit here (we are still low on bedding and do not have any to sell, in case you are wondering).  Since we do get stuff at a slightly lower cost, though, let's say it costs $20 to care for one chin per month, just in actual costs (as in, not including cleaning, watering, caring for, etc).

At the time I am writing this, we have...

57 Chinchillas
13 Guinea Pigs
14 Rats
2 Prairie Dogs
11 Birds (4 doves, 7 quail)
1 Hamster

Just to make it easy, let's say they all cost about $20 / month per animal to pay for their food / hay / etc.... and to be fair, most will cost at least that, though some of the animals (like the guinea pigs, which also require fresh food daily) cost considerably more than $20 / month per animal.

This equals out to a total of 98 animals.  At $20 / month / animal, that's $1,960 per month just in actual costs to care for them.  Does that seem high to you?  Not to me, actually... because we tend to average $2,000-$3,000 per month in expenses!  And this isn't counting the electricity, air conditioning, gas for vehicles, event fees, paying paid help, or even vet costs (among other things, of course).

So what do the adoption fees and supply sales pay for?  Paying for all of this!  Basically, keeping the rescue open!  So please, keep this in mind... both when you go to adopt an animal (there will be costs involved in keeping it!  the adoption fee is not the only cost) AND when you think about complaining about prices... there is a reason they are what they are! 

Cost of Chins

So, a lot of people at expos have been asking lately about the cost of chins, why is this one more than this one, and so on.  I know I've talked about this before, but wanted to touch on it again.

Rescues tend to be $75 for greys and $100 for colors.  Almost always.  The exception would be when these are on sale, and then the rescues tend to drop to $65 for greys, $75 for colors.

Babies (which are almost never rescues) start at $135 and go up.  Most are $200 or under, though there are some that go up higher than that, if they're a curly or unusual color, or something of that nature.  Again, these will drop some when there's a sale going on... the $135 ones drop to $110, and ones that are $250 tend to drop to $200 or so.  So they do go down a bit, but not excessively.

The thing lately that people have been saying / commenting on, is they want the babies at the adult prices.  I'll have an adult for $100 and a same-color baby for $250, and they ask if I'll lower the baby to the adult price.  Now, come on... do you go to a shelter and ask them for a cheaper price on the puppies?  Or a breeder?  No?  Well, why not?  Because even the shelters tend to charge more for younger animals / puppies / kittens.... it's nothing new.

Had someone mention a couple days ago that they wanted a baby chinchilla, and asked how much they were... it was actually kind of funny because they told me they'd seen all my ads -- all of which have prices on them -- and so I specified, they start at $135 and go up from there.  Oh, well she'd seen some by her for $70.  Now, that's fine... but I'm not going to drop my price to that.  Long story short, she ended up saying she'd call back if they decided to get one.  I didn't hear back, but that night, I did notice that I also had an email from this person (looked like it was sent prior to the phone call), so I sent a quick response saying that if they ever needed anything, whether the chinchilla or advice, or whatnot, feel free to reach out.  That morning, I got a text that said that the chinchilla was out of their price range, they were looking for a $50 rescue.

Well... as you should know from reading this post... our chins, even the least expensive ones, are over $50.  We occasionally have grey seniors at $50, but mind you, this person wanted a grey baby.  Freshly weaned.  Nothing wrong with that... but it just won't be $50. 

I replied that none of our chins are that cheap, and that ours start at $75 (but again, for an adult... not a baby) and she basically said that that wouldn't work for her family, at the moment.  Again, that's fine... but let's not forget, these chins will live as long as the average dog / cat... so why do we try to pay for them like they're an oversized hamster?  There is definitely cost in caring for them.  Even if you want to say that the food and that sort of thing is cheap-ish (and it's not insanely expensive... until you have a ton of animals), the air conditioning for them IS expensive, as is the electricity bill, as is paying someone to help... it all adds up!  That's why our adoption fees are what they are -- to keep the lights on, keep the animals fed and cared for, and whatnot. 

Odd Responses / Clear Communication

So, I've gotten a couple of these lately, and I'm curious what these mean... for example...

Me:  When are you wanting to come see the chin? (or cage, or whatever?)
Them:  I'm in Chicago.

...and? 

I suppose, to the person saying it, they know exactly what it means.  But word to the wise, not everyone does.

Does this mean, "I'm in Chicago, so I'm closeby and can come any time" OR "I'm in Chicago, so that is WAY TOO FAR, I won't come at all," OR "I'm in Chicago, so I'm letting you know how long it will take me to get there"?  The thing is, I don't know, and there's almost never any context to tell me which one it is. 

So often, I just repeat the question... so, when are you wanting to come by? 

In no way am I saying this to make fun of people or anything of the sort... just sometimes I think that we think we're communicating clearly... and sometimes we're not, and need to think about how others may read what we write.  That is all.

Custom Wood Items

Did you know we can do custom wood items?  We can!

We actually have a page on our website that shows some of the items we've made in the past.  See this page, here --> https://www.nwichinchillas.com/custom-creations

The latest custom request was that someone wanted us to make a house that looked like this...

...but out of real wood (instead of plywood), so it would be both safe, and last much longer.  We talked about dimensions, hole size, and all sorts of things needed for me to figure out how to make it, and here's the final house!

We can make houses, toys, bridges, all sort of custom fun stuff.  Custom houses / larger items start at $15 and go up from there, depending on size and complexity.  For bridges / toys, contact with info on what you're looking for, for a price quote!

Payment Plans / Payment Arrangements... and Getting Screwed

This will be the last post that tags along on previous days for a bit.... but I wanted to touch on other "payment agreements" -- and why those rarely work out, for the same reason as payment plans.  Also, I wanted to post this as sort of a PSA (public service announcement, for those not familiar with internet lingo), so you all don't end up using the same person that screwed me over.  I almost never mention names... but I don't want someone else to get screwed, so this person is on blast.  Sorry, not sorry.

Back in mid June (6/18), I got a call from a Hannah Mae Ottley.  She called me saying that she loved my website and loved the logo, but had a thought for how she could do another logo for me, and asked if I'd be interested to see it.  I said sure, and so she sent me an email.  I emailed back, saying I liked the logo, and would be happy to pay her for it, and she said we would work something out as far as payment.  On 6/26, I requested a minor change to the logo, which she completed the same day.  When she replied to my email about the change, she didn't send me the actual amended logo file, but rather, screenshots of the changed logo on t-shirts.  I figured I would get the actual file later, and didn't bother her about it, at that time.

Around that time, she also specified that she could do an entire identity design for me, where she could change the website, come up with business cards, promotional materials... basically do all sorts of goodies.  You know, offering to do all sorts of stuff.  I told her, I did not need all of that done, I just would like the original logo that we talked about, and I also asked if she could come up with two shirt designs that I had ideas for.  She said she could, that would be no problem.

So I hadn't heard from her for a couple days, and then randomly, I got a call one day from someone named Hannah wanting to set up an appointment.  When this person came by, she told me, "oh by the way, I'm the Hannah that created the logo for you."  I thought it was kind of odd that she wouldn't specify that on the phone, but whatever.  She looked at the chins we had here and found one she liked.  She went home to think about it, and then ended up texting me a couple days later, saying she wanted to get the chin.  She asked, what if we did half off the price of the chinchilla, in exchange for the logo she did and the two t-shirt designs I wanted.  I said that was fine.

On 7/7, Hannah came over and adopted the chin.  It's marked on the invoice that the chinchilla she got was $200, with a $100 discount for the logo / artwork.  I didn't pester Hannah for the logo / artwork, as I figured, I would just one day open my email and I would have it sitting there.  However, that never happened.  A few times, I would receive texted pictures of the chin, who she named Koda, but always with a note that "she couldn't talk right now" because she was at work or something.  I always felt that was kinda odd, and now, looking back, I feel like it possibly was a hint for me to not ask her about the logo / artwork since she was "busy."

Well, now with expos coming up, I wanted that logo done and the artwork for the shirts done as well.  So... on 9/6, I sent her a text.  It was actually a fairly nice text, where I wasn't a bitch or anything, but rather, I specified that I didn't believe she'd ever sent me the actual file with the amended logo, and I also didn't have the t-shirt artwork that we'd talked about, and I needed her to send those to me.  I reminded her of what I was looking for, for the t-shirt designs, and ended by saying that now was the time we needed to get those rolling, so we'd have these for upcoming expos.

For previous texts (like when she'd texted with the chin photos, and prior to adopting, when she was pushing her graphic design work), she'd always texted right back or emailed right back, but this time, I didn't hear from her for a day or two (for her, that was long), so on 9/7, I figured I would also send her an email with basically the same thing written in the email, in case she might see that first.  Fast forward to 9/12, hadn't heard anything, so I went on her website -- http://designedbyhannah.com/ -- to see if I had the correct email and whatnot.  Yep, her email on the website is the same as what I have, and she also had a business facebook account on there, so I messaged that account as well.  Nothing.  So, I sent her another email on the 12th, basically stating that I hoped this was somehow a big misunderstanding and I was waiting to hear from her... but I hate to say, I don't think it is... as she basically has been unavailable and "busy" now that she has her chin (her end of the deal), and here I am, left high and dry without my part of the deal.  I told her in the email that I feel like she's intentionally avoiding me, and that I would share this story with my people, so they would know to not use her for their graphic design needs, if I didn't at least hear from her... and the fact that you're reading this means that, I never did hear from her.

Looking back, what I should have done was not hand over the chinchilla until I had my logo / artwork, or charge her the entire amount and then refund the half-off-amount once I had my logo / artwork.  Unfortunately, I assumed that she would keep her word and complete her part of the deal, and she did not.

I since have had another graphic design person reach out and offer to try and do the things I need, so we shall see how that goes.  I still need to send them what I have from her, and my ideas for the other shirt designs... and see if it's something they're able to do (they're a starting off person).  If anyone else would like to pitch in their services, I am happy to see what other people come up with as well!  Just stay away from Hannah's graphic design services, if you actually want anything done...

Payment Plans

So, this is kind of tagging along with the last post which talked about people crucifying vets for requiring people to pay for their services.... often in a lot of these instances, people pay the required amount at the beginning... and then never pay the rest.

I've only had one experience with someone wanting to do a payment plan (deposits and that sort of thing excluded), back maybe 4ish years ago.  They wanted to get four chins, which I believe amounted out to the $300-400 range, and they wanted to pay so much per week until the chins were paid off.  This person also wanted to take the chins home early on, but that wasn't happening.

Anyway, they were supposed to send me the first payment that Friday, and then the payments would follow every so often, starting after that.  Friday came and went, no payment.  I sent this person an email, asking if they still wanted the chins, as I hadn't gotten their payment as agreed to.  Yes, they did, but something had come up, they wouldn't be able to pay until next Friday.  Naturally.  So, next Friday rolls around.  No payment.  Sent them another message, this time specifying that I would not be holding the chins for them any longer (I had been), if I did not receive payment.  Oh, they'd had an unexpected bill, but could I hold them a couple more days?

Mind you, this wasn't just one chin, this was four.  Anyway, they said they'd have the payment by mid-week, and I didn't have any appointments scheduled for people coming to look at chins, so I didn't actually have any opportunity to tell people whether they were, or weren't on hold.  You guessed it!  I never received payment, never heard from them.  I didn't contact them after that.

I have occasionally heard back from this person, always inquiring about chinchillas (though, not four lol).  The last time they inquired, they specified that they wanted to adopt a chinchilla that was in a foster home, and I specified that we would need an appointment set, before I would bring the chin here.  Knowing this person's track record, I was also going to require a deposit on the chin, before bringing it from the foster home (that's actually pretty standard, so we're not transferring chins and then having them not get adopted).  She said setting the appointment was fine... and then never responded to my following message.  I messaged again, twice actually, prior to when the chin would have been transferred, to remind this person, that if she wanted the chin here to adopt, we needed to  (among other things) set an appointment.  This was on facebook, so I could see that she read the message... and never replied.

That chin was later adopted by someone else.

The point is, see what happened here on a payment plan.  She never paid the initial money, and never took the chins home... but if she had taken the chins home on the promise to pay... see how much effort I had to extend to try to get her to pay (and yet, she never did).  Does a vet's office have time to do that?  Heck no.  Heck, do I have time to do that?  Heck no.  And, further, the same person that was super flaky on the payment plan, also was flaky later on with another chin she wanted to adopt.  Not saying everyone is like this, of course, but this just gives you an example of what can happen.... and that's why most vets (and we) don't accept payment plans. 

Paying for Vet Care

So, this blog's inspiration is coming from some facebook groups and things people have posted recently...

Often, whether in chinchilla groups, dog groups, what have you, when a pet gets sick or gets injured, I see comments saying that since the animal is hurt, the vet should see it for free.  When the comment back states that the vet won't see the animal without payment (either up front, before treatment, or on the date of service), people literally lose their minds and say how horrible the vet is, and how the vet is only out for money.

Now, hold on a second.  Vets -- in fact, no business for that matter -- are NOT obligated to make special accommodations for people who can't afford their services.  Try going to a restaurant, walk in the door, and say you can't pay.  Will they give you food?  Likely not.  Try taking your car to a mechanic, and then when it's fixed, say you have no money.  You're not getting your car back.  Try going to a grocery store, and screaming that the grocery store "only cares about money!!!" when you get to the register and are expected to PAY for your groceries, just like everyone else.  Everywhere, I repeat, EVERYWHERE makes you pay for the goods / services.  With the exception of programs for the homeless / starving, everywhere else, you have to pay.  Why do we think vets should be different?  Do they not have the same bills to pay (electricity, heating / cooling, etc) that the grocery store does?  It's not unreasonable or evil to require payment before performing a service.  They have their bills to pay too!

Then people suggest payment plans.  I think that will be my next blog post, but the cliff notes version is this -- payment plans rarely work out in anyone's favor, especially the person lending the money, as often the person who should be paying, never shows up to pay the rest.  So, what incentive is there for the vet to offer that?

I understand, vet care can be expensive.  Of all people, I know... we often are spending money on vet care for our small animals, and I have dogs as well, and that all adds up!  But by no means do I think that vets should not be allowed to make a living, or *gasp* get PAID for their services, because someone has an injured pet. 

How about -- HOW ABOUT!! -- we take responsibility for our actions.  If we want to have a pet, we know that vet bills might come with that pet.  If we're responsible, we understand that we should have money put aside for these unforeseen bills, or even have a credit card so we have some way to pay for them when the time comes.... rather than expect someone else to pay for our pets.  That is all.

Cost of Items (part 2)

The same can be said of the houses.  Take for example, the cottage hidey house.  It sells for $20 at the moment.

This house is 11 x 8, and requires 46" of wood to make.  It also requires glue, rubberbands to hold it together while it is drying, and of course, the hole saws to cut the holes.  Wood isn't horribly expensive... but much of that other stuff is higher. 

Our one hole saw is a 4.25" one.  Just a quick search on HomeDepot.com shows a wide variety of prices, though this is similar to the one we have -- https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-4-1-4-in-Big-Hawg-Carbide-Hole-Saw-49-56-9255/305211255 -- it is $49.99.  We also have a smaller hole saw, a 2.5" one.  Again, searching online, https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-2-1-2-in-Diamond-Hole-Saw-49-56-5660/204994418 -- $34.97.  Now, hold up, can't use a hole saw without an arbor -- https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-7-16-in-Quick-Change-Large-Hole-Saw-Arbor-No-Wobble-W-W-Pilot-Drill-Bit-49-56-9100/203113673 -- $21.47.

So, just to have the pieces necessary (not counting the drill) to make the holes in the houses, the equipment costs us $106.43.  Mind you, I'm on my second of the large hole saws, and third arbor -- this stuff unfortunately doesn't last forever.

The houses take about an hour to make, from cutting the wood, to using the whole saws to drill the holes, to sanding the houses, to piecing them together and letting them dry.

I was recently told by someone in business that a business should charge, at the very minimum, $10/hour for labor, plus 2x the cost of materials.  Hypothetically, if we want to look at that... the wood for this house is probably about $4 or so.  That would mean $8 in wood.  If we want to say it takes exactly an hour to cut / sand / assemble / etc, that's another $10.  So $18 total would be their minimum cost for the house.  We charge $20, because I'm not sure how that ~$107 in necessary equipment is supposed to be factored into the cost... but at some point, the money from the houses has to pay for the equipment needed to make the houses, or what's the point, right?  And not only that, but it'd be good to have money made after just paying off the cost to make the item, so there's money for the animals!  I mean, right?

So, I guess just try to think about this sort of stuff, if you're ever looking at a product a small business made, and thinking oh that's too much -- maybe it is -- but often, a lot goes into certain things that people don't think about.  There's often more involved that's not obvious, but is factored into the price.

Cost of Items (part 1)

Hey all.  Just wanted to write a quick blog about this, since a few people have touched on this subject lately.  The one that comes to mind was someone who was here and used our bathroom, where we have one of our chinchilla soaps.  In case you're unfamiliar, these are our soaps:

The person commented that they were neat, to which I replied, they are for sale!  They asked how much, I responded ($5), and they said something along the lines of, "that's kind of a lot for a bar of soap, maybe next time."

Now, that's fine, we all choose what to spend our money on.  But I wanted to do a quick blog post talking about prices and whatnot, so you all can see how this goes.

The soap is $10 for 2 pounds.  Each pound of soap makes about 4ish chinchilla bars, as there is some waste (which we use to mold mini soaps, but unfortunately cannot use for my chin soap) as it's impossible to get exactly the right amount of soap melted.  We also use coloring and scent for these soaps.  The coloring is $8 for 3 teeny tiny bottles.  Those bottles will last for the 2 pounds of soap, and then some.  Then fragrance -- these little containers are $5-7 for another teeny tiny bottle, of one scent.  Finally, the soap mold.  The chinchilla soap mold costs about $22 with shipping.

So, to make 8ish bars:

$10 soap itself
$8 coloring
$6 (average) fragrance
$22 soap mold (obviously can be used again)
---------------------------------------------------------
$46
divided by 8
---------------------------------------------------------
$5.75 per bar

Now, of course I can use the soap mold again, and hopefully the fragrance lasts longer than 8 bars of soap (though, it may not, if I'm using the same one for that many bars in a row, it's going to go quicker than making various fragranced soaps).  Same goes for the coloring.... hopefully I still have some left after those 8 bars of soap, but I may not.

Even if we forget the cost of the soap mold (which... I mean... it's kinda necessary, but whatever)... we're then at $24 (cost) for me to make 8 bars.  That means each chin soap costs me $3 to make.  Each one of these requires cutting the soap, heating it, melting it, adding the correct amounts of color  and fragrance, pouring it, and then letting it cure for 1.5+ hours.  Then de-molding it, getting the flash off, and storing it / getting it ready for shipping or selling.  That's assuming I'm making $2 on each bar of soap.  I mean... is that really too much profit for a small business to make?

Baby Guinea Pigs!

You may have seen when we got in that group of guinea pigs awhile back...

Mom -- Coco Chanel

Dad -- Cinnamon Crunch

Daughter -- Cookies & Cream

Son -- Reeces Pieces

Well... all those pics were in the same cage.  So, we separated these into two cages, Coco & Cookie, and Cinnamon and Reeces.  Cinnamon and Reeces were available quicker, being males (so, no pregnancy watch), and got adopted relatively quickly.

Coco and Cookie are still chilling here, though Cookie has a pending adoption going on.  Well... turns out Coco was pregnant again before we got them in and separated them, and on 9/1, she delivered two bouncing babies!

Off the top of my head, I don't recall if these are males or females, but they are just now ready to find their new homes!  If you're interested, of course feel free to reach out, or watch our website for more pics and info!

Used Cages

So, as you may know, we often have used cages for sale.  In fact, we often have a LOT more used cages than what's literally listed on our website.

We've been slowly but surely listing cages on marketplace, and as those have sold, or heck, even as people have not read the ads, and then stated, oh the cage is too little....we have then suggested a bigger cage that we have, and still have sold a cage! 

Anyway, I guess the point is, we almost always have used cages.  Lately, some people have been messaging asking about what used cages we have that aren't listed, and I will tell them.  Depending on the amount of work needed to make the cage use-able, that usually gets added to the discussion as well.

For example, someone messaged me wanting a used critter nation.  At the time I had two -- a nice 3-level and a rusty-sitting-in-my-backyard 2-level.  Now, let me just say.... I take good care of my cages, so the fact that I left that CN in my backyard for a couple of weeks should suggest to you what condition it was in.  But, since someone asked about it, I mentioned that one as well, and specified that I could paint it and it would be very useable when painted.  It was just rusted on the surface, not rusted through.

For reference, this is the pic I sent, when asked for a pic:

The person wanted to come see it like within a couple days, and I told them, unfortunately I would not be able to get it painted quite that quickly.  I told her, she could either wait until I had it painted, or I'd be happy to send her home with the cage and a can of spray paint.  I actually kind of meant that as a joke, but, to be fair, there's nothing I can do to clean up a cage, that I can't explain, so someone else could also do at home.  She ended up agreeing to come get the cage and spray paint it at her place.

She got here, looked at the cage, took it home, sprayed it and fixed it up, and then came back and got some chins.

Anyway, the point is... there's often cages here that are not listed, not anything.  But if someone reaches out and says what they're looking for, often we have what that person is looking for, and can either clean it up for them, or sell it at a discount if it's taken as is.  So if you're ever looking for something, don't be afraid to ask!  You never know what we might have!

Passing It Forward

So, we get a reasonable amount of donations, and sometimes oddball stuff... people often ask what we do with the stuff we get donated. 

Obviously, much of it we use.  When things like bedding, food, hay, etc are donated, those are usually pretty much immediately used for the animals in our care.

But what about when we get in blankets, towels, etc?  People really do bring a little of everything!  Sometimes we give stuff away, sometimes we sell stuff.  It really depends on what it is, and who needs it, but it all goes to good causes!

I know of someone in rat rescue who always needs wheels for their rats.  The rats constantly destroy them, and we have practically a never ending supply of people surrendering their chins with wheels that are unsafe for chins, but are just fine for rats.  Many of them head the way of that rat rescue.  The other day, we had someone adopting some rats, and they mentioned wanting to get a safe wheel for their rats.  I went and got one of our donated wheels and gave it to them, so they would have a safe one for their new additions.

A few days ago, my parents had a garage sale.  Much of our "random" stuff ended up there.  For example, we had some blankets, bed sheets, cat litter scoops... among the regular, small animal items.  A lot of that stuff sold, and of course, the money goes right back into the rescue to help care for the resident animals.  We even had a 1/5 full bottle of ferret shampoo that we put in the garage sale for $0.25.  Someone bought it, and that's $0.25 more for the rescue!

For some stuff that I know has more value and is more easily sell-able, I will list it on marketplace or craigslist.  Lately we've had a lot of luck selling things on marketplace, and have sold at least 5 guinea pig cages, umpteen cat / small animal carriers, 4+ crittertrail cages, and more! 

And lastly, some stuff gets donated.  We had someone awhile back donate a bunch of towels, washcloths, bedsheets, etc.  You read above what happened to some of that.  Some of the towels (smaller ones) we kept for our own use, some of the really crappy, ripped up ones, we cut into rags.  The bigger towels though, we have less use for, as far as the rescue goes.

So, we packed up three shopping bags full of them (this is what was washed at the time... we have more for our next trip!), and donated them to the vet that we use for our dogs, Beecher Veterinary.  When we came in with our Roxy all wrapped in a towel because her wounds were oozing (story for a different day, if you don't already know it), the vets at Beecher sent us home with a clean towel.  Now, they will have a TON of towels!

So, no matter what's donated, we find some use for it, and if we can't use it, we will get it to someone who can!