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.