Gratzlan Chinchillas and Rescues

07/09/2024

Nothing like a first time mom with quads 🙃

So far she's doing great! Kits are all looking wonderful, and the smallest is still within normal kit size. And Mom is looking good too!

06/19/2024

With this intense and seemingly never-ending heatwave in Michigan- an important reminder to make sure your ACs are maintenanced and running as best they can. My barn has 2 10,000 BTU air conditioning units. One per floor. They run 24/7 in the summer, no eco mode. In the 5 mins that this AC cleaner has to sit on the fins, it's already increased 1° on this floor.

72° and above can start to cause heat stress in chinchillas. 75-80° starts to get fatal.

Air conditioners are THE ONLY effective way of keeping your chins cool. Fans DO NOT work. Chinchillas a) don't sweat, which is how fans work to cool us and b) have too dense of fur for a fan blowing on to cool them.

04/09/2024

An eclipse day baby violet!

02/14/2024

Happy Valentine's Day!!

05/27/2023

Quads!!! So far looking great, they are a couple days old and mom is doing a fabulous job! I was smiling in my picture, but then the one crawled up by my face and I melted and that's why my face looks that way 🤣

12/24/2022

Update on the Blizzard Babies:

Around 1am my dad went to the bathroom, said they were still lifeless and huddled on the towel by the floor vent where I left them. He wasn't sure if they were alive.

Around 6am, one had moved about a foot and a half away, and the other was crawling on his feet.

Around 9:15 am , I fed them again, they were both more active and crawling around. I relocated them to the bathtub (on towels) and gave them hay. This way they could stay warm, be contained, and more importantly so I could monitor their movement, as opposed to the carrier that they were originally going to stay inside in.

At 1:30 pm, I came in from working in the barn, and brought a dish of pellets. They were both eating the hay, but ran over to investigate the bowl and started contentedly munching on the pellets. They have fully returned to being rambunctious kits.

They will pull through. They have completely turned around and seem like completely different animals from the ones I brought in last night.
They were limp, could hardly move, and had their heads and eyes rolling back- usually a sign that there's not much of a chance.

They will probably stay inside until the temps get better outside. I found a 3rd space heater to put in the barn, and while I was out earlier, it was 37°. Everyone else is doing well, the cages got cleaned and they all got hay. The other babies are little enough to curl up under their moms and keep warm.

12/24/2022

Chinchilla breeding isn't all cute babies. It involves a lot of times like this. Sitting at midnight in the bathroom (where there's a floor heat vent AND a door to shut the dog out), hand feeding some babies that got chilled in the barn, and who needed some extra help before the cold.

In the 5° with 50mph winds it was outside today, the barn temp dropped to 27°. The barn is mostly insulated and I have milkhouse heaters that run 24/7 in the winter to keep the water lines from freezing, but today was rough.

The rest of the herd is doing fine, but these babies struggled. And while I'm doing everything in my power, they probably won't make it through.

Here's an accurate look at the realities of breeding animals. It's not all cute babies.

08/17/2022

PSA:
If you are interested in getting a chinchilla, please message me. I will speak with you to narrow down what you are looking for and send photos. I haven't been updating this profile with photos of available animals much at all up until this point, due to time restraints.

Also if you see a photo of an animal on here and they are named, they are not available. I give names to certain animals in my breeding herd, as they will definitely be staying with me. If they are going to go to a new home, I never name them as their new family will.
What this means is Agnieszka, Pookah, Winona, etc are definitely NOT for sale. Nor will they be.

04/07/2022

Edit to add: She is NOT available. She is part of my breeding herd and will not be adopted to any pet homes. If interested in a chinchilla as a pet, please private messaage me.

Everyone meet the newest addition to the herd, Agnieszka! She is a Black Pearl female.

Black Pearls have been my dream chinchilla for years. They are the newest mutation, only having been developed around 2006 in Poland- hence her Polish name. I'm mostly Polish and am proud of that heritage, which added to my obsession with Black Pearls.

Black Pearls may look like Black Velvet, but it is a separate mutation. BP is recessive, while BV is dominant. Also BV is characterized by a gradual fade from black to white on the sides, BP has a solid line between the colors.

Only the super special ones in my herd get named, or if I think of a funny name I'll have one (or multiple) of those. Agnieszka is definitely special enough for her name!

03/27/2022

My apologies to anyone who has tried messaging me recently through here, my messenger wasn't notifying me and I just opened it to a bunch of messages I missed!

03/27/2022

We had a successful show day at MCBA nationals!
Here's the placings:
1st- standard female
2nd- a standard female and a homo beige female
3rd- a violet male (I was honestly surprised he placed that high, as he is out of a violet wrap and ebony and his belly shows it)

I also purchased a reserve phase champion male to put into breeding!

It was great to see everyone again, meet some new people, learn the ropes on ribbon writing, and look at some beautiful chins!

03/01/2022

Hey everyone! In addition to breeding/rescuing chinchillas, I am very active in the Jaycees. My chapter is doing a matching donation drive to benefit children displaced in Ukraine.

**Please donate with the Friends/Family option so there is no service fee percentage taken out.

Paypal:

[email protected]
https://www.paypal.me/AlleganJaycees

Follow JCI Ukraine here: JCI Ukraine_official

Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.org/us/where-we-work/ukraine?cid=Paid_Search%3AGoogle_Paid%3AEmer_Ukraine%3ANonbrand%3A022422&s_kwcid=AL%219048%213%21584222768593%21e%21%21g%21%21how+to+donate+to+ukraine&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAiAgvKQBhBbEiwAaPQw3Om4cRu8BaWwUCdJ8Q2gRXz6FXmKosjQ88Wmy3P0Xdafp-7lwCnz_RoCNCQQAvD_BwE