I had no idea that Chinchillas like to "dust". Just like chickens! Look at this lil’ sucker go, in his bowl.
He’s so excited and I think he likes it.
Eric S. Grab the dustbuster before this gets completely out of control.
Chinchilla dusting and general mayhem
July 21, 2008 By
Oh. My. Goodness. Adorableness to the factor of 100!
Yes, a total cutie, but is this some bizarre method of keeping cool?
I’m confused.
Gorgeous! They live in arid countries, so they dust to keep clean. You buy special chinchilla dust lol! Also they really dislike getting wet. You shouldn’t wet a chinchilla. (a bit like gizmo huh)
I didn’t know they did this, either! Absolutely ANERABLE!
But it looks like he got some on the floor there. Time to send in the HoverBun 2000™ for clean up duty.
Hah! My boyfriend’s roommate wanted a chinchilla until I explained about the dust baths.
That is one animal I have always wanted, but I dont think my cats would let it live past the first run down the hall…..
So cute and fluffy and SOFT!
I had a degu that used to do that too! There’s something adorable about it, even if it means more cleaning…
Sonora
So what you’re saying is, ‘a moist chinchilla is a cranky chinchilla’?
They don’t just love it, they lose all will to live if they can’t have their own little sand bath.
What you can do to limit the spraying of sand in the room is to find this big/tall goldfish bowl and leave them there having their evening/morning bath.
If I could, I would twist ‘n roll in there with him. CUTE!
Looks like this one’s doing the dust refill and redistributing it throughout the house. Something like a reverse vacuum…
i am currently hamsitting two adorabiggle dwarf hamsters that like to take dust baths. they go crazy in the tiny little bowl of dust.
I heart it when he runs up & down the hallway in the beginning. So Round! And those lettle skinny legs! Cutest thing evar.
I think ya got somethin’ on the floor, there. Where? Right there… and there…and there…and there…
Good LORD would that be a lot to clean up after!!
That is true love – to be willing to clean up the mess!
I know
It’s only dust-and-roll
but I like it,
like it,
yes I do!
(equal opportunity for Stones and Beatles fans)
They don’t just love dust baths. I used to have two chinchillas and they would freak the hell and start racing up and down the ramps in their cage as soon as they heard the dust bin. Then they would both cram themselves in and roll around as fast as possible.
Watching chinnies roll around in the dust has to be one of the best parts of having a chinchilla!
Okai. Ai heerbai appoynt tihs chinch an awl hiz peepz HONURARII CATZ. Thatz haow Qte tehy ar.
*SPLORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT*
Now I see that Pyrex has 102 uses.
I know
It’s only twist’n roll,
but I like it,
like it,
Yes I do!
Sorry for the double-post; the first one didn’t show up for awhile.
lol biscuit head! I’ve never dampened one so I can’t speak of experience but I would say yes if I had to guess. Cranky, and very annoyed, and maybe a little suicidal I should think.
**Lurve** the look of skritch-bliss at a minute-and-a-half.
[slightly worried now that I resemble a sandy chinchilla when I get a head-skritch, but mayhap no bad thing...]
cute.
someone told me when I got my maltese puppy – you can teach him to use a litter box. yeah, he ended up doing what this chinchilla did – spin around and knock all the dirt out. fun for him – mess for me
Bomp-bomp-aloo-bomp-awomp-bam-booom that’s cute!
First, dust chinchilla lightly with flour. Let flip-flop briefly in beaten egg and turn lightly again in flour. Do not saute or bake at 350 deg. Shampoo, rinse, and live to dust again another day! Whoooo hoooo!!!!
I’ve always wanted a chinchilla, but I’ve not got the slightest clue how to take care of one. So, I live vicariously through videos like this.
About time CO gave chinchillas some love!
OH MY GOODNESS! THE HOPS DOWN THE HALL! THE HOPS DOWN THE HALL! I’M SQUEAKING!
=SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE= I can just hear my son’s GF’s hed *ASPLODIN*!!!1!
My bunny has the same cage! *gasp* I have the pleasure of working at a pet store, and seeing these guys.
THAT IS SO FREEKIN CUTE
i just died & went to chinchilla heaven.
Arinne — now I’m picturing 50 chinchilla angels trying to give you flying directions to People Heaven, all at once. Flock o’Fluff!
It self-breads!
I have a chinny, who also likes to spinny. And eat yummy baskets. Good times!
Now that’s a dust bunny!
Class, today we will be reading The Bun of Wrath, the dramatic story of a brave bunny’s quest through the dust bowl.
Um, can someone explain to me how you clean yourself by rolling in dust?
Heaven, I’m in chinchilla heaven,
and I lof to roll around in dusty sand.
It’s a habit I know you cannot unnerstand,
when we’re out together rolling hand in hand.
Rollin’!
Rollin’!
Rollin’ on the riverbed!
Nicely done, Kiragirl, Fred Astaire would be proud!
Why am I suddenly hungry for a powdered donut? omnomnomnom
I’ve heard its because they have oily coats and the dust absorbs the natural oils exuded by the chin . . .much more effective than a water bath would be–which I guess isn’t available to them anyway . . .
MY brother’s chinchilla George did this and he also liked to trim toenails with his teeth!
Nuh-uh. Not in my house. Get that thing out of here right now.
Chins kinda self clean by natural oils. The super fine dust cleans out the fur and reduces the oil a bit. As stated before, you get a fish bowl and they’re happy as can be.
People who see it for the first time truly get overloaded w/ the cute.
Also, a wet chinchillas is a possibly dead chinchillas as their fur will clump, fall out, and they’ll get skin problems.
I didn’t know they did this and I also didn’t know they liked to be SCRITCHASCRATCHED UNDER THEIR CHINS LIKE KITTYCATS. I had to cover my eyes a couple of times. TOO CUTE
forget puppy, i want a CHINCHILLA for my bday. or a snake. but snakes arent cute
stubeedoo: LMFAO!!! “self-breads” !!! nearly spit out my drink on the screen. Thanks!
)
And Catherine…ummm…his own toenails or his person’s? ::: wide eyes :::
If your put off by the dust, another thing you can do is get a kitty litter box, put the dusting bowl at the back of the COVERED litter box, it helps contain the dust a lot
dayum, for a lil thing that’s a lotta dust flung outta the bowl, but tis worth it to see the happy lil bugger hopping around.
Maybe its also like horses rolling? Gets to all those itchy places reallly nice!
That’s making me sneeze just looking at it, but he certainly seems to be enjoying himself!
At least you are not going to make a coat.
Thank God.
Wee little chin-e-chin-chill-a….Give kiss on the nosey nose!!!!!
“Chinchilla Dusting and General Mayhem”-I thought I was gonna see a little chinchilla in an apron with a tiny cloth and a can of Pledge! Darn! But this is cute too! And that is one of my very favorite Beatles songs!
Everybody do the chinny spinny dance!
Best part of my old job as GETTING PAID to DUST CHINCHILLAS! Cage cleaning, bird bites, sweeping, whatever – I got to dust chinnies!
(And if you volunteer at th SF Zoo, there’s a good chance you’ll get to bathe them, too!)
MIW: So funny!! Screaming around the house, dusting his little brains out. lolol
My two gerbils love the dust bath thing to, but i have to take it away from them someitmes or they will never get out of it. It’s pretty funny to watch, they flip completey over like there on crack or something!
wow.
OK i thought that my dog sleeping standingup was cute but dang that was
cccccccccccccccccccccccccccuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chincilla = Bunny + skwerlz
This makes me miss my little Gretchen, Queen of the Moon Mice, a chinnie who owned me for 13 years. Chinnies are such wonderful little creatures, and this one is obviously much loved and cared for!
Gerbils do too!
Yes, the dusting keeps them clean.
Water+chilla=bad. (and probably a sick chinchilla)
Dust batch don’t need to be messy. There are products (like http://www.chinworld.com/sitemap/prods/CW020002.html) that contain most of the dust… and you can let them bathe in their cages.
Okay, was I the only one who TOTALLY misunderstood this initially? See, when you said “dusting” I thought you meant the chinchilla was cleaning under the couch, etc. Then you compared it with chickenses, and I was trying to think when we’d seen a video of a chicken cleaning. Perhaps with a little frilly apron and all.
But I can deal with this instead.
I remember chinny sitting for a friend back in high school who had two, Curious and George. They were incredibly floofy, very fun to watch, and not a real brain in their tiny heads. They used to fall asleep when I tried to discuss Kierkegaard with them.
Haha! What a mess! But a cute one…
Oh yes, my two chins looooooved their dust baths. They’d get very grumpy if they went a few days without– plus their fur started looking greasy. It’s sort of like a dry shampoo; it sucks up the extra oil in their fur so they feel nice and fresh.
Very clever. It’s all in the tail, wind up and spin.
Can chinchillas be litter trained? b/c after seeing that dust bath, I worry about what they would do in the litter box.
AZCatFan4Draco – People’s toenails! (O_O)
I thought I was witnessing, some ancient footage, of the early developement stage, of shake’n'vac.
Thank goodness these cruel animal experiments, ceased long ago.
I wonder how chinchillas and Roombas would get along? The Roomba would certainly have plenty of work to do…
I have to say, this is one of those “pets” that I’m just not sure should be a pet. I adopted two from a friend who was moving, thinking it would be similar to owning rats, but NO. Very, very foreign animals to me–I couldn’t “read” them like dogs or cats and was never sure if they were happy. So I found them a chin-friendly home with a co-worker. I’m happy enough with my two bad cats who don’t care if I live or die (as long as I bring home the kibble first!), LOL.
why oh why are we chinchilla & Ham free in Australia… everytime I see a post with one of these little guys I just want to move!
Gerbils take dust baths too. A chin’s hair is very soft, and they have around 10 hairs per follicle…you can’t wet them to clean them, so they take dust baths.
I used to give my gerbils dust all the time, they LOVED it.
Muad’Dib is wise (and cute) in the ways of the desert.
[... and *silly* - Fenring.]
Aw, that’s my little chin! Thanks Meg!
And he sure does love his dust baths.
Mittens! You’re famous! So cute!
Chinchillas don’t just love dust baths, they need them. Read about it here:
http://www.chinchillaplanet.com/chinchilla-dust-bath/
It’s a way of cleaning themselves! I used to work with Chinchillas at a teaching museum – they can’t get wet b/c they will drown b/c their fur is so dense. They are also desert animals so they don’t have access to water to clean.
That’s my nephew! And my apartment! Meeeeeetinnssss! meow meow meow!
I think lots of critters like dust baths.
I’ve heard that it keeps things like mites a bay.
We have an elderly cat that looks for one of several dusty spots to be dry. Bad year for that with all the rain.
Maybe I should get him some ‘chilla dust.
That is the BEST use of “Twist and Shout” since Ferris Bueller.
Incredible! Sure, with that furry… fur they have, dust baths should be the best way to keep the bugs out!
Wow, he is adorable, but I would definitely make him do that outside and not let him make a mess like that in the kitchen.
Other than that…
I WANT ONE!
I, too, was totally mislead by the headline on this! I thought maybe it would be all dusty from being under the couch or something!
Great music, cute little chinchilla!!!!
WHAT is in that BOWL????
Re:
“WHAT is in that BOWL????
-LesbianNeoCon”
Its diatomaceous earth.
I’ve always wondered…what happens to a chinn with allergies?
HALP!!! EMERGENCY
I have a baby bun in my front yard for 2 days now with no sign of parents. There are adults running around the neighborhood, but baby seems to be alone during the day. i have put out carrots which appear to be snacked on…..and i put out some romaine lettuce tonight, but in the hot 96 degree heat, is wilting fast…..she is totally scared of me, but eating what i put out. do i just leave her alone? she seems so alone. i havent seen the adults since yesterday. i’m just worried about her. i’m thinking just keep munchies out just in case and see what happens???? what do i do??
what else do they like to eat besides carrots/lettuce? she is only the size of a newborn kitten.
gut tells me to leave her alone, give a little snack, and mama will take care of the rest…..but part of me wonders if rescue is in order? thank you for any advice! lisa in wentzville, mo
can monday be bun day too?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa – CHOOO !!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa – CHOOO !!!
Hey Lisa,
From what I understand bun moms leave their kids alone for a lot of the day, so as not to draw the attention of predators. She likely visits at night for checkups and feeding and stuff. Although it’s a little odd that *you* see the little guy during the day. Is he just wandering about outside or does he come out of a den/hole?
Lisa in wentzville, baby bunnies are fine on their own as soon as their eyes are fully open, at about 4 inches long. You will almost never see the mom rabbit with her young. She stays away from them so as not to attract predators. Leave the bunny alone. It will be fine.
Chinchillas have to be the most adorable creatures in the universe.
My gerbils dust too! We call it “rofling”… because that’s what it looks like
Oh yes. Chinchies sure love their dust baths.The cleaner they get, the bigger mess they make!
I always had a gallon glass jar laying on its side in my chins’ cage with their dust in it. It cut down a lot on cleaning and there was plenty of room for a couple at a time.
sorry to keep disrupting the chinch talk(which is sparking interest of adoption
heehee
but, thank you so much for you insight eris and dogbreath…….i shall leave her be. this was my gut feeling anyway, but needed a little reassurance to leave it alone – lol
i shall keep you posted.. sorry meg. might be bun week!!!!! with my lil lisamergency. i should take pics to make more interesting since my cats didn’t make it yet – heehee jus kidding
oh, and me again(so exiteds)….bun likes to hide under one of our bushes out front that we just landscaped last year, and when i accidently scared her with the lawn equipment yesterday(yikes), she went running to a drain spout we put in last fall for our roof that goes down into the 4′ deep landscaping…..so good lil hiding place. see the big ones all the time, but never seen them as close as this precious little one! i usually let the youngest of my 3 cats sit out on the front porch with us every day or so, but i think i will keep them in for a lil while!
I used to have 2 chinchillas back in the early 80′s, long before they became popular pets. There was no real info on chinchillas except for an old book from the 60′s/70′s ( from the local library), so I had to guessmate on feeding them. Since there was no chinchilla dust back then, I used bird gravel and my chins loved it. No chinchilla food was available so guinea pig feed substained them. My chins would go nuts rolling around in their sand thas was in a shoe box. Of course, they would pee and poop in their sand, so it had be changed weekly. One chin had a broken leg and I wouldn’t let her have a sand bath for a week for fear of getting sand in her little cast. Finally I gave her the sand bath. Boy, Garfield wore herself out rolling so hard, she stood there, panting from her exertions. The gravel didn’t fly around as much as the chinchilla dust. I had my chins for 6 years and finally gave them to my grandfather after I developed severe allergies to them. I still miss my chins and it’s been 20 years.
meg, btw, i think your website is brilliance, and i lurk daily just to see what clever things you and everyone else has to say. i think you are all wonderful, and prolly my favorite people on the planet =) seriously, this is one of my favourite happy places. AND, I just happened to stumble upon it a couple of years ago while killing time at work…how cool is that?!?
happy, or sad, i should say? heehee
Chinchilleree,
Chinchilleree,
Chinchill-cheroo,
He rolls in a bowl
And flings dust up at you.
Or blow me a kiss,
And that is cute, too!
Lurker–You are SUPERCALIFRAGILISTIKEXPIALIDOCIOUS (I think)!
Darn it! It is a “C” not a “K”!
I have a thing for critters that look like Totoros.
(to Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway)
I’m a rollin’ chin’… in mah bowl of dust
O’er a life of cute… I have ‘stained my sus-
When I pass by all… the people say
Just another cute… overload today
Just a cloud of dirt… and a cheeky skritch
And a womans squee… sorta sums my sitch’
Once I powdered up… I went astray
I started hoppin’ down… that lost hallway
JIMWICh: Brilliant job, scansion seems perfect, although don’t know tune. Maybe BerthaS, can write disertation on your sonk. Although I imagine, he is marking papers?
Here’s the tune, from the original…
http://www.seeqpod.net/search/?plid=19f9a985df
OK, I am really getting frustrated with YouTube and such sites within the last week! I can’t watch anything! I get to about a quarter to three quarters in and it just stops and goes to the replay screen, and I can NOT fix it, even by refreshing!
Guess I’m off to clean the temporary Internet files. I will be mad if I have to do that every time I watch a video clip.
I’m venting here because there is nowhere on YouTube I can vent to.
[Just to be clear, we feel your pain, but this specific clip is from "blip.tv" and not YouTube, this time... - Ed.]
OK finally got to see it. That was worth it. Adorable! Yeah, I think I saw that on Sesame Street or another kid’s show when I was little, that chinchillas take dust baths rather than water baths and don’t like getting wet, as others have mentioned.
Chinchillas usually take dust baths whenever they are handled by a human being or feel “dirty”. This is how they clean themselves.
Dust baths are essential for chinnies – it cleans their fur by absorbing oil and grease. And, it feels really good to them, apparently!!
The dust is made of volcanic ash. They don’t actually have any problem with bugs, as their fur is so tightly packed that any bug would suffocate.
Chinnies also chew on their finger/toe nails to trim them. FWIW, they like to chew on mine, too, but sometimes get carried away (ouch!).
But also, how come no one has mentioned the NOSE SWIPE! OMG I die when my chins do this!
this video makes me so happy. any animal that takes dust baths is incredibly cute and awesome. love the chin skritch!!! and perfect music, too.
Just cute as
Gosh, what an active & happy critter! Who knew? Thanks for sharing him with us. And much happiness to his family;they make sure he’s happy![and they clean up after his happy fuzzy self!]
How cute!!! How could anyone make a jacket out of those cute lil guys?
To the lady who “developed allergies” to her chins: Chinchillas are hypoallergenic. It would have been something either a) in their cage or b) that they were being fed. I raise and breed chinchillas (NOT for pelting) and I’ve got 16 in my house as we speak.
To LauraG: While I am opposed to the pelting process, here’s a little tidbit: If it wasn’t for the pelting industry, the pet industry would NOT exist. The original chin pets came from BIG time breeders who were selling their “lower” quality animals to still turn a profit. Since then, a lot of “microbreeders” such as myself started buying direct from the larger herds to start our own “pet” industry. If you’re ever interested in any info, stop by our site!
Nevaire mind ze dusth bath – I loff the run/hop at ze beginningk – had played it over & over again.
I have 2 grandsons 6 & 9 who would love the dust verss water bath routine.
I find it incredibly interesting that a small mammal such as this (and extremely cute as well) can roll and expose itself to dust and in the face of having a high breathing rate can filter such fine partials from it’s lungs!
I’d put that in the bathtub instead of the kitchen floor. Or the back porch.
I love the chin scratch – and check out the itty bitty “fingers” holding on to the cage .. So Cute!
I have a cat who really likes dustbaths, although I certainly try to discourage these activities…when it’s hot out, she rolls around in the dust in the flowerbeds. I don’t know if it’s the dust she likes, or the fact that I have to pet her vigorously for an hour afterwards to un-dust her…either way, she’s vair vair clever…
I want to do that. I could get a paddling pool in the office, fill it with sand and just go for it! It could start a trend.
This is a great video. LOL! Loved the rub behind the ear part.
Thanks for all the comments, guys! Cute Overload and friends is like a dust bath for the tired soul that needs a break! Can’t tell you how much you mean to me…
My fiance and I have two standard gray chinchillas and they love their dust baths! It is so funny to watch them! Way cute!
Getting my chinchilla to dust is like nailing jell-o to a tree. She’s so moody sometimes!
I’ve wanted a chinchilla in my life for fifteen years (almost three quarters of my life) and now my boyfriend and I finally have one… her name is Eva, and I just adore her. We’re looking to get her a sister (Magda) soon. Anyway, Eva does love her dust bath. We have a little “bath house” that we put in the cage when it’s bath time, which minimizes the mess. My chin is a constant source of joy to me.
That fur is gorgeous. Come here chinnie, let me make you into a coat…haha jk. Beautiful animals, though.
Are they cuddly? Do they let you hold them and cuddle them, or are they all nervous and ‘Ehhhnnn!’?
I love my pet chinchilla, she always makes me smile, and so did this video!
Chinchillas are great pets, IF you know what you’re getting into. They’re generally not cuddly, and most chins don’t like being held or petted. They need a large cage, and have specific dietary needs. They are also fairly messy — they make a lot of poop, and there is no way on earth to keep them from scattering poop outside the cage. You’ll need to vacuum a lot with a chinchilla, unless you enjoy the sight of little black poos all over the floor. Chinchillas can also live 15-20 years (or more!), so you really need to do research and KNOW that a chinchilla is the right pet for you before you go buy one. They are super cute, yes, but many people end up disappointed in them as pets because they have unrealistic expectations about them.
wow. that chin has really good parents. i don’t know if just anyone would let their chinchilla dust in the middle of the kitchen.
God I want one
actually, two
My bf watched this vid with me, and mentioned a guy he knew in highschool who had chinchillas. Supposedly, if you irritated the chins in any way (ie blow on them) they would junp up and be out the bars onto the offender. Needless to say, this is a fond memory for him and his buddies, of little chin-like waterpistols of pee.
You know, I keep reading/hearing that chins aren’t cuddly, but my Eva is. At the very least, she doesn’t mind being held and snorgled… I doubt she’d enjoy it for hours on end, but she definitely likes some amount of human contact.
Alright, not sure if this was stated [Gave up reading half way through]. But Chinchilla’s dont like to get wet due to the fact that mold will actually start to grow on their bodies presenting a significant health risk. Also because they cant swim, but mold being one of the main issues. If they get wet, it is advised you towel dry them immediatly to prevent any problems or diseases.
I knew they needed dust baths.. but I never knew how frantic/hilarious said baths were!
Chinchilla take dust baths… In fact they need dust baths cause they can get sick easily if you use water on them..
What an enjoyable video! I had a pet chinchilla for several years. I enjoy the part in the video where the chinchilla jumps and falls behind the couch. My chinchilla actually got stuck IN the couch once!
I had a couple chins for a while. Mt GF liked to take them for ‘runs’ where she would put them on her palm and run around the house. They never got any less cute the longer I had them.
Definately no chance of potty training them, except they always try to pee in the same corner.
All Chinchillas like to dust themselves in volcanic ash in order to clean their fur. And if you’ve ever touched their fur, you’ll agree. It’s darn soft.
Also, Chinchillas like tobacco because it smells like really good quality timothy hay.