Joeychinchilla
Hobby Breeder,Self Funded Small Rescue & Re-home Based in Eastleigh,Near Southampton,Hampshire UK
They were generally in good health but because of being kept in the wrong conditions their fur was a right mess feeling very greasy/waxy to hold them and the male of the pair had so many tufts we have ended up calling him Sonic(as in the hedgehog) we have been told they were a couple of years old and they are brother and sister, luckily they were kept in separate cages before coming to us and of course are now in quarentine in case of any health issues that may arrise.
Photos of them the day they arrived and photos of their first dustbaths with us
10 Rescues in 1 Day
On the 5th Oct 2007 we had a very busy day.
First Taz from a lady that had to give him up due to her neighbours complaining about the noise he made 
Taz is a Standard Grey Male approx 5 months old and this is his 3rd home 
Second we have had a group of 9 chinchillas in 3 cages the people have said thier situation had changed and could no longer keep them.
Cage one had 3 boys in apparently one is from pets at home and the others came from another local rescue(obviously we have no idea how true this is) (they were called Charlie,Bramble and Leo but we have changed Bramble to Bradly because we feel Bramble is too girly for a male chin)
Charlie (Medium Ebony)
Bradly (Standard Grey)
Leo (Standard Grey) now called Leo2 for our records
Cage 2
A cage with a Male and Female both rescue chinchillas from another rescue (again we don't know how true this is) Bella and Chewy are the names they came with
Bella (Wilson White)
Chewy (Standard Grey)
Cage 3
Which is the most upsetting cage a female with 3 kits we have been told the kits are 5 months old 
The female is called Titch and the kits have not been named because they couldn't decide if they were male or female they thought 2 were male
On sexing them there are 2 male kits and 1 female which means there is a chance the mother could be pregnant by her sons and the female kit could also be pregnant by her brothers
Titch (Standard Grey) The Mum
Male Kit 1 (Standard Grey)
Male Kit 2 (Standard Grey)
Female Kit (Standard Grey)
Chewy 12/11/2007 
Itchey & Scratchy 12/11/2007As you can see they were all in need of a dust bath and the person that they came from openly admited she only gave them thier baths every 3 to 4 weeks 
because she felt they didn't need them anymore than that...
Since they arrived we have seperated Bella and Chewy and the 2 male kits from the mother we are currently working on getting Chewy and the 2 male kits together to live as a Trio, they have all had dust baths but it will take quite a few to get thier fur looking anyway near good again.
We are keeping a close eye on Bella because she definately looks rather rounded and Titch the very small mother of the 3 kits has her daughter in with her for the time being we are hoping and praying that neither of them are pregnant but only time will tell, and so now the countdown begins...
26th September 2007
Chilli & Pepper arrived at www.joeychinchilla.co.uk on the evening of 26th September, the owners were moving and could not take them with them, they also purchased Chilli first and thenbought Pepper being told they were both male, but when we sexed them on their arrival here Chilli is male and Pepper is female
Chilli
Pepper
Photo up-date on Chilli & Pepper 9th October 2007
June & July 2007
We have had a busy couple of months with Rescues here are some photos of our latest rescues
Billy
Billy actually came from the woman that originally had Gizmo(when he was called Shrek) and is emigrating, we had already offered to take in any of her chinchillas that she couldn't re-home but I saw her advertise Billy as free to a good home on freeads
anyway I emailed her and we now have the little darling, he is quite timid and jumpy and has early signs of fur chewing which is now being treated he has got ragged ears and from what we have been told is approx 1 year old (sorry about the bad quality photo it was taken on my mobile) he is a little darling and we hope to pair him off with another male in time to come
Bonnie(Came with Castrated male Clyde)
Clyde(came with partner Bonnie) Clyde is a fur chewer
(so treatment has started for this)
From what we have been told this pair are approx 2 and a half years old,Clyde has been castrated and they are happy living as a pair, Clyde has fur chewing problem and treatment started for this the night he arrived...
Sad news Bonnie died last night(7th August) without any warning she was a lovely little girl and we are sad to have lost her so soon after her coming to us RIP little Bonnie
Fred (Fur chewer) 
Wilma (Fur chewer) 
Benny (Fur chewer)
Fred,Wilma & Benny all came from the same place that supposedly rescued chinchillas for 20 years, but when these arrived they looked and felt like they hadn't had a dust bath in a year or more and felt waxy/greasy to hold they are not tame and cack at anyone that goes near them, they have chunks of fur out of the back of them aswell as chewed areas around the rest of their bodies, we have started treatment for the chewing and have started handling them(as you can see from the photos), we beleive these are old chinchillas but can only guess at their age thinking they must be between 6 & 10 years old so we have our work cut out taming them, Benny is showing very good signs already though as he is already coming to see us when we go to his cage
Sad NewsWilma passed away on the 16th Sept 2007 she is missed very much RIP Wilma.
Stan
Came to us on 4th July because his previous owner could no longer give him the time and care he needs, he is a lovely little guy that was bought by his previous owner in December 2000 when he was around 12 weeks old and so he will be 7 years old around about September/October time, we are hoping to be able to introduce him to a male freind or 2 in time to come
These 3 little guys came to us on Saturday 7th July and we were told they were females approx 2 years old, on checking them they are actually all boys so we are currently trying to decide on names for them, the beige male was called Tiny so we will most likely call him Tiny Tim we have yet to decide new names for the brown velvet and the wilson white, The brown velvet has some matted fur so we have started treatment for this already..
For legal reasons I cannot name the person involved but I am able to paste all her replies in exactly as she emailed them to me(including all the spelling mistakes)
Gizmo The Freeads Chin
On Saturday the 10th February 2007 we had an email from a very worried chinchilla lover regarding a chinchilla advertised on freeads, the person emailed me asking if we could possibly go and pick the chinchilla up and they would pay the £20 that the person was selling him for just so she knew he would be in a safe home and because she could not get there to pick him up herself.
We agreed to take the chinchilla if we could get him but didn't hold out much hope because I had tried contacting the person in the add on the day the add was placed (8th) she seemed to have no idea about chinchillas and although her heart seemed in the right place I found her emails rather strange.
On my first enquiry asking for more details on the chinchilla for example what food he eats and if she had any photos of him this was her response
Hia, hes on just normal pellets and i have bags to go with him, he likes to have a bit of a run around at night hes just turned two years old, he is tame but needs time to get used to you, hes healthy as anything he has one giant rason a day
hes very clean as in he grooms himself he is 100% male
hes drooling a bit because he just had his gums re filed down :)
but thats nothing to worry about
im open to offers
they arnt perfect
In response to her I asked more questions like why was she selling him and pointed out several things that I thought may be wrong with him, her response to me was
Hia,
i havent had much time for him he gets enough but i think he needs more, thats why im selling him and i want him to be with somone who knows whats up
i think he is chewing it aswel looking at him now it dose look like it but he is drewling too i think!
hes drinking ALOT of water so hes not dehidrated!
but he dose need a home asap
In response to her I asked even more questions and pointed out things that she should and shouldn't be doing for him, she responded to me
Im sorry but i know you do a good job but i can get him beter myself :) just i have other people intrested and they know he chews
After receiving that email from her I said ok but was extremely worried about little Gizmo I stated she sounded like she wanted him to go to a good home urgently in her previous email and then she asked me some more questions
how can i stop the chewing then? and ill stop the rasons from now on!
hes had 2 fits but when i first got him
i want him to be realy healthy before i rehome him
I gave her some advise on how to treat fur chewing and said that she should cut out the giant raisins she was giving him daily I also asked how often she gave him his dustbath her reply came back very angry which took me by surprise because all I tried to do was help
everyday, its in there for a hour, i spent out £100's on vets allready but they never said about chewing!
im doing the best i can! and they said he might be because when i got him he was realy under waight and wouldnt eat since then i got him as healthy as i can!
i have more time for him now! as i said i dont want to rehome him till IV got him better, he is alot better than he used to be! hes got alot of wooden toys and he gose to vets once a month if not more now! he had a fit like 4 days after i got him
he was so thin aswell! hes got a belly now! and hes just chewing its been 4 months and hes not had one fit! since!
i spent alot of time and money on this chin lost damned sleep when he was in hospital!
After receiving this email I felt I was getting no-where fast and felt she would not let me have him anyway, So I let it go until the email on Saturday Morning (approx 36 hours after my contact with the woman selling Gizmo)
I explained I had already enquired and found the woman to be a little strange but said I would try again because I too was very worried about Gizmo to let it go any longer, I asked my husband to phone the number which he did but all he got was a weird answerphone message. after trying several times throughout Saturday I emailed her and said we wanted to get him from her she replied saying
I have somone who is intrested and wants to pick up like tomorrow, but if she dont turn up you can have him if rather he went to a good home anyway
I replied saying my husband could leave straight away to pick him up so she said
allright,
hes having his run at the moment,
i will get his carry case out now,
are you sure you can make it tonight?
and thats £20 aswell
Anyway to cut the story there as it does go on a bit, my husband picked him up Saturday night and paid her £20 for him, these are photos we took of him before giving him his dustbath
Gizmo enjoying his first dust-bath with us
Now you think the story may end there, well it does not!!!!!!!!!
I looked at Gizmo and felt I recognised him, I have a contact who is a vetinary nurse that take in rescue chin's and I thought he may be one that she had been re-homing in the later part of last year, I know she had been treating him for various things and I had considered taking him on myself at that time but because of other chinchilla commitments I was unable to at the time she was looking at getting him his forever home, I got in touch with her and asked if she had ever had any dealings with the woman that we got Gismo from and she said she had, She asked me to email photos of Gizmo (aka Shrek his previous name when rescued) just so she could confirm he was one in the same. She was absolutely devastated to she Gizmo in such a state because when she re-homed him on the 26th November 2006 he was looking so good the woman gave a £4 donation towards the other rescues my contact takes in but also got a care sheet on how too look after him and a bag of dust and a bag of food, she also signed paperwork to say if she could no longer give him a home she would return him to my contact and that he would not be sold on, she told my contact that she had chinchillas before and ran a rescue for them...
Here are some photos of Gizmo (aka Shrek) before he left my contact in November 2006
As you can see he looked really good then, my contact said after everything he had been through in his short life she was really happy with him and although his fur was never the best chin fur he was really happy and healthy again.
I am currently waiting to find out his full history(from all that we know) and I will add it on here as soon as I know
I will keep you up to date with any news
Gizmo is currently on Vitamins in his drinking water and having treatment for fur fungus and fur chewing, he is also under-weight so we are keeping a very close eye on him.
15th March 2007
You will be glad to hear Gizmo is doing well but I got this information from my contact telling me about how he was when she took him in
This is written exactly as she told me in her email response to me
When he came to me he was completley bald apart from the top of his head, and had bit wounds, abcess's etc all over. Supplements were given in his food, small amount of bathing with cotton wool to soothe his skin and stimulate hair growth. Antibiotics and hibiscrub bathing was given to him and his abcess's one of his front toes and one on his back. Over all check ups were given by vets every week. Diet change had to be given as he was originally fed on what looked like bird food, once this was changed his weight gained. (at first he had to be syringe fed as he was so skinny)
I will put some up to date photos on here when I can
19th April 2007
Sorry its been so long before I could update the photos on here I have been very unwell, But here we have some photos of Gizmo taken on the 17th April 2007 he is looking so good now and we are over the moon with his progress, He is a very special little guy and will be staying with us perminently this will be the last photo update on the main rescues page of our site but we do give people the option to adopt him or if you become a member of of www.joeychinchilla.co.uk you will recieve access to the members only area which has regular updates about our rescues and all the other things that are going on here, for more information on how to adopt Gizmo or becoming a member please email me on joeychinchilla@btinternet.com
5th May 2007
Just wanted to update you on Gizmo again.... He has been with us almost 3 months and has now gained a good amount of weight(121g), he is eating properly, gnawing his gnaw blocks,loves nothing more than chewing on a peice of cholla and running around his cage and out of it when it is play time, he no longer drools or dribbles but is on constant vitamin medication to control this, his fur is looking fantastic and he is basically a much healthier happier chinchilla than the frail little guy that came to us back in February, I have to admit I was so upset when I saw him I thought he would be dead within a day or less because he really looked like he was going to die, Thank god we got him when he did and he is now so healthy and well on the road to a perfect recovery.
8th July 2007
Very sad news today...
If you have read Gizmo's story you will know he has a history of fitting, unfortunately early hours yesterday (7th July) morning Gizmo suffered a severe fit and never recovered we are totally devastated and I couldn't bring myself to post it on here until now
After his terrible life before coming here I feel so sad he only had a few months with us and life will not be the same without him
R.I.P. Gizmo we love you and miss you so muchyou will live in our hearts forever
We do have a couple of photos taken in the last couple of days of his life and as soon as I can bring myself to put them on here I will so you can all see his cheeky little face...
Last photos of Gizmo taken 6th July 2007
Phoebe
Beautiful standard grey little girl came to us because she has a deformed ear and we are happy to take her in and look after her she has a lovely little character
Rufus
Black Velvet male (approx 20 years old) came to us on 20th December 2006 suffering terrible fur chewing the above photos were taken the night he came to us
Merlinunfortunately we lost our darling Merlin on 9th February 2007 RIP little man
Standard Grey Male (approx 4 years old) came to us with his friend Rufus on the 20th December 2006 suffering terrible fur chewing the above photos were taken the night he came to us
Harley & Harvey(Photos to be added soon)
2 Standard Grey males from the same parents as Phoebe but the following litter, their breeder contacted us to see if we could take them on as we had already given Phoebe a loving home and friends for her to play with, They too have slightly deformed ears
Woody2
Stunning Beige Violet who unfortunately has a fur chewing problem
Koda(Photo to be added soon)unfortunately we lost our darling Koda on 23rd February 2007 RIP little man
Stunning Beige who unfortunately has a fur chewing problem
