For the month of July, thirteen (13) chinchillas were adopted and eight (8) chinchillas were surrendered. Sounds good, right? Well...we've received an unusual number of medical cases lately. Roo, a chinchilla with bumblefoot was surrendered when her owners became overwhelmed by her condition and their life situation. Toast, an emaciated ebony girl came to us on death's door. She has since started eating and now has a little female friend to keep her company and encourage her to eat. Ginger, a fur chewed girl came in as part of a mixed group from a home without air conditioning! Her prognosis was also very grave, but has perked up, stopped chewing her fur and littered a sweet baby boy and girl. We’ve also received some of our most aged couple. A 15 year old brother/sister pair were surrendered when their owner was admitted to an assisted living facility. The brother/sister were not housed together and we were told do not get along. We have since found a male friend for the brother and are still working on finding a compatible friend for the female.

While we do generally have excellent community support and response to our search for just the right homes for these recycled pets, we still have many who have been waiting their turn for the perfect home. Some of the more troubled chins have been here for months, if not years. Our adoption fees cover but a small portion of our expenses necessary to care for the chinnies who come to us.

It's our store that makes it possible for us to continue doing the work we do to help families find new homes for their chins and help with medical expenses whenever possible. While we do not like to solicit donations, we're more than excited to offer new store items for sale. So with that in mind, we'd like to officially introduce our two latest chinnie chew toys!!!! Whoo hoo!!!!

First is our Jacob's Ladder, made with 6 different kinds of chin-safe woods. While not technically "new" anymore, we never did an official release. *cough* My bad, sorry about that.

And finally, the one you've all been waiting for.... The one Whimsy has been so secretive about.... Our newest.....Chinchilla Piñata! This Whimsy original is a giant oversized willowball stuffed with the choicest hays, herbs, flowers and treats. Check out our store for more details and ordering information, and stay tuned for more future releases. ;) 

We have more new toys!

As some of you already know, we've started offering rosehip-stuffed willow balls as both toss toys and, what we've been calling, our new Orb-bits Lite. These have been especially popular with the chinnies who absolutely adore the treat filled globes.

Rose hips are essential to a chinchilla's diet in that they add highly palpable, easy to digest vitamin C, which helps strengthen the connective tissue in their gums. Because chinchilla's teeth are free floating, having strong tissue to support them is most important to help ward off malocclusion. Our toys are carefully designed to accommodate your gnawing pet's unique needs and preferences. 

We also offer loose rose hips by the pound for the little beggars. ;) 

For the month of August, six (6) chinchillas were brought in and a whopping sixteen (16) were adopted!  That breaks our previous high adoption record of fifteen (15). Once again we're back to having plenty of spare room and several empty cages. 

If you've been following us on Facebook, you'll see nearly up to the minute details of our daily news. One fun thing we've been posting has been the quickly climbing goal to reach $3000 for an emergency standby generator. As of the time of this post, we have already brought in $360 toward our goal! Thanks to all our new and old friends we have come to know through this endeavor. Your support is, and continues to be, amazing! Cyber hugs to you all.

Our positive reputation has spread with word of mouth recommendations for adoptions, surrenders, advice, and items from our store. And speaking of items....

We had another brainstorm of an idea. Our new "Chill Out Hang Out" came as a result of a request for a daybed-like accessory (thanks for the motivation, Laura!). Bucky was the first to try our beta version.

Whimsy had been toying with a chiller topped hidey house with varying degrees of success, but the stone cold, chiller ledge is a winner for sure! These sturdy cage additions come with TWO (2) stone chillers; one to place in the ledge, and one to keep handy in your freezer, ready to swap outin seconds. Check out the cage accessories page for more details. :)

We finally did it!

We are constantly looking for ways to improve our numerous toy and cage accessory designs. Our suspension bridges are one thing that has gone through several revamps throughout the years, but I think we’ve finally hit on a winner.

~*~ Bridges with Bling! ~*~ ™

Our newest version of these fun cage accessories now come with mixed gemstone spacer beads. That’s right, gemstones! Previously, the wooden beads made tempting chews for chins, which destroyed the function and safety of our beautiful design. Now, with rock hard gemstones (the same relative hardness as chew-proof glass water bottles) we have a stunning new and improved version that we expect to last! 

Our extra wide, 8” bridges come in ready made lengths of approximately 3 feet long, but you can custom order any length (or color as available) to perfectly match your cage setup. See our Store page for more details.

Thank you to Cheryl Graham from Che’ Chinchillas (http://www.chechinchillas.com/) for the brainstorming sessions and awesome name for our new product.

We received a very curious and uplifting email this week from the people at Pet Care Veterinary Hospital. We were invited to come to their seminar and set up a booth to sell our toys! They would also like to showcase our toys in the clinic itself. 

We also received an email from the co-chairperson in charge of making arrangements for a state fair in Pennsylvania. They have also invited us to come set up a booth to show off our chew toys and cage accessories. In both cases we were referred by people with rave reviews.  We are honored, with giddy delight. :)

And speaking of toys... we have a new wreath design, now available in our store! This one is made of unadulterated pumice, pecan wood coins and loofah stars. Not only do the chinchillas love this combination, it's also good for bunnies, rats, hamsters, and other gnawing/nibbling pets. Parrots love our toys too!