Dodo, the beautiful chinchilla
One that remained
The now large family of chinchillas has grown by one memberagain. Dodo, a snow-white chinchilla with black-greyears, unfortunately had to leave his usual home. He found a new home in the Aiderbichler chinchilla family, is now neutered and is waiting with his fellow chinchillas for the coming warm spring.
"... I know they get a lot of requests, but ..."
The email message conveyed love and concern for Dodo.After one of the two chinchilla bucks died, the family got a second animal from the animal shelter.
Before Dodo had been taken toan animal shelter, he lived alone in a dark room without food and was almost starving had beenfound before. He lived in a cage at the animal shelter and the carerscould barely manageit, to nurse the shy Dodoback to health.
Then an animal-loving family, who already had a buck, picked it up, Dodo to himself. ESurprisingly,the two got alongwelland even cuddled together. Dodowas probably still cautious anddidn’t really want to eat for the first few days, but slowly he gained confidenceand everything seemed fine.
The family moved to another flat, and now the dilemma was about to begin. The two bucks had to be separated because one of them kept getting injured. Unfortunately, the partners separated, dthe family broke up, the older Chinchilla had died, Dodowas alone again.
"... The little button eye deserves better ..." - and so it is now
The animal-loving lady was in despair. When she moved house, she couldn’t take Dodo with her. Where he stayed, he was tolerated and “just fed”.
Anna at Gut Aiderbichl in Henndorf was delighted when she was given a snow-white dodo to add to the fourteen chinchillas that had been given away for various reasons.
Dodo is now living alone in his aviary for a few more days. He has been neutered and the small wound has already healed well. Dodo is slowly accepting Anna’s careful hands. When she wants to take him out to check the wound, he stays in his corner and reluctantly, but nevertheless, allows himself to be taken out of the aviary. Every day Anna is allowed to give her dodo one more stroke.
After he still has the stitches in the neutering area, there is no sand bath for the snow-white dodo with the black-grey ears. Wait a few more days, then Dodo can have an extensive sand bath.
Chinchillas cannot be humanised
Trying to catch them is stressful for these sensitive little animals. In the wild, chinchillas are prey for all kinds of birds of prey, jackals, snakes, etc.
So a firm grip from a human hand does not make the chinchilla feel friendly, as it feels threatened.
However, a health check is carried out once a week. In future, Dodo will also have to be handled gently. Anna does this in a purring, soothing voice and with a bribe: a small sultana is supposed to be a reward. In this way, Dodo also learns: “Anna’s hand is a good one, Anna is not a bird of prey or any other enemy. Anna just wants to be allowed to check that I’m okay. Thank you, Anna”.
The chinchillas will move into the “summer residence” behind the donkey house next spring. Then we’ll see whether there will be a male flat share or a mixed flat share … we’ll see.
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
All the best, dear Dodo.
