i love my chinchillas, they have become my favourite animal,
a few words of warning, they are addictive,....april 2004 i got a male grey , we named him Kaz, well he was soo much fun, that in july 2004, we went out and got a female black velvet, we named her Lilo, then... in december 2004 we got another male, a silver mosaic(white) we named him Riddick, and now we are contemplating, if we should breed Lilo and Riddick, ......
they do need to be cared for properly for them to thrive,. and also, they need a stable climate, they must be kept in a cool enviroment or they will die from heat stroke, (15 celcius is comfortable for them) we actually had to go out and buy an air conditioner last summer, just for them, as we would just suffer the heat in the summer, but since we had them we had to do that,
male chins, are more affectionate then the females, and with time they do become friendly, but i have read that if you mishandle them they will be skittish for good, so i took my time and managed to get mine friendly and tame so i can handle them,
they so make me laugh, and are so much fun to play around with, they run on me, and jump on me, and use me as their little trampoline, but i do advise you to read up on them, if you are interested i know some great groups that could help you learn and give you advice on what to look for when purchasing one,