We have been very busy in the rescue having taken in 43 rescues in the last three months with more waiting to come in, but sadly we do not have any room at the moment.

We have managed to re-home 18 chinchillas and 3 degu’s though which has helped.

There has been countless vet visits with many chins currently on medication, but thankfully all appear to be doing well.

However, we are growing more and more concerned at the amount of chinchillas needing to come into our rescue and others. It saddens us when we unable to help, but we can only house so many chins. Our policy is that every single chin deserves the chance of life and as long as they have a good quality of life, who are we to decide otherwise, but because we have so many chins that are not able to be re-homed, we worry about what will happen to the chins that we cannot offer help to.

We believe the only way to approach this problem is education—and we are making plans to implement this during 2008.

The decision has been made for us to close the rescue from during Christmas and the New Year, but we will be available for any emergencies.

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We have taken in 24 chinchillas and 2 hamsters this month. Four kits were also born to two female rescues and these little rascals have been keeping us very busy and we are now suffering from lack of sleep. Both lots of kits have decided they don’t like each other so we have been busy rotating them, firstly every hour, then 2 hours and currently every 3 hours….day and night!!! Anyone considering breeding must ensure they can give any kits born 24 hour care—if you can’t spare the time, then you shouldn’t breed!!

The re-homing side of things has been busy and we managed to find forever homes for 13 chinchillas and 4 degu’s but we are still looking for homes for the remaining rescues that are available for re-homing.

We would ask that everyone spares a thought for every single chinchilla in the UK that is in need of that special ‘forever’ home. Sadly, the time has come where healthy chinchillas are being put to sleep because no homes can be found for them. (We never put a healthy chin down).

Thanks again to those of you that has supported us and especially to the ones that have helped with the everyday running of the rescue—it is greatly appreciated.

That's all for now, we hope to update again shortly.

August saw the arrival of 4 chinchillas into the rescue and we managed to rehome 12 chinchillas and 5 degu’s

We had to say goodnight to one of our old ladies this month, Mable began to deteriorate so the decision was made to let her go over the rainbow bridge—goodnight little lady.

There has been numerous vet appointments during the month, too many to mention!!

Once again, we have been very grateful for all the help we have been receiving from friends at the weekends who have volunteered to help with the cleaning and odd jobs.

That’s all for now folks—will try and catch up with the news in October!

Our major project for the month has been the new shed build and we were very lucky to have quite a few visitors over two weekends to help insulate the shed and clean the cages ready for the chins to move into. Thanks to those involved for all your help.

I feel that we must also thank Roman for all his hard work, he has spent every spare moment on the new shed as none of this would be possible without his help and support. Photos of the progress made can be found here

Cloud, who is now one of permanent rescues, has again decided to attack his tail. Thankfully, he was caught early and has now made a full recovery.

Charlie, the rescue with the bladder stones, has now been discharged from the vets and is coming on great. He is a real character now, but seems to prefer men to women!

As well as the shed build, we have also been hand rearing a baby degu that was rejected by his mother. We actually saw her throw him out of the nest box and was quite aggressive towards him. Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt, so we took on the task of feeding him every 2 hours. Due to his small size we were very concerned about him, but he has proved us all wrong and is still with us and doing very well.

At the moment we have 49 chinchillas, 19 degu’s and 2 hamsters looking for new homes and 7 are reserved. A further 35 are currently being monitored and 36 are now permanent rescues.

More news in August!

Thank you to everyone that donated to the appeal, your thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated.

During June we have taken in 27 chinchillas and 6 hamsters and managed to re-home just 6 of the rescues.

We would ask that everyone bears a thought for all the standards and beiges sitting in rescues waiting for that special ‘forever’ home to come along. Ok some may not be perfect, but each and every one deserves the chance to live out their lives in a home environment where they will receive the love and attention they so rightly deserve.

We have had 18 vet appointments during the month and Martin came out to us before he went on his holidays to ensure everything was ok. We then had the pleasure of caring for his three dogs for a week whilst he was away!!

We would like to remind everyone to take care with the warm weather (when it arrives!) Please remember heat kills, so ensure your chinchillas are kept cool at all times. We do not recommend exercise during hot weather. If you don’t have an air-conditioner there are plenty of ideas to keep chinchillas cool on the internet. Don’t wait until its too late, do your research now!

More news to follow including the progress of the shed building!!

Charlie is recovering well from his major surgery, although he did have a slight set back with a bladder infection, but is now well on the road to recovery.

Dinky, a standard male has been showing signs of illness but we have not been able to identify the problem yet. A blood test was done but with no conclusive results, so he has to go through further tests in a couple of weeks. However, we do believe he may be suffering from the start of liver problems.

Cloud, a hetero ebony male, has decided he doesn’t like his own tail and has made quite a mess of it. Despite daily treatment and medications, the decision has been made to amputate part of the tail due to infection, although the final decision will be made by Martin when he goes in for surgery.

We are expecting a large no. of chins to come in shortly, so have had to send out an urgent appeal to raise funds for a new shed to house these rescues. The response to-date has been overwhelming and we would like to thank everyone that has sent in a donation and sponsored one of the permanent rescues. We would also like to say a HUGE thank you to Chinchilla World for allowing us to post the appeal on their forum, and an even BIGGER thank you to Chinwags for allowing an on-line auction to help raise the much needed funds.

We need your support to continue running the rescue

More news to following, including an update on the appeal!

The first day of April saw us at the National Chinchilla Show in Bugbrooke. We held a stall which was very well attended and thanks to everyone that visited us. We even managed to achieve a 1st with our own Young Standard female and a Highly Commended with our lovely Adult standard male who was out of condition on the day!

Sadly, we had to say goodnight to our very own Mrs. D who we had nursed through various ailments in the last year but it became too much for her. Goodnight special lady.

We have had a very busy month (and expensive) with the rescues. Two males were found to be suffering from Urolithiasis (Crystals/stones in the bladder) and have undergone surgery.

Unfortunately, despite our constant care, Velo didn’t recover from the operation. Charlie has had to have an Urethrostomy (re-routing of the urethra and creating a new opening). It is early days with him, but we will keep you posted.

Bladder stones can be caused by feeding chinchillas an incorrect diet, resulting in excessive levels of protein and calcium.

A rescue female that had been caged with her brother, resulting in her becoming pregnant, had to have an emergency c-section - she was experiencing complications with her placenta - sadly the two kits died (they were premature) but she is doing well, despite removing the stitches herself!

We have had 38 vet appointments this month, resulting in fees over £700!! These huge bills will have an enormous effect on the running of the rescue and we will not be able to continue without your valued support and donations, no matter how small—they are all greatly appreciated.

We have also taken in 14 female Degu’s, of which some may be pregnant—we will keep you posted.

More news to follow!!!

During March we have taken in 3 rescues (two in an emergency situation) and have managed to re-home just one rescue—this was mainly due to us being closed for two weekends whilst Roman was away. One of the new rescues has been quite poorly, but with help from our vet his is making very good progress.

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Poppy and Smokey whose health did not improve and the decision was made to let them go, goodnight sweet girls. We had approximately 20 vets appointments during March.

Shakira, the one eared female is now showing problems with her inner ear. An abscess has been found and she is receiving treatment for that but, at the present moment, we do not know how deeply her ear is affected. We will let you know how she progresses.

We attended the Southern Region National Chinchilla Show and would like to thank everyone that supported our rescues—the Hammocky Hammocks were especially popular.

We would like to take this opportunity that thank those of you that have supported our rescue. Without your help none of the work we do would be possible and we greatly appreciate your donations. We do not name names—you know who you are and we thank you.

On a different note, we have noticed a few ‘rescues’ appearing on the internet—please ensure that you are donating to a genuine chinchilla rescue and not someone asking for funds to keep their own chinchillas .

We are still overflowing with rescues, those that are available for re-homing, some that are temporarily unavailable and no forgetting the permanent rescues . We are still struggling to raise funds for another shed—any donation whether it be great or small is greatly appreciated to enable us to continue to rescue these delightful animals.

Thanks for looking

February has been a little quieter for us with the arrival of only 5 more rescues, and we also managed to re-home 12 chinchillas giving us a little breathing space. The re-homing fees are coming in very useful with so many expenses each week, it is difficult to keep the rescue afloat at times.

The ‘Sponsor a Permanent Rescue’ is also helping with our funds, but it has been noticed that other ‘chinchilla rescues’ are now doing similar things. We would like to make it clear that we are not associated with these other ‘rescues’ in any way despite the similarities.

A stall was held at the February West Midlands & Wales show in aid of the rescues and we would like to say thank you to everyone that contributed to our stand. We are now including a range of the Hammocky Hammock hammocks which are proving very popular. More new items will be introduced once Roman finds to time to work on them!!

We managed to get through February with only 8 vet appointments, but two of the rescues have been very poorly. One of these chins, Poppy has only just come into us and is in a very bad way. She is extremely underweight and needs x-rays but we have to try and get some weight on her first—she is eating like a horse at the moment—more about those in March.

At the moment we have over 40 chinchillas ready for their new ‘forever’ home. We also have about 50 chins that are not available for re-homing yet for various reasons—some are still in quarantine, some may possibly be pregnant, others are showing eye problems, some are showing the early signs of liver problems, a couple are blind and a few are (in our opinion) too old to be moved about!

Thanks for looking.

The start of January has been very busy with chinchillas coming in, and thankfully a few going on to their new ‘forever’ homes. However, we still have nearly 50 chinchillas looking for their special home and over 50 that are not able to be re-homed yet. And that’s not counting the permanent rescues!

Last September time saw the arrival of three sets of triplets and one set of twins to our rescues. Sleep went out of the window as we were very busy with rotating and handfeeding every couple of hours. Well, we happy to report that all the kits have now gone on to their new homes—they will be missed!

Sadly, we had to say goodnight to Twiggy and Jill, two of our sponsorship chins. Jill was getting on (she was 17 years old) and went peacefully in her sleep. Twiggy had been ill for a little while, but despite our constant care the time came for him to go. Sleep well little ones.

We hope to introduce a few more of our permanent rescues to the sponsorship scheme—just need a few more hours in the day to get it done!

Titch had to have an eye removed due is glaucoma but has made an excellent recovery and is now ready for re-homing. It was also discovered that Oscar (aka Mr. Grump) was suffering from spurs, so has had an operation to have them removed and after a couple of days of being uncomfortable, he has now recovered. Oscar will be staying here where we can monitor his progress.

We have had 13 vet appointments for January and only 1 appointment booked for February so far—if only it would stay like that!!

That’s it for now, hopefully more news to follow soon.