1

Overseas identity background

Chinchillas are native to South America and are endemic to the Andes Mountains. Mainly distributed in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina in South America. After the 18th century, due to the development of artificial breeding technology, they began to appear in Spain, Japan, Australia and other countries.

2

Totoro has a unique and outstanding appearance

The front half of the body looks like a rabbit, and the back half looks like a rat. It has large, blunt ears, fluffy tail hair, bright eyes, and many long whiskers on both sides of the nose.

3

Endangered species due to historical reasons

As early as the 18th century, during the Spanish conquest of South America, chinchillas were used by European royal families because their fur was extremely valuable. Their tributes were hunted in large numbers, almost to the point of extinction. Fortunately, a hundred years later, a mining and metallurgical engineer from the United States spent 4 years collecting more than a dozen chinchillas and brought them back to the United States for breeding, and we have today’s pet chinchillas in our homes.

4

Cruel value

Kamijou said that chinchillas are on the verge of extinction because their fur is precious. Because the density of chinchilla hair is so high that blood-sucking fleas and parasites cannot survive on the epidermis, the fur of chinchillas is not only extremely soft, but also very clean. So much so that in the early days, chinchillas were raised for the purpose of selling their skins. After the skins were removed, the life of the chinchillas ended. This cruel process resulted in hundreds of dollars in money.

5

Low fecundity

Chinchillas Sexually mature at 6-8 months, it takes more than 3 months to get pregnant, 2 months to breastfeed, and generally gives birth to 1-3 litters. On average, a chinchilla can give birth to three litters in two years. In other words, a female cat can have 5 or 6 offspring in two years. Therefore, the reproduction of chinchillas is very slow.

6

Advantages of domestication

Chinchillas have no odor, are docile, quiet and not noisy. No zoonotic diseases have been found so far, no injections are needed, and it is highly disease-resistant. It does not consume the owner's breeding time, has low daily feeding costs, does not scream, does not disturb the neighbors, and is very easy to be accepted by breeders. With so many advantages, chinchillas have quickly become the new favorite of fashionable households.