Chinchillas: The Perfect Family Pet to Have Waiting 'Under the Tree' This Holiday Season

As the holiday season approaches, many parents will be considering a pet as a gift-giving option for their children. One of the more unusual choices, and optimal for families looking for a low maintenance animal, is a chinchilla. Unfortunately, information about proper care for themor even where to buy themis not commonly available. Pet lover, Larry Li, hopes to address the lack of awareness about chinchillas through the establishment of his website, http://chinchilla.co/, a brand new resource for consumers.

The website is a one-stop-shop that offers articles with helpful information on how to care for a chinchilla, where to buy them, how to select the most appropriate cage, how to keep them clean, and general pros and cons on having one as a pet. It also offers unique or interesting facts about chinchillas that make them an appealing and loveably quirky pet choice.

Chinchillas are native animals of The Andes Mountains region of South America. There are three primary species of the animalLanigera, Brevicaudata, and Costinabut most of the pets bred in captivity descend from the Lanigera Chinchilla species. They are an attractive animal with fur that is incredibly soft and very denseso dense that they literally cannot attract fleas.

Chinchillas are a great pet choice for families that may not appreciate a barking dog in the house. They are quiet and low maintenance animals, making them ideal for busy families with schedules where walking a dog for a half hour each day is not practical. Being a small animal, chinchillas require minimal amounts of food and water, so maintenance costs are also generally low. Pet owners will also need to purchase a cage, and the website provides good information on how to select an appropriate one.

"I had two pet chinchillas for 9 years and loved every minute of it!" said Amanda Persky, a customer who said she found the website helpful. "They had such uniquely different personalities! One of them loved to cuddle and climb and the other one was more low-key, but she loved to just rest her paw on my hand. I discovered the right cage was critical to keeping them safe and happy, and I also set up a safe space for them to run around outside the cage when I let them out of the cage to play. I loved them! I think if more people knew about how cute and amazing they are more people would be buying them. Myself, I'm thinking about buying another pair."

Giving back is also important, which is why Li has stated that the website donates $0.05 per visit to the US Humane Society or American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).These organizations rescue and assist mistreated animals, so consumers can feel assured their visit is also contributing to the care of other animals as well.

For more information on chinchillas, or how to find out if a chinchilla might be a good pet for the family, visit http://chinchilla.co/. The website also has a Facebook page for customers to ask questions and share about their experiences at https://www.facebook.com/chinchilla.co, as well as a Pinterest page at http://www.pinterest.com/sobelarry/chinchilla/.