Loading ...My father bought a chincilla in 1945 for $3500 ! – the price of about three new cars at the time . He mated it with another owner’s chinchilla and they split the litter . At that time I think there were only two chinchilla coats in the world . One in the British royalty and the other in the family of Aga Khan or Ali Khan (husband of Rita Hayworth).
However , as the herd grew in size , the value per animal kept dropping , so the ‘nest egg’ maintained more or less constant value .
The fur is beautiful – grey ranging from almost white on their belly side to very dark on the back . The softness comes from the fact that whereas our hair is single stranded from each follicle , chinchilla hairs branch out from the root , like a tree . Daily , we would put clean fullers’ earth in a bread pan into their individual cages and they would roll in it , violently , to remove any oil they secreted , to keep the pelt fluffy and clean . Chinchilla kits are born with teeth and tend to accidentally bite while nursing so mortality from being bitten by the mother in retaliation is not uncommon . They are nocturnal – in nature , they remain in their burrows during the day and emerge at night , similar to possums.
BTW – we did not own a family car until ten years later , after our home was mortgage-free .