Cute as a button chinchilla finds a home

A baby chinchilla who was orphaned at just four weeks old has found a loving new home.

Button, who lost her mother shortly before Christmas, was hand-reared by the team at our Burford rehoming centre, who stayed up round the clock as the young girl needs to be fed every few hours.

Chinchilla kittens rely on their mums to feed them until they are eight weeks old, so we acted as a surrogate parent for Button, feeding her replacement milk and introducing chinchilla food gradually.

Lydia Sawyer, a Blue Cross Animal Welfare Supervisor at our rehoming centre in Burford, Oxfordshire, said: “Chinchilla kittens aren’t weaned from their mothers until they are eight weeks old. At the point Button was orphaned we needed to feed her every four hours.”

We also made up for her missing mum in other ways.

Lydia added: “We’ve given her a cuddly toy to snuggle up with as a substitute mum and heat pads.”

Button was born in Blue Cross care after her mum, Beano, was brought to the charity because her owner was allergic to her. She is the first chinchilla to be born at the charity.

Tragically, when Button was just a few weeks old her mother died, leaving her all alone at Christmas time.

Button enjoys a good roll in her dust bath and likes to hang out in her hammock.

Once Button was old enough, we slowly introduced her to another unwanted chinchilla at our Burford centre called Baby Girl. Chinchillas like company of their own kind, and these two girls turned out to be the best of friends. They have now been rehomed together.

You can watch Button and Baby Girl enjoying their dust baths in the video below.

We have lots of small pets at our rehoming centres ready and waiting to find happy homes. Please visit our rehoming pages if you could give one of them a happy ever after.