Having a Chinchilla to stay for Christmas!

[AlpacaLypse]

Hi all, my dd1 (aged 15) has been asked if she'll look after a Chinchilla over Christmas. She already looks after her own hamster beautifully with zero input from me. The owners have said they'll give her some money, but not said how much. How much would be fair to ask for per day? The Chinchilla and all its bits and bobs would come here.

TIA

[mistlethrush]

We paid £15 at the pet shop we got ours from (a day) but they're really not much bother unless you get them out in which case I recommend a small room with no holes in anything (ours has a run around the bathroom regularly as its the easiest room to 'control' things in!). They can get through surprisingly small gaps - we had to take the gas fire off the wall once when ours went up through a really tiny hole to get into it.

[AlpacaLypse]

Eeek - our house is old - think timber framed cottage - and full of chinchilla sized gaps!

[PixieofCatan]

We pay our rat sitter £15 per week per cage (so should have been £60 for our ten day holiday but she waived the fee as she loved them so much!). We were going to pay exactly the same for somebody to pop in and make sure that they have food for 10 days on the trot, so it made sense for them to go to somebody who would play with them at all hours!

[AlpacaLypse]

So it varies from £15 a day to £15 a week...

I think I'll suggest £5 a night!

Thanks everyone.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Do the owners want/expect the chinchilla to have free range time?

Our guineas go to bording (IITC £7 a day for two pigs) but they don't go squeezing themselves behind fireplaces too porky

[AlpacaLypse]

70 good thought, I'll ask the young owner's mum when I next see her. Thanks