Title (eng)
Husbandry Conditions and Welfare State of Pet Chinchillas (Chinchilla lanigera) and Caretakers' Perceptions of Stress and Emotional Closeness to Their Animals
Author
Elisabeth M. Gilhofer
Denise V. Hebesberger
Frank Künzel
Cornelia Rouha-Mülleder
Abstract (eng)
For pet chinchillas, limited data are available on husbandry and the human-animal relationship despite their impact on health, behavior, and welfare. We conducted an online survey with pet chinchilla caretakers (n = 336), targeting husbandry practices, health, behavioral indicators of welfare, and human-chinchilla relationships. We further investigated associations between caretakers' perceptions of stress in their chinchillas and emotional closeness to their animals. Basic needs such as keeping with conspecifics, constant access to water and hay, or offering dust baths were mostly fulfilled. Potential welfare issues included individual keeping (14.3%), undersized cages/enclosures (reported by 27.6% of the Austrian respondents), and suffering from a disease (14.7%). Behavioral indicators of good welfare, such as playing and cuddling with conspecifics, were observed several times per day by 40.9% and 87.9% of the respondents, respectively. Repetitive and unwanted behaviors were less common (fur biting, for instance, occurred 'never' in 82.9%). Caretakers rated their animals as generally more stressed if the animal was ill and more often showed fearful behavior toward them. Caretakers feeling closer to their animals spent more time engaging with them. Correct identification of this kind of association could be used as guidance for recommendations to improve chinchilla welfare at home and in the veterinary setting.
Keywords (eng)
Abnormal Repetitive BehaviorsCatAttachmentAttitudesEmpathyHealthConsequencesEnrichmentRodentsRabbits
Type (eng)
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
Is in series
Title (eng)
Animals
Volume
14
Issue
21
ISSN
2076-2615
Issued
2024
Number of pages
26
Publication
MDPI
Version type (eng)
Date issued
2024
Access rights (eng)
License
Rights statement (eng)
© 2024 by the authors
Citable links
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:3759
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14213155
Content
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Object type
PDFDocument
Format
application/pdf
application/pdf
Created
20.12.2024 09:16:08
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