Chipmunk is a small thrifty rodent. Where do chipmunks live in nature? When a chipmunk goes to sleep
In the conditions of life in natural environment Habitat Chipmunk is in a state of suspended animation (or hibernation) for almost the entire cold season. However, the life of animals (in particular, rodents) at home differs sharply from the natural one. That is why, in order not to disturb the biorhythms of your pet, consider a number of significant patterns that allow you to bring environmental conditions closer to optimal ones.
How does a chipmunk prepare for winter?
So how does a chipmunk hibernate? In nature, the hibernation of the animal begins in late autumn and ends in early March. At home, this process proceeds somewhat differently. Despite the fact that chipmunks are warm-blooded animals, the temperature environment does not significantly affect his health.
Most often, the animal hibernates at home when the temperature drops significantly. Immediately before hibernation, the activity of the animal is significantly reduced, it becomes sleepy, lethargic and lifeless. Most of the time the animal spends in a small wooden house, which should be installed in the cage in advance.
Most of the day the animal sleeps; metabolic processes in his body slow down. Chipmunk wakes up solely for the sake of meals. The hibernation itself is intermittent and lasts in "blocks", each of which lasts approximately a week. The final awakening is in March. How to help an animal to hibernate?
And how does a chipmunk living in captivity prepare for winter?
Make sure that the ambient temperature does not rise too high: chipmunks tolerate heat much worse than cold. Make sure that the animal can check and replenish its food stores and is always full. The air temperature must be lowered, however, this should be done gradually - in order to avoid shock to the animal.
During this period, it is also permissible to move the cage away from the battery and other heating elements.
Conditions hibernation animal should be as close to natural as possible. Despite the fact that the animal will be in a state of suspended animation, keep the cage clean, and also make sure that the feeder and drinker are always full.
Hibernation is a natural state that most rodents go through - including domestic chipmunks. The cold season will allow the animal to gain strength and properly prepare for a new stage of life; you can give him all the help he needs.
Chipmunks are cute rodents of the squirrel family, the closest relatives of ground squirrels and marmots. Of the entire large family, it is chipmunks that are most often kept at home.
Chipmunks: photo, appearance
There are usually three subgenera of chipmunks:
- Siberian (Asian), inhabiting Siberia, the Far East, the Urals, the North of the European part of Russia. Consists of one species Tamias sibiricus.
Siberian chipmunk Tamias sibiricus
- East American (eastern), living in the Northeast of North America. Also consists of one species Tamias striatus;
East American Chipmunk Tamias striatus- the third subgenus - Neotamias, numerous species of which live on west coast North America.
The animal is small: length up to 17 cm, tail - up to 12 cm, weight - up to 110 g. It resembles a small squirrel in terms of structure. The general tone of the color is reddish-gray, the belly is grayish-white. The main decoration of a chipmunk is 5 longitudinal black stripes and a fluffy tail, although not as luxurious as a squirrel's. The hind legs are slightly longer than the front.
Chipmunks, like ground squirrels, hamsters and some other rodents, have voluminous cheek pouches that are invisible to the eye when empty, and swollen when the thrifty animal stuffs various food there. Pictured is a chipmunk with tightly stuffed cheek pouches.
Chipmunks are diurnal animals, their large, slightly protruding eyes provide the animals with a large viewing angle. It is the eyes that play leading role in protection from natural enemies, and wow, the animal has a great many - predator birds, ermines, foxes, martens, etc.
All types of chipmunks are similar both in habits and appearance, only slightly differing in color and size. Very rare is the so-called "white" color (not to be confused with albinos), caused by the presence of a recessive gene.
Chipmunks: habitat, lifestyle
Chipmunks live in coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests, most often they can be found along the woodlands, along the edges, river valleys, in cluttered areas of the forest, where there is deadwood. They settle in the mountains up to the limit of the forest distribution. Avoids park-type forests without undergrowth and windfall, as well as swampy areas. Eastern chipmunk often lives among rocks and stony placers.
IN natural conditions Chipmunks feed mainly on the seeds of various wild and cultivated plants, from time to time diversifying their diet with insects and mollusks. Animals perfectly climb trees, it is on trees that they get most of the provisions.
In dense grass, under fallen trees, their roots and stumps, chipmunks dig holes with many rooms, hiding the entrance among the branches of shrubs and stones.
Each animal has a separate dwelling, often chipmunks' burrows are close to each other, and even close to each other - animals can create entire colonies. But by nature, these animals are loners. Each has its own area, and violation of the boundaries of the latter leads to heated fights. In the grain fields you can often meet a large number of chipmunks, but still each of them tries to emphasize its isolation - the animals mark their areas with urine or body odor, which they leave when they rub their stomachs on the ground. Chipmunks strictly monitor that the neighbor does not violate the border.
The chipmunk's dwelling has all the necessary premises: an entrance hall, a bedroom, a pantry and even a restroom. The sleeping area is always well lined. The pantries store food supplies for the winter - seeds, cereals, acorns, nuts, etc. Each animal weighing 100 g collects from 2 to 8 kilograms of food supplies for the winter period!
It is clear that even a kilogram of provisions will be more than enough for the winter, but the instinct does not allow the rodent to sit still and makes the animal stock up, and the more the better. A neat rodent carefully sorts provisions and puts them in separate pantries. Chipmunks start harvesting in the second half of August. Stocks are carried like ordinary food, in cheek pouches, often overcoming a distance of more than a kilometer.
Winter hibernation in animals is long, from October to April, almost throughout the entire distribution area. All this time they spend in the sleeping area of their hole, sometimes waking up in order to refresh themselves. During the hibernation period, as a rule, chipmunks do not eat all the stocks, leaving most of them for a hungry spring. If any animal devastates chipmunk stocks (mainly bears sin with this), then wintering can end badly for the animal.
There are rumors that chipmunks are suicidal animals, they allegedly hang themselves on branches if their pantries are ruined. However, this is nothing more than the tales of Siberian hunters. Animals have an extremely developed instinct for self-preservation, and they cannot have such a thing as “commit suicide”.
After the chipmunks come out of hibernation, they start rutting. During this period, females announce their mating moods, calling on males with characteristic sounds similar to a thin whistle.
The time of gestation by the female of the cubs is 30-32 days. Usually 3 to 6 babies are born, rarely more. Chipmunks are born blind and without a coat, but the coat grows so fast that within 2 weeks after birth, each animal becomes the owner of a good striped fur. Around the twentieth day of life, the eyes of the cubs open. And after 4-5 weeks, when the feeding time ends, they first leave the hole. Animals reach puberty quite late - at the age of 11 months.
Keeping chipmunks at home
Among all rodents, chipmunks are perhaps the most suitable for the role of pets.
Chipmunk as a pet
As a pet, a chipmunk has many advantages. The animal does not require much space, does not have a specific "mouse" smell, is clean (it is enough to clean the cage once a week), and most importantly, the chipmunk is active during the day and sleeps peacefully at night, which compares favorably with many other rodents leading a nocturnal lifestyle. Caring for a chipmunk is not burdensome, and you don’t need to rack your brains over compiling a diet - a chipmunk is omnivorous, it is easy to provide food for it.
Chipmunk is trusting and easily makes contact with a person. To tame it, you just need to constantly feed it from your hands. True, if you do not pay attention to him for some time, all skills are forgotten, and you will have to re-establish "friendly ties".
At home, a chipmunk can live up to ten years, while in its natural habitat its age is not long - no more than three or four years.
Among the shortcomings, one can note the possibility of falling into hibernation and aggression towards brothers in the winter in the event that hibernation did not take place. In nature, hibernation in these animals lasts from autumn to the end of March. Chipmunks living in an apartment become slower during this period. It happens that they do not leave their houses for a long time, but periodically wake up to stretch their bones and refresh themselves. In addition, the animals are too curious, so you can’t let them out of the cage and leave them unattended.
Joint keeping of chipmunks
Females get along easily, but when males are kept together, conflicts are usually inevitable. Males and females are recommended to be placed in the same cage only if you want to get offspring. If you're planning to breed chipmunks, don't breed from the same litter!
The natural desire to save their supplies from their relatives explains the relationship between chipmunks. From spring to the end of summer, the animals are set up quite peacefully; in captivity, sometimes during this period a couple or a brood of rodents can be kept in common cage(although it's better not to). But by the end of August - September, they become very intolerant of their cage neighbors and constantly fight. It happens that during this period relations even with the owner deteriorate, because the chipmunk needs to protect the supplies for the winter from “strangers”.
Housing for chipmunks
Chipmunks are very nimble and active animals; in nature, they are able to run a distance of more than 12 km in 1 hour. In order to satisfy the need for movement of such active pets, the cage must be spacious enough - at least 50 cm long, 50 cm wide and 100 cm high. A meter height is necessary because chipmunks love to climb up. If the cage contains two animals, the size of the cage should be at least doubled.
The cage must be metal with nickel-plated rods, the distance between the rods is not more than 1.5 cm. Inside the cage, it is necessary to install branches along which the animal could climb. A sleeping house is another necessary accessory, its minimum dimensions are 15 × 15x15 cm, the diameter of the inlet is at least 3 cm. It is better if the house is made of wood. If several animals are kept in a cage, then a separate house should be provided for each. For easy cleaning, the floor of the cage can be made in the form of a drawer. It is recommended to use peat as bedding, sawdust is also suitable.
Make sure that the cage has feeders, an automatic ball drinker and a running wheel (choose a wheel from 18 cm in diameter, with a solid surface).
Even if there is a sufficiently spacious and equipped with everything necessary housing, chipmunks periodically need to be let out of the cage for a walk, otherwise they develop a monotonous movement - the animal jumps from the floor to the wall of the cage, from the wall to the ceiling and down again. And so endlessly. This behavior of the chipmunk suggests that he does not have enough living space. But do not forget that while walking for a curious animal, you need an eye and an eye!
Chipmunks are hard to bear high temperature and can even die from overheating, being under the scorching rays of the sun. Therefore, it is better to keep the cage in a shaded place. But you should not completely deprive your pet of the sun either. Sometimes, in the morning, when the sun is still not baking, you can put the cage on the windowsill. There must be a place in the cage where the animal can hide from the sun.
hibernation
As already mentioned, nature is arranged in such a way that in vivo V winter time Chipmunks hibernate. When keeping chipmunks at home, hibernation may not take place, especially if the animals are kept at a constant room temperature. It's just that the animal becomes less active, rarely leaves its shelter. But if you have a couple of animals, and next summer you want to get offspring from them, hibernation will need to be artificially arranged by lowering the temperature in the room where the pets are kept to + 5- + 10 C. Such is the physiology of these animals, without hibernation of the female, the appearance of offspring unlikely.
Chipmunk feeding
A complete chipmunk diet consists of dry food and succulent food with small additions of animal proteins.
Dry food
The share of dry food in the diet of a rodent should be about 70%. Today, in specialized stores, you can find ready-made food for chipmunks, and a feed mixture designed for squirrels or hamsters is also suitable for them. But it is better to choose products from well-known, trusted manufacturers, such as Fiory, Padovan, Beaphar. These foods will provide your striped rodent with almost everything they need.
Chipmunks enjoy eating all kinds of nuts. But keep in mind that almonds should not be given to animals - they contain harmful hydrocyanic acid. Nuts, except for pine nuts, are given peeled. Cereals, seeds, acorns, cereals, branch shoots - all this will serve as an excellent and healthy food for your striped pet.
Juicy food
Juicy food - green parts of plants, berries, fruits and vegetables - should make up about 30% of the animal's diet.
Fruits and green food should be thoroughly washed and peeled, as the animals are susceptible to pesticides.
Protein supplement
Twice a week, a striped pet is given a protein supplement. In this capacity, crickets, zofobos, flour worms, grasshoppers, slugs are suitable. Some individuals are not averse to tasting low-fat cottage cheese, eggs, boiled chicken (fatty meat and poultry should not be given).
Despite the fact that the animal will eat almost everything, no matter what is offered to it, food from the human table, such as sausage, sweets, etc. sooner or later lead to health problems. Chipmunks, like most rodents, are contraindicated in fried, baked, salty, sour, sweet (the exception is a drop of honey, which can sometimes be pampered by a pet), salt, spices and preservatives.
Remember to keep fresh water in the cage at all times.
Regularly check the chipmunk pantries so that the accumulated food does not start to spoil. By the number of stocks, you can determine whether the chipmunk receives enough food.
If you decide to have this handsome man at home, then we do not recommend buying a chipmunk from your hands or in the bird market - it is likely to bring home a sick and wild animal. It is better to spend time looking for a good breeder - this way you will get a vigorous, healthy and tame chipmunk, and in addition, you will be able to get competent advice on care and maintenance.
The coloring of the chipmunk is peculiar. Five black-brown stripes run along the back along the pale-whitish background, which turns into ocher-rusty behind. A striped pattern compared to a solid color is considered primitive. It is believed that the appearance of spotted cubs in uniformly colored species (in carnivores, in deer) is rather archaic than adaptive.
Where to find a chipmunk?
In terms of body structure and lifestyle, the chipmunk occupies an intermediate position between a tree-dwelling squirrel and a fully ground ground squirrel. Chipmunk is an inhabitant of bushes, undergrowth and windblows. He quickly moves on the ground and climbs trees well, but he does both worse than specialized species - gopher and squirrel. They find most of their food on the ground, less on bushes and trees. The claws on the fingers of a chipmunk and a squirrel are short, curved and sharp in order to cling well to the bark of trees; gopher claws are longer and less curved
As an adaptive trait for a tree-climbing lifestyle, one should consider the well-developed sensitive apparatus in the chipmunk in the form of vibrissae. There are about 50 of them on the head and front legs. A squirrel - a typical dendrobiont - has more than 70, a gopher has less than 40
The chipmunk deftly runs along thick branches, sloping trunks and wells and is very careful on thin twigs. He reluctantly jumps from branch to branch and from tree to ground. It happens that, making his way along the branches for cones or berries, he breaks down. Jumping from a tree to the ground from a height of 5 m and above is more like a fall. At the same time, the animal intensively balances with its tail, with difficulty maintaining the desired body position.
Squirrels jumping from tree branches resemble gliding flying squirrels. At first, the squirrel falls vertically, but, gaining speed, deviates from the vertical and plans. At the same time, in flight, the squirrel can change direction and descend to the ground or onto a tree trunk. Its long tail combed to the sides (33% of the entire bearing surface of the animal) serves as a rudder and a parachute.
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Forage collection
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A chipmunk is worse than a squirrel and a flying squirrel, moving along the trunks and branches of trees. He is a poor excavator and does not make moves in the thickness of the snow, as mice and voles do. The chipmunk has a highly developed food storage instinct, which is generally characteristic of most squirrels. The presence of well-developed cheek pouches facilitates the transfer of seeds to the hole.
Since the nests of chipmunks are underground, the decisive condition for the habitation of the chipmunk is to a large extent the presence of light-textured and sufficiently dry soil for the construction of shelters. A chipmunk digs a hole in dry loose soil with groundwater no closer than 120-150 cm from the surface. The latter circumstance explains the rare occurrence or complete absence chipmunk in highly humid and swampy places
What do chipmunks eat?
The diet of chipmunks is varied. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a chipmunk eats almost everything it finds. Preference is given to pine nuts and pine seeds - depending on what is found in the place of residence of the animal. Where there is a pine nut, the chipmunk feeds almost exclusively on it. Larch seeds are eaten rarely, spruce - even less often.
 "And what I don't eat, I'll have a snack!"
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Chipmunk, although he prefers plant foods, cannot be called an exclusively herbivore. He can eat a snail, a spider, even an ixodid tick and insects: a grasshopper, a locust, a bug, a beetle, and often absorbs ants and sawflies. In addition, chipmunks hunt lizards, pick up dead and weakened small birds; cases of eating voles by chipmunks have been noted
Chipmunks have a well-defined instinct for food storage. In the cheek pouches, the rodent brings 8-10 g of food at a time: 54 pine nuts, or 224 wheat grains, or 225 mouse pea seeds (the highest recorded values \u200b\u200bare indicated). Up to 2.5 kg of feed can usually be found in a granary. The smallest stocks are in the burrows of young males that have wintered for the first time, the largest stocks are in the burrows of old females.
Chipmunk breeding
After wintering, males emerge from their burrows first. Females are inactive for the first 2-4 days; usually they sit on a knot or on a fallen tree - they bask in the sun. With a friendly warm spring, mating takes place in a short time: from mid-April to early May, with a cold one, it drags on until the end of May. During this period, the animals make peculiar invocative cries. Both males and females call. Females, as a rule, do not go to the call, but only respond. Males, having heard the voice of another chipmunk, rush to his call, responding with short quiet sounds. Sometimes up to 10 males or more gather for the cry of a female. Fights sometimes break out between them. Chasing each other, the animals run along the ground, deadwood, climb tree trunks. While the males are fighting, the females are quietly feeding. The male, who drove away all rivals or remained near her while others are fighting, mates
Pregnancy lasts 35-40 days. Young will be born in mass at the end of May, on average there are 6 of them in a litter. Newborn chipmunks weigh an average of 4.3 g. At first, the cubs have no regulation of body temperature. When cooled (for example, in the absence of a mother), they fall into an anabiotic state; while their body temperature drops to the temperature of the environment. In this state, they can go without food for a long time. Thermoregulation is established in young people on the 10th day; on the 21st day they are completely covered with wool
Chipmunks in winter
 chipmunk hole
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Chipmunks spend the winter in burrows. The burrow is arranged simply: a short passage ends with a single nesting chamber. Sometimes in burrows there are blind otnorki - latrines, most often in the burrows of females. The nesting chamber is lined with leaves, less often with grass, lichens and moss. There is no mound at the entrance to the hole: the animal scatters the excavated earth in the grass; so the entrance to the hole can be difficult to detect
Chipmunk hibernation is intermittent. The state of torpor alternates with short-term awakenings, during which the animal is relatively active. During torpor, the chipmunk is immobile. It takes the form of a ball: the head is placed between the hind legs, the limbs and tail are tightly pressed to the body. In this position, the open surface of the body becomes minimal, and the heat transfer decreases. In a state of stupor, the chipmunk's body temperature drops to 8-10, sometimes up to 2.8°C. The number of respiratory movements is reduced to 3-4 times / min, sometimes there are 2-4-minute pauses in breathing. During periods of awakening, the animal moves in the nest and feeds; at the same time, his body temperature rises to the summer level (37-38 ° C)
Chipmunks hibernate alone. Experience has shown that when a male and a female winter together in captivity, one of them sooner or later gnawed the other. There is a report of 12 chipmunks hibernating together in captivity. Already at the beginning of hibernation, six of them were bitten. How many animals are left by the end of hibernation - the author does not report
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Urban residents perceive the chipmunk as exotic, although in fact, in our country, its range natural habitat quite large - from the northeast of the European part of Russia to Far East inclusive. This species is called Asian or Siberian. Another 25 (and possibly more) species are inhabitants of the forests of the United States and Canada.
Description
chipmunk, it rodent from the squirrel family. It looks like a squirrel, but is somewhat smaller and has a different color. And the ears are rounded, without the famous squirrel tassels.
The Asian look is colored variegated, but at the same time discreet. The main color is grayish-brown or reddish, and along the back there are five black stripes, interspersed with white. The abdomen, like that of many rodents, is light. The tail below, sides and cheeks are slightly touched by "rust".
In nature, this color helps to merge with the terrain. Especially in autumn, when there is an active collection of supplies for the winter and the animal has to spend a lot of time on the ground in search of seeds and nuts. The grass has already withered and cannot hide anyone in the thick. This is where natural camouflage comes to the rescue - a frozen chipmunk is not so easy to see, it is indistinguishable from the forest floor.
Lifestyle
Although the chipmunk is a squirrel and relatives, he climbs trees worse than her. But runs well. And he prefers to make his dwelling closer to the ground, and not on trees. Basically it's burrows.
Chipmunk apartments necessarily have two main "rooms" - for sleeping and under the pantry, and several small otnorki. A clean animal uses shallow branches from the main passage as a toilet.
Under natural conditions, the rodent feeds on seeds of cedar, larch trees, herbs, nuts and acorns. In spring and summer, when there are no seeds yet, it eats buds, shoots of plants, cereal grains, mushrooms and berries. He will not refuse animal food - insects, slugs and snails.
Trouble starts around August. stockpiling for the winter. Chipmunk carries selected nuts, acorns and seeds in voluminous cheek pouches, dried mushrooms(some cunning people, in order not to dry themselves, successfully steal protein). For a successful wintering, one animal needs to collect 5–6 kg of supplies. This is a very dexterous picker, having time before other forest dwellers to get the most ripe nuts and "poured" acorns. But if, due to inexperience, a young chipmunk poorly disguised the entrance to his mink, he is almost certainly in trouble. In the forest there will always be those who want to feast on freebies. Boars and bears easily dig shallow holes, and the latter also catch the owner trying to escape, falling from above with a swing.
If everything went well, then from October to March, inclusive, the chipmunk spends in a light sleep. The body temperature during hibernation is only 3-8 degrees, and the respiratory rate is reduced to two breaths per minute. But he cannot sleep soundly, like a bear, he has to wake up to feed himself (which is why supplies are needed).
Striped hustlers are ardent individualists. Only young individuals can get along together for a short time (and then until the time of gathering supplies). adults will fight hard and if the weaker one cannot retreat, he will simply perish.
The spring breeding season (April - May) is the short time when chipmunks start families. But if the female is quite experienced, then the future dad will be evicted from the house even before the birth of the cubs (since cases of cannibalism among chipmunks are quite common). Pregnancy lasts 30 days, and babies are born blind and naked. The eyes will open after 31 days and will stay with the mother for up to two months.
Chipmunks live in nature for only 3-4 years.
Seeing a cute little animal in a pet store or in the "bird" market, you should not immediately buy it. First you need to learn about the habits of the future pet and the conditions of its maintenance. Then ask yourself a couple of questions:
- why is the animal purchased;
- how difficult it will be to provide him with optimal conditions.
How to understand - for what? And so understand. With him can't play and cuddle, even stroking will not always be possible. Chipmunks are quite unsociable, and although they easily get used to a person, they almost never go into hands themselves. Well, except for a meal. But as an object for observation, they are very interesting.
But the rest of the time is very active and nimble animal. And keep it in an apartment without a cage is not worth it. There is always a danger of crushing the weasel with the door, or the domestic cat will suddenly perceive him as prey, although he seems to be “friends” with him. In addition, even domesticated, they do not change their habit. stock up in secret places and the owners can expect to see crowds of cockroaches and mice that have come to eat someone else's food.
The choice and arrangement of the cell
So, you need a chipmunk, there is a cage where to put it. The place of residence for the future pet must be arranged in advance.
A chipmunk accustomed to people can be let out for a walk around the apartment, but nevertheless, he will spend most of the time in a cage. Therefore, it is worth choosing the most spacious one possible and be sure to equip it with a running wheel. There are special squirrel cages with a “hollow” house built on top, and the wheel is immediately included there. But they don't always fit.
The squirrel is larger and stronger than the chipmunk, and the distance between the bars of the cage is often wider. A slender chipmunk can simply slip into the wild. And the squirrel wheel is a rather powerful thing, usually metal and too “loud”. Chipmunk, of course, is a diurnal animal and he will not rattle at night. But listening to constant noise all day long is a dubious pleasure. So it’s better to choose a plastic or light metal wheel, according to the size of the animal, and be sure to check it for “noise” before buying - spin it and listen.
In addition to the wheel, you need a spacious, easy-to-clean house, so that the pet has somewhere to hide from annoying attention and where to store its supplies. Additionally, you can place a “climbing frame” in the cage - a piece of a dry branch. You also need a feeder, a drinker and a corner "toilet". The last acquisition will facilitate the cleaning of the cage. A chipmunk is a clean little animal and usually does its business in one corner. Then a toilet is placed there with no big amount wood filler or sawdust (and someone puts an empty one and just washes it more often).
Recently, special cages for chipmunks began to appear on sale. But still it’s better not to rely on the manufacturer, but on your own pay attention to some important nuances:
- the distance between the bars;
- How silent is the running wheel?
- convenient access to the house;
- ease of cleaning the cell itself;
- dimensions.
Choosing and purchasing an animal
In nature, like all rodents, the chipmunk is a carrier of diseases, and serious ones, including tick-borne encephalitis, toxoplasmosis and rickettsiosis. That's why never take an animal from the forest or buy from hands, from unverified sellers.
But even if the source of acquisition is reliable, you yourself need to carefully look at the animal before buying - the animal must be active, with a shiny coat and clear eyes. Crawled into a corner, disheveled - either unhealthy or under severe stress (which, by the way, can cause his imminent death).
Chipmunk care at home
Carry your purchase home better in closed carrying, and at first do not annoy the little animal with increased attention. This will help the pet avoid unnecessary stress and quickly acclimatize in a new place.
It is better to tame to hands gradually. First, chipmunks are offered through the bars. When the animal is comfortable and will calmly take a treat, you can try to stroke it while it is busy eating. It is advisable to arrange the first walk around the apartment “on an empty stomach”. Let it run for a while indoors, and then put the treat in the cage, and wait for the animal to return.
It is not advisable to try to catch the animal and forcibly place it in a cage, he will only get scared, bite the owner, and instead of a "prison" he will try to find a new "home" for himself. After all, what is Home, from the point of view of a chipmunk? This is a place where it is warm and cozy, there is a lot of food and offenders will never be missing. I want to return there. Here also it is necessary to try, that the cage would become such House.
How long chipmunks live in captivity depends on the conditions of its maintenance. As a rule, there are no problems with food, now in pet stores big choice various feed mixtures for rodents. And here lack of stress significantly extend the life of the pet. Unlike wild counterparts, domestic animals can live up to ten years.
Breeding
For those who are going to just enjoy communicating with animals, it is not at all necessary to breed them. A troublesome job. Of course, babies are always so funny, but don't forget that chipmunks don't always live in pairs. Not only that, during the period of procurement of supplies, they begin fight to the death. Therefore, if, nevertheless, the desire to have a bunch of small chipmunks is very strong, then you need to either immediately take care of the place where the second adult chipmunk is kept, or find the same obsessed owner with an animal of the opposite sex and simply bring them together during the "rutting" period.
As in nature, they “reduce” them in the spring, after hibernation. At the time of the wedding, the future parents must be healthy and "want children" (otherwise they will just fight). Females ready for breeding begin to call for cavaliers with cries similar to the phrase “hook-hook”.
Only about a month after birth, the babies will get stronger enough to start leaving the nest. Up to two months it is desirable to keep with mom, which will continue to feed the children with milk, and then it is better for them to find new owners. Or resettled, if there is a desire to keep someone.
Five for
While the chipmunk is still a relative newbie as a pet, there are five big pros to getting a chipmunk:
We tamed Chika for two months, probably. And he sharpened his teeth about us a couple of times. But now such a beggar - just stretch out your hand, he climbs into it and begins to look for sweets.
Veronica
The older sister brought an already adult chipmunk from the school "Live Corner". There was a birdcage and he escaped on the first day. We found out where he lived for about two months when my father put on his overcoat for the first time in the autumn, which had previously hung in the hallway. A heap of rubbish mixed with chipmunk supplies fell out of the sleeve, the owner of this good flopped down from above, whistled and flashed along the corridor. Dad almost "Kondraty did not hug")).
Zheka, Khabarovsk
I also want to give a short review. I had a chipmunk as a child. To be honest, I just caught him in the country, when he ate sunflowers with us. I won’t talk about my method of taming (although all the boys in our country knew it), it is cruel and normal people to nothing. But my pet lived in the room for a long time, until he left for a walk through the window. It’s still a pity - he was such a good friend, even though I didn’t treat him very humanely.
If you have already brought the animal, then you need to keep it in a cage, so that there would be no trouble.
Nikolay Vasilievich
Animal chipmunk is a small rodent, it is a close relative of the squirrel. How does this striped animal differ from its fellows in the family? Where does he live and what does he eat?
There are 24 species of chipmunks, 23 of which live in North America and only 1 species in Eurasia. There are a lot of chipmunks in America; they live in Mexico and Alaska. Most rodents live in North America.
Eurasian chipmunks inhabited a vast area from the European regions of Russia to Northern China, Korea and Japan. Chipmunks also live in Central Europe, they were brought there as pets, but some representatives escaped and took root in wild nature.
Appearance
Chipmunk is small. The body of the rodents is elongated, and the tail is fluffy and long, measuring 8-12 centimeters. In length, chipmunks grow up to 14-17 centimeters, and they weigh from 40 to 120 grams, depending on the species.
Chipmunks' front legs are shorter than their hind legs. All types of chipmunks have a common feature - dark stripes on the back, separated by stripes of white or grayish color. The rest of the skin has a gray-brown or reddish-brown color.
The coat is short and thick. Chipmunks change color at different times of the year. Moulting takes place annually from July to September. Chipmunks have small ears without tassels. Rodents have cheek pouches.
Chipmunks are very pretty creatures. Where does the chipmunk live
These small animals live in North America and also inhabit the Eurasia continent.
Behavior and nutrition of chipmunks
Chipmunks live in wooded area. They hide among the branches and twigs of fallen trees and windbreaks. Chipmunks live in close proximity to water, so most often chipmunks are found in thickets near streams and rivers.
Chipmunks are thrifty animals, they fill their minks with provisions, as far as space allows. Chipmunks dig underground burrows, although they can climb trees very well. When the dwelling is ready, the chipmunk carries the earth in its cheek pouches far from the hole, so that it is difficult for predators to find the shelter.
Chipmunks have long burrows. The burrow has a nesting area, several storage chambers and a couple of puffins that chipmunks use as latrines. Chipmunks line their living space with leaves and grass. Here the animals are comfortably located during the winter hibernation. Females use camera data to breed.
These rodents are herbivores. Chipmunks are active during the day, but when the sun rises to its zenith, they seek shelter in burrows or among foliage. In dense forests with plenty of shade, chipmunks feed throughout the daylight hours.
When it gets colder, chipmunks rise to the surface less and less often, then they do not leave their holes at all. Chipmunks sleep from October to March.
These thrifty animals begin to collect food in the month of August. They fill their stores with nuts, acorns, wild seeds, oats, mushrooms and wheat. In this case, all products are placed on dry bedding in separate piles. Total such reserves can reach 5-6 kilograms.
Chipmunks always live alone. If another member of the family enters the hole, then a fight breaks out between the chipmunks. In this regard, in captivity, these rodents are kept in separate cages.
Chipmunks, like squirrels, are very nimble animals. How Chipmunks Reproduce
Chipmunks are solitary animals, only during the mating season, males form pairs with females. The female becomes pregnant 2 times a year. Babies are born once in May, and another time in August. Chipmunks living in cold areas have only one litter.
The pregnancy process lasts 1 month, after which 4-5 babies are born. In some cases, up to 10 cubs can be born. Newborns are blind and naked, their eyes open after 1 month after birth.
Mother feeds chipmunks with milk for 2 months. Young growth leaves mother already on the 3rd month of life. And in the first year of life, chipmunks become sexually mature. In the wild, chipmunks usually do not live more than 3 years, but in captivity, these rodents live up to 7-10 years.
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