Mary Strong, age 11, of Moses Lake, Wash

 What does a chinchilla eat?

The most beautiful and the most expensive fur coat in the world is worn by a gentle little bunny‑like creature called the chinchilla  A single strand of his silken fur is finer than a spider web and too thin for the human eye to see  His entire coat is so densely packed with these fairy‑airy strands that fleas and other parasites cannot reach his skin; The fur is slaty blue at the roots, Fading to silvery grey at the tips, It is so soft, so lovely and so rare that some ladies have paid as much as $100,000 for a coat made from his pelts,

The little charmer is a rodent distantly related to, of all unlikely animals, the prickly porcupine  His native home is on the rocky slopes of the snowcapped Andes of Peru, Chile and Bolivia, Ruthless hunting, however, has cut down the numbers of this fur‑coated aristocrat and he is now protected by very stem laws  The few wild chinchillas that remain enjoy life in rocky hideouts, coming cut at night to dine on roots and grasses 

In 1923, a number of live chinchillas were taken to California where they thrived and multiplied on ranches prepared especially for them  People became interested in the rich little fur‑bearer and more chinchilla ranches were established  An association called the National Chinchilla Breeders of America was founded to exchange ideas and to protect the little darling from short‑sighted people who wanted to sell his coat before enough of his children had grown up  Chinchilla breeders in the know now sell only the coats from animals who have died from natural causes, leaving the live ones to multiply 

The gentle little charmer is about a foot long, plus almost a foot of furry tail. 

He has rounded, two‑inch ears and a sweet, bunny face, Fur and all, he tips the scales at about 20 to 30 ounces, He is a day dozer who prefers to venture forth at sundown to dine, gnaw and nibble and scurry around on his soft, padded paws 

He needs a cage or box in which to sleep or to flee to safety, This badroom‑refuge must be inside a sizable pen with a safe roof where he can play and run around  He lives outdoors and he needs a mate to share his home, The pair will stay together in married happiness for their entire lives  Mamma may have two to four babies and two litters a year  Each baby is born with 22 teeth, his luxury fur coat and eyes wide open all ready to scamper around his play pen,

Breeders say we cannot copy the food of the wild 'chinchilla  A properly balanced diet in pellet form should be bought and fed to the little darlings for the important evening meal  The diet is a blend of hay from alfalfa, oats and timothy grass, fresh greens and various grains and tree barks  The furry little rodents also need to gnaw on a tough root.