I started off in 1990 with just one chinchilla, a grey male called Gizmo.  When he refused to be friendly with the female companion I bought for him (Madame), I then purchased a neglected and abused chinchilla (Fraggle), from some people who shall remain nameless, in order to keep Gizmos rejected female company.

Nature then took its course, and Fizz was born a few months later.

I still own Fraggle and Fizz to this day, and Fraggle still fathers the occasional litter and has been one of my top breeding males, whose many offspring are healthy, long-lived and win awards on the show-bench.

I have a small bloodline of top quality Violets, a Sweeney-bred male called Mac being the foundation of this bloodline.  They have won a many top awards and I am currently waiting for the fourth generation to be born later this year. 

I have recently purchased 4 Dutch-derived violet and violet-carrying chinchillas to produce an unrelated bloodline, but this will require time and patience and the male is not being very productive at present.

I have some good strong standard chinchillas to outcross my violet bloodlines with, in order to impart health, size and quality.

I am not particularly interested in producing weird and wonderful violet-derived colours, as I wish to concentrate on improvement of the basic violet colour without messing about with different mutations.

Apart from my show-stock I still have many of my original pets (now retired) and several ex-rescued chinchillas that lead a life of comfort and security.

I am extremely fond of all my chinchillas, whether of show-quality or just merely rather scruffy-looking (but loveable) pets.  I still keep two chinchillas indoors purely as pets (despite a mild allergy) and they are spoiled disgracefully.

I find it hard to think of life without them nowadays, despite all the hard work and effort and time and money that is required to keep them to the high-standard that they both need and deserve.