Greenwood Chinchillas -
Rojo Chinchillas
Roger Nowill, the owner of Rojo Chinchillas, contacted me at the start of January 2004 to say that due to changes in circumstances he was dramatically reducing the size of his herd and would I be interested in obtaining any of his stock - I was the first person that he had contacted.
Roger had done very well in the novice shows taking most of the novice breeders awards, and receiving many firsts for the animals that he showed. Most of his foundation stock came from Paul Danes, Tom Hanford and Lyn Gardner - all excellent stock.
The animals I was especially interested in were his pair of sapphires and the charcoals that he had done so well with in the shows. When Roger told me that he was selling up and the price he was asking for the sapphires I immediately reserved them. He had the two animals - a sapphire male, and a carrier female. Both originally obtained from Etherdale Chinchillas.
Roger did not have copies of the pedigrees which he could give me with these chinchillas so I approached Etherdale and requested any information that they could provide me with - they do not usually provide pedigrees to anyone other than the original buyer as they cannot guarantee the animal is the same one it has left them - but thankfully knowing Roger and myself, knowing that he had not had them long, and that he had no other sapphires they did provide me with copies of the full pedigree history.
Originally when Roger contacted me, I had contacted Debbie Cave (a breeder that had been extremely helpful to me) when I was informed that the herd was up for sale as we had only days before spoken about the fact that he bred charcoals and she was interested in some if thy ever became available. She said she was interested - but for her friend Claire D. so it was arranged that Claire would come with me to see the chins and collect all the charcoals that I myself did not take.
Roger had agreed to keep the charcoals for us, but we got there and found that Paul Spooner, one of the top breeders in the country, had been there before us and bought many of the charcoal animals. The ones that I had reserved for myself were still there, but Claire's were gone - and she had driven all the way from Watford to collect them.
I felt really guilty, so told her to take the ones that had been ear marked for me, and I had the sapphires and two brown velvet females that were also available. I would like to say I left there happy - but have to admit when leaving I felt really deflated and down at not also coming away with charcoals - but have arranged that in the future when kits are produced I shall be offered some.
So I arrived home with the sapphire pair (named Arum and Saffron) and the brown velvets (named Lizzie and Henna)