We started in 2004 by buying 20 chinchillas from a friend of ours that had decided to get out of raising chinchillas after having them for a short time. They had already sold off most of their herd by the time we got the 20 chinchillas from them, so we ended up with a lot of chinchillas with no pedigrees. Since then we have learned that to raise high quality chinchillas, pedigrees are important! We have very few of those original 20 chinchillas left in our herd because of that. We ended up replacing them with many 1st place or better quality chinchillas.

We attended our first chinchilla show in Omaha, Nebraska in January of 2005. We learned so much at that show and had so much fun meeting other chinchilla ranchers and breeders, big and small! Ever since then, we've been hooked! Now we try to attend every chinchilla show in Boone, Iowa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. We also attend the ECBC Nationals in St. Louis, Missouri each year.

Since ECBC has restarted the Empress Chinchilla Registry, we have over 25 chinchillas in our herd that are ECBC registered. Before acquiring those registered chinchillas, we bought several chinchillas from many of the larger ranchers that had placed 1st place or better in various chinchilla shows.

We began showing our own chinchillas and so far have had 6 chinchillas of our own breeding place 1st place or better! Those chinchillas have been registered through the Empress Chinchilla Registry!

Currently we have a herd of around 150 chinchillas. Our herd consists of chinchillas from Miller Chinchillas(RM), Merritt Chinchillas(RVDK), Ryerson Chinchillas(RNJR), Stark Chinchillas(STRK), Joe Brown(VVCR), Dick & Mary Jo Bradford(20B), Koscinski Chinchillas, Sooner Chinchillas(MSNR), Shoots Chinchilla Ranch(RBS), Blue Flag Farms (Bill and Holly Frosch, BLUE), Jim Ritterspach(5R9), B&D Chinchillas(Bob and Dovie Smith, BD89), and Andeway Chinchilla Ranch(ACR/ASCR). We also have bloodlines within our herd going back to Doug Wilson(DEW2) and Vin Somavia(QS).

We are proud members of Empress Chinchilla Breeders Cooperative(ECBC) and Mutation Chinchilla Breeders Association(MCBA)!

Everyone has always been so helpful to us while we were getting started and we appreciate that! If anyone ever needs help from us, just feel free to ask! We may not know all the answers, and if we don't, we'll try to find someone who does! That is what makes this so much fun!