never use hotlights around kids!
another cheap "cool" light setup is this:
wire up 5 cheap light fixtures to a 1 to 2 ft square peice of plywood (3/4" painted white, with 3-5 switches one for each fixture (or set of fixtures) on the back side, drill a hole in the bottom for your lightstand. add one 23 watt flourecent compact bulb to each fixture.

yep that's it, I opened mine up and removed the wire safety grid (it cast shadows) painted it black with bbq high heat paint, bolted a lightstand adapter to it (for use with umbrellas) and usem for video work...i have homemade extension cords, with electriacal boxes with dimmer switches wired in to contro light ratios.

a little brainstorming can go a long way....the lights I mentioned are about $15 (canadian) from the hardware store and are 500 watts 3200 deg kelvin...three should get you there.
you can use wider apertures if you tripod mount your camera, pre focus on the spot you hid the food and use a remote release. wait for the animal to goto the setup and fire away!

a scotch bonnet or habernaro pepper, cut open and rubbed on anything you don't want chewed, works on most animals except me!

do you have white ceilings? bouncing some halogen (flourecents work too)worklights off your ceiling to get your light levels up....(no ceilings? hang a sheet and bounce the lights off it(keep the lights safely away from overheating things)
camera to f8 iso 100-400 shutter speed to at least equall your lens focal length.
manual focus, setting your focal range to use hyperfocal distance (ie infinity set to the longest distance possible for your room.)
raise the ambient light to get a good exposure, manual white balance off white paper.
contian the animal....remove all good hiding spots, except where you hope to get your shot......make your "set" the most chinchilla friendly hang out, and lock yourselves in for a day if that's what it takes.....
start when the animal is HUNGRY place food items in hard to get spots so the animal has to work to didlodge it...ie a hole in a pillow or log.......
be paitient and good luck!

very cute pet. my kids would lovit!
there are some ideas I have to help you get better shots if you are interested.....

good thing your daughter didn't grab the camera...i suspect neither the spider nor the camera could've survived the ensuing carnage....imagine trying to explain that one to the pentax repair technition...

Having checked out your oshkosh images, and i must say they are fine images, I hope you make up a calendar, and give it out at the airprot....the owners of those planes would be estatic. get property releases and see about using them for stock.

as owner of a ds2 and k10d, I can tell you that upto 11x14, you won't see any real diferences.....image quality wise.
I have tt-l flash units that go with the ds2, and some m lenses.
I have a p-ttl flash and some zooms that go with the k10d.
I personally prefer the ds2, but have had more time with it, and it may change if I used the k10d more often...

If you can't get the one you want, use the one you can....you won't be disapointed either way. They're both that good.

In the previous post I commented to Petekd about having answered twice the same question....on the point, I was wrong, and appologize. I had answered someone elses (jeepegrets) question with the following:

I was a firm believer in the pentax 28-200 back in the film daze and other pros said i was nutz. wide range zooms are now commonly used....the tamron 18-250 (as I've already mentioned in another thread) is the best in it's class.
the multitude of reasons for having more than one body (aside from the reason stated above) have already been asked and answered.
put the 18-250 on your backup camera, and keep it in a hipbag (holster) ready to use at all times (already mentioned that too). And use a fast prime or a fast wide to moderate zoom on your main body.
If I see anew post next week asking if a hip/holster bag is a good idea I shall have to join Matt, in his boycott, if for no other reason than to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome from repeatedly answering the same questions, (nicely paraphrased in future posts), I'm beggining to think you don't read my responses.