Housing
The Cage
Chinchillas can be very energetic when they are awake and need to be let out on a regular basis for exercise. Most owners let their chinchillas out for a run for approximately an hour or two, but other than that the chinchilla spends the rest of the day in its cage. Chinchillas are nocturnal and awake for most of the night, so appreciate a cage with lots of room to bound about in and different levels comprising of shelves to hop and perch on. Long cages are also preferable to tall cages as chinchillas are rock hoppers rather than tree climbers.
Having a pull-out litter tray will make the weekly cleaning of the cage much easier. The mesh of the cage should be of a gauge no larger than 3/4" per square. Chinchillas can collapse their bodies to fit into surprisingly small spaces, and baby chinchillas should be contained in the cage by 3/4" mesh, but may escape through anything with a wider gauge Preferably, the bars of the cage should be plain metal, and not coated with plastic, which the chinchilla will gnaw on and then swallow.
Cage Checklist
The cage should be set up ready before you bring your new chinchilla home to minimise stress for the animal.
- Hay Rack:
- Preferably, the cage should contain a built-in hay rack. If not, a separate one can be bought and attached to the inside of the cage.
- Small Drinking Bottle:
- Chinchillas don't drink very much at all but still need access to fresh drinking water daily. The size of bottle pet shops sell for mice should be fine. You could get a standard drinking bottle, or the reinforced type, which is protected by an extra wire mesh and hung so it is diagonally facing away from the cage.
- Dust Bath and Dust:
- Chinchillas don't take well to getting wet and could quickly catch pneumonia if not dried quickly. They need to clean themselves by rolling in chinchilla sand - a type of volcanic dust. Normal sand won't do as it will be too course. This should be contained in a sand bath. One could be bought especially for that purpose, but a large bowl, baking tin or empty biscuit tin should work just as well.
- Litter:
- Wood shavings to be changed weekly or newspaper to be changed daily.
- Food Dish:
- The food dish will need to be heavy in order to stop it getting knocked over by the chinchilla. A small ceramic one is best, but the metal ones that is designed for attaching to parrot cages will also work.
E.R.