[aabpx]

hello, im thinking of buying a female chinchilla, and instead of having her in the shed i thought I would house her in my room,however are chinchillas very noisy? I don't mind that much. and i would have plasic sheeting on the outside of her house just incase (but not so she could eat it). Are there any essential things i need in the cage, I ordered a lava ledge thing as i saw somewhere they were useful. I do have a hammock, some ledges, cardboard roll thing and a sand bath house. I know I shouldn't use unnatural ropes eg nylon, only natural. I saw on amazon some coconuts on some rope but i wasn't sure if that was good. And my last question today, can they be toilet trained?

thanx

alice

[jacci]

aabpx, on 30 July 2010 - 12:28 AM, said:

hello, im thinking of buying a female chinchilla, and instead of having her in the shed i thought I would house her in my room,however are chinchillas very noisy? I don't mind that much. and i would have plasic sheeting on the outside of her house just incase (but not so she could eat it). Are there any essential things i need in the cage, I ordered a lava ledge thing as i saw somewhere they were useful. I do have a hammock, some ledges, cardboard roll thing and a sand bath house. I know I shouldn't use unnatural ropes eg nylon, only natural. I saw on amazon some coconuts on some rope but i wasn't sure if that was good. And my last question today, can they be toilet trained?

thanx

alice

hi
plastic of any kind is a big NO for chins be very careful they are very good at getting at things you think they carnt reach , remember they have hands ! yes chinchillas can be noisy at night because thats when they are awake .
stay away from nylon and coconuts .
a chinchilla will tend to wee in the same spot and some people have a sort of litter tray in cages . however if you have the right sort of chinchilla cage with a wire bottom i dont understand why ? as the urine will go onto the newspaper anyway and if you only have one chinchilla changeing one news paper a day shouldnt be hard . it is a good idea however to keep the wire in the spot they use clean as this can cause cage stain on the fur and could also cause other problems like fur fungus .
jacci

[aabpx]

hello, thank you for the advice :) and some good news I just brought a little female, 3 months old, and she is called Maisy :D and she is busy investigating her new home! she is nibbling anything she can find, so in the end i decided not to have plastic on the outside.

thanxs

alice

[SallyG]

Hi Guys,

Alice hope you don't mind me joining in!

Jacci, just wanted to ask about what you said about litter trays. Our cage does have the tray you slide out underneath the wire bottom; at the moment I use (safe) cat litter on the tray and clean the tray once a week (or sooner if it gets smelly). Cilla does wee in the same place so do you think it would be better to leave the floor bare and jusrt put newspaper on the areas she wee's and change it daily.

Also I don't clean the wire bottom that often, bad chin mum, I hadn't thought about the germs from the wee, what do you clean your's with? I've seen the cage wipes in the pet shop, are they the best things to use or do you just use soap and water, or anitbacterial spray. Obviously I want Cilla to be safe.

One last thing! if it's a pleasant day, not too hot or cold etc. is it ok to lift Cilla's whole cage outside and pull the tray out and change it outside? The cage (and Cilla) are outside for literally 10 minutes, the cage door is never opened and as I said I'd never do it in extremes of temperature.

Thank you
Sal
x

[jacci]

SallyG, on 31 July 2010 - 08:34 AM, said:

Hi Guys,

Alice hope you don't mind me joining in!

Jacci, just wanted to ask about what you said about litter trays. Our cage does have the tray you slide out underneath the wire bottom; at the moment I use (safe) cat litter on the tray and clean the tray once a week (or sooner if it gets smelly). Cilla does wee in the same place so do you think it would be better to leave the floor bare and jusrt put newspaper on the areas she wee's and change it daily.

Also I don't clean the wire bottom that often, bad chin mum, I hadn't thought about the germs from the wee, what do you clean your's with? I've seen the cage wipes in the pet shop, are they the best things to use or do you just use soap and water, or anitbacterial spray. Obviously I want Cilla to be safe.

One last thing! if it's a pleasant day, not too hot or cold etc. is it ok to lift Cilla's whole cage outside and pull the tray out and change it outside? The cage (and Cilla) are outside for literally 10 minutes, the cage door is never opened and as I said I'd never do it in extremes of temperature.

Thank you
Sal
x

hi
well as it says cat litter is for cats ! soz! some cat litters could have things in that stop smells and could upset chinny tummy if they get there hands on it . thats why news paper is a lot more easy and alot cheeper , just put it in the pull out try .
the wire bottom , i use a steam cleaner to clean the cage wire ,but not everyone has one , you can get animal safe cleaners from most petshops or just use hot water and cloth , if you only have one chin its not such abig job .
i wouldnt put a chin outside at anytime , they get stressed easy and they are also very good at escapeing . if you need to clean the cage put the chin in a pet carrier or a small cage and leave it in the room its cage is normaly in , then take the cage out and clean it . even if the weather seems warm and not to hot to us its still hot for a chinchilla remember they have a fur coat on.
hope this has helped .
jacci

[SallyG]

Thanks Jacci that does help

Sal
x

[aabpx]

hello, no i didn't mind you joining in Sal tehe :)

alice