Young chins, cage, and A/C.

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Zahrii

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 17, 2019
Messages
298
The minimum age I'd be getting my chins is 3 months. I'll be getting the Ferret Nation cage as well, but I've heard that the bar spacing is too wide for that young of a chinchilla so they could escape and/or injure themselves. I've also heard that younger chins are clumsy, so they cannot have access to a double story FN/CN. I'd be getting two chinchillas, so this leads me to ask two questions about this topic. I also have a question about the A/C I'll be choosing.

1. Would I have to wrap the FN in hardware cloth to prevent the chins from escaping, or would they be okay?

2. Do I need to block off the second story until they get older, or would a single level FN be too small for two chins?

3. The temperature of my area is around the 60s fahrenheit, and the humidity is in the 70-80% range. I have an A/C with a dehumidifier function to it on my list, and it also has 10,000 BTU. Would that be enough to lower the humidity, or would I need that just to lower the temperature and a seperate dehumidifier? Thanks.
 
They are normally big enough to be ok in a FN by the time they are about 4-6 months, but it depends on the size of the chins, some are bigger then others. So I would wrap the cage in hardware cloth for now if they are under 4 months.

I would block them off to one level until 6 months, one unit is big enough for two adult chins, so it should be fine for two kits.

It's hard to say if the AC is good enough or not without knowing the size of the room, what direction it's facing, if the room normally heats up during the day or not, stuff like that. Is the 60s F temp and the 70-80% humidity in the room? or outside. If outside then what is the temp and humidity in the room? If you don't already, get a thermometer that also measures humidity, that would help a lot to know if what you have is good enough or not. The room should be below 50% humidity and 70 F or below for the chins to be comfortable, temps above 75 for any length of time can cause heat stroke and death.
 
The room is about 360 square feet, I'm not sure what direction it would be facing at the moment. I haven't lived in this house long enough to know how warm it gets during warmer months, but it does get muggy. It's also a laundry room and it's a long rectangle shape, so it does get moist because of the washing machine. The chinchillas will get half of the room, and the A/C will be in that half. It is that temperature/humidity outside, I'm not sure inside since I don't have a thermometer yet but once I do I'll post it here. Or I could message you.
 
Hm, do you do a lot of laundry? If so you may need to get a dehumidifier as well for the room. Here This Site has pretty clear explanation of what size ac you need along with circumstances that change the size needed. For a laundry room though it's really hard to say without actually knowing how damp it gets and how often you are using the washer and dryer.

Laundry rooms are not really the ideal place for chins, the heat and humidity aren't great and may be hard to manage depending on how often you do laundry. Also if you use a drier you are putting lint dust into the air every time you clean the lint trap and you will have to make sure you don't use anything in the wash like bleach or chemical cleaners that could cause respiratory issues if the chin breaths it in.
 
I don't do a ton of laundry, and the laundry room is unfortunately the only place I have for the chins. I figured it wouldn't be the best place, but the washer and the dryer is at the end of the room, with the chins being at the other end with their cage against the wall. The dryer specifically is against the wall too, but on the other end of the room. The washer is pretty close to it. I can't remember how long the room is exactly, but when I do find out which will be later today I'll put it in this post. I vaguely remember that the length is above 10 feet, maybe 16-25. I use bleach rarely as well. Knowing this, would it be okay to put the chins in the laundry room if I'm very careful about what I use, or is it too much of a risk?
 
My biggest concern for a laundry room specifically would be keeping the humidity down. Once you get a thermometer and humidity meter it will be easier to know if you can manage to keep it comfortable in there or not and figure out what you may need. See how much doing a load of wash increases the humidity, you may just need to just run a dehumidifier in addition to the ac when doing laundry. Maybe also an air purifier when doing laundry too to help with the lint dust when cleaning the trap.

There are plenty of people that have chins in basements that are also laundry rooms for example, so it is do able, just more things to keep an eye on. Like their respiratory systems are fragile like birds, so you do have to make sure you pay attention to what is ending up in the air.
 
Alright, thanks. The humidity is in the 70s when I do a load, it's in the 60s otherwise. The highest temperature is 71 F. Would an AC with a dehumidifier function be enough? Or would I have to get a separate dehumidifier? I got a thermometer as well.
 
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Alright, thanks. The humidity is in the 70s when I do a load, it's in the 60s otherwise. The highest temperature is 71 F. Would an AC with a dehumidifier function be enough? Or would I have to get a separate dehumidifier? I got a thermometer as well.

If that is without the ac, then it sounds like you should be fine with just the AC and not an additional dehumidifier. If your ac is like the ones I have the ac and dehumidifier are separate settings though, so they don't work at the same time. AC units work by pulling moisture out of the air to some extent anyway though so just keep an eye on the temp and humidity and adjust accordingly if need be. You want the humidity to stay below 50%.
 
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