Chin housing...giving them more room

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starlitskie

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Mar 2, 2018
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I am researching getting chinchillas and trying to give them an environment that is as enriching as possible and would love ideas. I'm not a fan of animals in cages and also think chinchillas being small, destructive, pooping everywhere, unable to wear harnesses, climate/temperature needs and our busy lives in general makes it hard to fathom how to give them enough out of cage time and maybe my answer will end up that they just aren't right for me however i remain fascinated by these creatures and would love some rescue chins.

I realize some people have many chins and they do not get out of cage time, I would say generally I’ve seen on most sites etc people say their chins get out for half an hour a day and many are happy with this however I would like to give them a lot of play time. I would love to replicate as much as possible an enclosure that has some aspects of their natural habitat or at least lets them exhibit their natural behaviours.

So far it seems there is no way around them having a cage, the bigger the better, with a companion.

Converting a room seems impossible as they are said to chew through walls. If they had a very enriching environment such as similar to the pictures vinyl or something easy clean how destructive would they still be? Around the walls could be play pens or (on the cheap) cardboard walls to protect skirting boards.. the window/windowsill would be hard to protect though. And I am talking in the sense is it really no matter what, no matter how extreme you go (within a realistic budget), too hard to leave them on their own for a few hours with just checking in on them? If they had a room such as I’ve pictured are they going to bother the walls too?

In the wild they sleep during the day so cage time then seems practical (although that said, even my bunnies should be active dawn and dusk, they have a huge fenced in yard and can often be found outside most of the time mind you I suppose im at work when they are sleeping) and in the twilight hours chins in the wild are out foraging for food which is something pets don’t need to do.

I had wondered if any of the treat puzzles were interesting to chins…from treat balls where they have to roll it to get food out to any of the cat enrichment/puzzles that you can buy where they have to work a bit for the food.

I love the “Trixie natural living” range of things you can buy which are available here in new zealand and also these photos give an idea of what id love to accomplish.

Another idea (dont shoot me!) would be is it possible to have an indoor/outdoor home. I don’t think the temperatures where I live are too extreme for chinchillas, rain/damp would be the main issue to work around, heat would only be an issue for a very short part of the year...it would hardly get too hot. Let’s just say for example you had an insulated room with perhaps a cat door on, and there was a run outside… surely if the temperatures or conditions outside were not ideal they were stay indoors if they had the choice?

What are your thoughts? I've tried to attach some ideas (indoor) but not sure if i've attached them right...guess il see.
 

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I think your biggest issue with giving them a whole room unsupervised would be making it 100% safe. To get around the issue of chewing walls and flooring I have heard of someone making up a room with brick or concrete walls and a poured concrete floor. No wall outlets, just over head lighting. You would basically need to create a zoo exhibit style for the room. I would not go with anything that if chewed on would make them sick, so no to vinyl, if it's soft enough to get their teeth in they will chew it. Lining all the walls with playpen could prove bad too, chins like to wall surf if given enough room to do so, and can also jump 5 feet. You could end up with a chin getting a foot caught or end up with the chin stuck between the wall and fencing if less then 5 feet high. They will likely chew through the cardboard, and if swallowed cardboard is not safe.

Another problem with leaving them unsupervised even in a chin proofed room is you don't know where they are when you open the door, unless you have a glass door or something. Chins have been killed accidentally by someone opening a door and squishing them. Or chins escape when entering the room if the door opens outward.

One idea I have, especially if I had a basement (concrete floor and walls), close off a section of the room like you would with an indoor flight cage for birds, so there would be walls on most sides but metal fencing with a door where you would come and go. Something like this or this only set it up for chins not birds. It's still technically a cage, but a very big one.

If you find a treat puzzle or make one out of chin safe material, then yes they are good. Plastic is not safe, they will chew it and likely swallow it. Two that I've seen that seemed to work, are one was a wooden box with treats and toys inside, they have to chew into it. The other was a coconut shell, broken in half with goodies inside and sisal rope tying it together, they had to push the coconut shell around to get things to fall out, or just chew the rope and it fell apart. Chins don't over eat though (unless it's treats), so slowing them down isn't really beneficial. Another option if you want natural foraging behavior is to hide food bowls around their area, under some toys or sticks, in their tunnels or hiding house, etc. There is also foraging hay you can make or buy, it has hay and treats mixed together causing the chin to search through it for what it wants. You can also stuff hay inside tubes, willow balls, paper bags, and stuff like that so they have to work a bit to get it, but not too hard.

I would strongly advise against letting chins outside unless you live in the mountains of South America. Unlike rabbits which are use to eating fresh green grasses and other vegetation in most parts of the world, chins are not. Fresh grass will make them sick, too high of moisture content, in the wild they eat scrub grass, same with pretty much any vegetation not native to high elevation Andes mountains. Also, yes, wild chins eat vegetation and seeds and stuff in their native habitat, but also only live 5-10 years, where as domestic ones average 15-20 years. If let outside you would need to make sure the chin is not in direct sunlight for any length of time, that nothing blows into or gets in the enclosure (seeds, leaves, bugs, mice, non chinchilla animal poop or pee, etc), it would have to be sheltered from any wind, don't allow them out if it's humid or raining out or has rained making the area wet. A cat door wouldn't work well, you would have to find one that is light enough for a chin to push open, but also not made of plastic. Also domestic chins aren't was good as a wild animal to know not to go outside if the weather isn't right. They don't know they are not suppose to get wet for example. You even need to watch that you don't put the cage in direct sunlight, chins have been known to die because they sat in the sun too long even though they had a house to go into they didn't :facepalm:. Unlike most animals chins just have one thick coat year round, they don't have a different thinner summer and thicker winter coat, so they can over heat easily when it's hot. You need the temp ideally 70F (20C) or below and below 50% humidity, ideally 40% or lower.

The room pics you attached could work well for playtime, but not as a full time unsupervised living area. Unless you are changing things around all the time they will eventually check out the carpet, walls, and baseboards to see if they are chewable. In the room I use for playtime I have vinyl flooring with untreated wood baseboards. You'd want washable flooring, not carpet which would absorb pee. Also there are a lot of areas that the chin could fall in those pics. If the chin falls it could have internal injures, if you aren't there to see it it might be too late before you realize something is wrong. Even in a cage you want to make sure everything is over lapping so there is no fall more then a foot max, or there is a hammock or something soft to catch them.
 
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