Do Chinchilla's smell bad?

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ktschopp

Active member
Joined
Mar 12, 2019
Messages
40
Hi, I am interested in owning a chinchilla but I am worried about how much the cage would smell. I know if I keep it clean it shouldn't be too bad but I'm more worried about how much the hay will smell that I feed it. Does anyone know if the hay smell is extremely strong for a chinchilla?
 
Unless the chin is sick it shouldn't have much of a smell at all, the poops should be dry to the touch and pretty much odorless, and they don't drink much so they don't pee that much for their size. How often you need to clean depends on what you use for bedding and if the chin is potty trained to pee in a pan or not. If you use fleece and they aren't pee trained you may need to wash the bedding daily, or at least a couple times a week. If they are pee trained just clean the litter pan daily and the cage once a week or so, vacuuming/sweeping up the poops daily. If you are using wood shavings (kiln dried pine or aspen) then you can normally go about a week between cage changes with very little odor even after a week.

The hay should smell like hay, not a strong smell but if you bring it up to your nose it should smell sweet, not bad at all. It's not a smell that fills the room like walking into a hay barn or anything. If you don't like the smell of fresh hay then I don't think a chinchilla is the right pet for you, hay is their primary food and needs to be available at all times.

It does stink if peed on though, if that is what you mean, so you do need to remove any hay that is peed on every day. It's best to use a hay holder so less hay is wasted, most chins wont eat hay once it's on the floor of the cage.
 
Ah okay thanks! I was worried because I used to know someone with a pet rabbit which are hay but the girl’s room reeked of hay and smelled terrible but I believe that had more to do with not cleaning the rabbit’s mess. I don’t mind the smell of hay, I was more worried that it would stink after only a day. But I plan to change the hay every day, spot clean every evening, and deep clean every week so hopefully that should do it.
 
Oh, rabbits also have a smell to them, if you hold a chinchilla up to your nose they should just smell like dust bath and maybe hay if they were just playing in it. Chins don't have sweat glands which is likely why they lack of any real smell. Also rabbit poop isn't as dry as chinchilla poop, so it can smell too. If you keep up on spot cleaning as you said, remove the soiled hay daily (it can really stink if peed on and left), you shouldn't notice any odor unless, as I said, the chin is sick.
 
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