Chinchilla may be cramped?

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BriBear

New member
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
Messages
1
Hi,

So we just got our chinchilla, Glorion, about a week ago. Recently he's seemed much more happy and has, on his own, been running around the room for playtime once a day. I've been really excited with how comfortable he's been getting!
However, the past few days he's been ripping up his cage quite a bit. I'll wake up to the bowl we leave in there flipped over, and the bedding either all outside the cage or dug to the padding in several spots.
I'm not sure if he's doing this because he needs a bigger cage, if there aren't enough toys, or what.
I took a picture of his cage and attached it. I know it's generally a little small, and we're still slowly working on getting him a ledge and more toys, but if he's unhappy and that's why he's tearing things up I'll definitely make it top priority.

Thank you so much for the help!
 

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First of all the pic didn't show up, the pic attachment thing doesn't work on the forum most of the time. Upload the pic to a photo share site and link it seems to work the best.

Some chins just like to be messy, throwing bedding, toys, and hay around can be fun. The minimum size cage for one chin is 2'X2'x2', so long as the cage is at least that big it's an ok size. Obviously bigger is always better though, and height is more important then floor space. The cage should have lots of ledges, shelves and perches, hammocks (if he doesn't chew fleece), at least one hidy house, tunnels, etc. They also need lots of toys, and try to rotate them like you would a dog from time to time so they don't get bored. As well as a variety of toys, toss toys, shedding toys, hanging toys, chew toys, etc. Chins are very smart, about the same intelligence as a 2 year old human or a parrot, so they do need to keep their minds busy and need daily interaction.

I suggest getting something like a coop cup that attaches to the side of the cage to help with flipping the food bowl. Or try a heavier bowl that he can't physically flip. There are also food and hay bowls in one that attach to the side of the cage that would work too, just avoid the plastic ones. There should be no plastic at all in a chinchilla's cage.
 
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