Acquired 2 very old, neglected chinchillas

[ibuki]

I have an update on the second chinchilla. I cleaned him today. Remarkably, his cage was pretty clean. His shelves, after a quick scrub looked great. I think all of his waste went down onto the metal pull out tray, because that thing was horrendously filthy. I scrubbed it with vinegar/water and let boiling water sit on it for a while then scrubbed it more. It's still quite bad. Do you guys recommend anything for a waste-stained metal tray? I think I need something stronger than vinegar.

After cleaning, the same thing happened as last time. Opened the cat carrier just in front of his cage door and hoped he would go straight back into his cage. He didn't, he wandered off into my room instantly. I grabbed him quickly and put him in for his bath. He doesn't like to be held at all compared to the first chin.

So yeah. They're both clean. I'll try sanding down the bad shelves, that would save me quite a bit of money replacing them.

Here they are now: http://i.imgur.com/70xlfiG.jpg

And here is the guy you haven't seen yet: http://i.imgur.com/jD0cOmy.jpg

Sorry for the dark pic, I didn't want to blind him with the camera flash.

So yeah. Now that they're clean, my next priority is getting the matt out of the first guy's fur and buying him a wooden house.

One more thing. Take a look at the left cage. That hay rack is in an odd place. It's too high up to be accessed from the bottom shelf, and there is a 7 inch gap between the top shelf and the hay rack. What do you think about this? Is the hay rack out of reach of the chinchilla? From what I have seen, neither of them are eating much hay at the minute but they're still on meadow hay. I'll be getting some timothy hay soon, maybe that will be better.

Maybe they just need better cages

 

[ticklechin]

I would get rid of the rack, wire racks can cause leg injury. You can put the hay in a small clean ceramic flower pot or small cardboard box of just leave it in a pile. Peroxide straight can be poured on yucky waste and it works well if let sit for a bit , then rinse well.

 

[Lillybabe]

Honestly... I think I'd want to take those cages outside and use a power hose on them... and possibly bleach, rinsed off really well of course. This is hard if you don't have an extra cage to put them in while the cages dry though. I think I'd get rid of the wooden shelves as soon as possible. I'd be worried about waste that could have soaked into the wood over time. The one guy's wooden box looks pretty gross to me. If you make your own shelves it shouldn't be very expensive. Lowe's here will do 2 cuts to a piece of wood for free. Don't know if there's anything similar there. I think I spent $10-15 making 4 ledges. I need to make some new ones myself as the girls have chewed their's up pretty good. Your little guys don't look like they have very many ledges at all anyway. Do they have some things to chew as well? I'd be worried about their teeth with their age and obvious neglect.

 

[ibuki]

Honestly... I think I'd want to take those cages outside and use a power hose on them... and possibly bleach, rinsed off really well of course. This is hard if you don't have an extra cage to put them in while the cages dry though. I think I'd get rid of the wooden shelves as soon as possible. I'd be worried about waste that could have soaked into the wood over time. The one guy's wooden box looks pretty gross to me. If you make your own shelves it shouldn't be very expensive. Lowe's here will do 2 cuts to a piece of wood for free. Don't know if there's anything similar there. I think I spent $10-15 making 4 ledges. I need to make some new ones myself as the girls have chewed their's up pretty good. Your little guys don't look like they have very many ledges at all anyway. Do they have some things to chew as well? I'd be worried about their teeth with their age and obvious neglect.

Thanks for the advice. I'm definitely looking into new shelves right now.

They have willow and apple tree sticks to chew. They don't seem particularly fond of them though.

In fact, they have barely eaten or drank anything since I got them (I don't know how much chinchillas eat or drink, so I can't say if it's abnormal). I think they might be a bit scared since I've just moved their cage to a new room in the house (my bedroom) after cleaning them, and they sat in a cat carrier for 1-2 hours while I cleaned their cages. I will give them a day or two to get used to the new place and keep trying with the sticks.

If they don't go for the sticks, fortunately I have a lovely shop here in the UK: http://www.chinchillas2shop.co.uk/ that sells 100s of different chew things that I can try out.

I'm searching for a new wooden box for them to sleep in. I can't seem to find anything decent though. :/

 

[ibuki]

I would get rid of the rack, wire racks can cause leg injury. You can put the hay in a small clean ceramic flower pot or small cardboard box of just leave it in a pile. Peroxide straight can be poured on yucky waste and it works well if let sit for a bit , then rinse well.

I took your advice and found some ceramic flower puts and put some hay in one. One of them has already had some out of it, which is great.

Do you think this is a permanent solution to the hay rack problem I have? Any downsides to these flower pots?

 

[AZChins]

Flower pots work great as perches and they can be washed and used forever. The only downside I have with them here is that the chins pull all the hay out of them! Then again, that can be the downside to most anything that holds hay in a cage. There are some chins that will pull all the hay out of anything.

Did you attach the flower pot to the side of the cage or just put it at the bottom?

 

[ChinChiq]

The only reason that I don't like to use flower pots is because Luna will take any opportunity to fling things around her cage. If it's not bolted to the cage, she will find a way to move it...it's amazing how strong she is for being so small! I don't want her tossing a flower pot off of the shelves and have it break.

 

[ibuki]

They're on the lower shelf right now.

I'll keep an eye out to see if they try to move them

 

[ibuki]

Quick question: one of the chinchillas always sleeps on the top shelf in his cage. He doesn't have a proper sleeping box. If I got him a proper sleeping box, will he even use it if he always sleeps on the ledge?

 

[smhluvsmh]

He may not right away. My girls switch where they sleep. Sometimes in the house, sometimes in the tube, others on a shelf, in a hammock...it just depends on there mood. I think they should have options though!

 

[ibuki]

Alrighty. I will buy a box for him then. A hammock is definitely happening at some point too