Bedding.

[Christina Noraas]

As I've been exploring the site, I've seen pictures and read posts about people using cat litter and fleece at the bottom of the cage.

How does this work for chins? Is it easier than using wood shavings? Or what?

I've been looking at every pet store in my area and the local feed mills to see if they carry wood shavings, all anyone carries is cedar...

So I've been looking for other ways to bed my chinchila cages, I put a garbage bag at the very bottom of the cage because the bottom is made out of metal wiring, then I put cat litter under neath a layer of news papers and then a generous layer of straw.

Curious of easier simplier ways to bed the chins?

 

[Isabella Whateva]

I don't think it's recommended to use cat litter, just because most brands give off a certain odor.

The fleece liners are really awesome. You can order ones from people on here (most are pre-made for Ferret Nation cages, but lots will do custom sizes), easily make them yourself, or just line the bottom of the cage with fleece. Most people also litter pan train their chins to make this cleaner. Basically you get a small pan and put pine shavings in it and eventually they learn to pee in it. They'll still poop everywhere, of course, but you can easily just vacuum the liners once a day or go shake them outside.

Since you have a wire bottom cage, you might have to figure out something solid to cover the wire with. Maybe a board or a piece of metal? Let's see what other people suggest....

 

[greychins]

I wouldn't recommend cat litter. I could just see a chin eating it and somehow that causing a problem. I can't imagine that would be good. I'd nix the cat litter idea.

I looked up your general area, and I have to say - you must be absolutely in the middle of nowhere - no Petco's, Petsmarts, or even Tractor Supplies for like an hour and 45 minutes (to the closest Tractor Supply). That is insane!

Ok, anyway, back to the topic at hand. Is there any place near you that sells horse bedding shavings? I don't know if that's exactly what it's called, but when I used to ride, the stables I rode at always used to have some sort of shavings material (though smaller pieces than you'd think of for chinchilla shavings) that they used to bed the horse stalls with. It wasn't sawdust, but it was more fine shavings. I hope I'm making some sense and you vaguely know what I'm talking about. Could you possibly get some of that and use that?

If not... I think fleece liners would be your best bet. I personally don't think I would ever use them simply because I refuse to do laundry ridiculously often, but if you don't have the shavings option, there's not much else.

For the wire bottom cage, do they have ledges and stuff where they can get off the wire bottom? Regardless, I would put down a piece or two of chin-safe wood so that they could rest their feet on that, instead of being on the wire all the time.

 

[Christina Noraas]

The wire is covered with the layer of garbage bag, cat litter, paper and straw (cat litter and paper for more absorbency) they can't get to the wiring or anything under the straw/hay it's a thick layer (sorry I didn't make that more noticable in the first post, it just makes a big mess in my room and it clogs the vacuum from the stuff I miss while picking up.

Rex has ledges in his cage, but since Big Momma is possibly pregnant I put her in a single level cage. I'm going to attempt to divide my big cage in half with a large piece of wood like I've seen some people do with their ferret nations, and if that doesn't work I'm just going to build her, her own cage. Any ways back to ledges, the ledges are made out of wire as well, but are covered with pine wood, and there is also a few pine ledges, plus a hammock, PVC pipes, and soon sleeping cubes, so their little feet are save from the wire.

I know what your talking about with the horse shavings, we use to have horses but our feed mill discontinued carrying it so we used straw as bedding.

Oh! When I read about the litter pans I thought they were using cat littler, my bad. ^.^;


Yes, I do live in the middle of no where. Just to get to my school depending on the weather it takes 30 minutes to an hour driving the car but on the bus the bus ride is an hour and a half to two hours long. It's a pain but we deal. D; The town that I live in has 70 residents.

The closest petco/petsmart is in bloomington which is over 2 1/2 hours away other than that we only have small pet stores that only carry the basics for cats, dogs, and other common house hold pets such as hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits. I've looked at the local small petstores around here and they have 'natural nesting material' but I ruled it out because I was sure it would cause problems for them, or they had the cedar shavings which I know is a no no. I think it's because everyone around here farms and they just use their crops as bedding. At our house alone we have straw bales, hay bales, and corn bales. Or for the people that have horses the company which they buy their horse shavings from comes to their house and sells it to them in LARGE bulk, however it's mostly cattle around here.

 

[starleomach]

Cat litter should be no where near a chinchilla, even if they can't touch it, Cat litter gives off fumes. Get rid of the cat litter or you very well may have a dead chinchilla.....

Feed supply stores will have pine shaving, pet stores have pine shavings I have never had an issue with finding pine.

Get rid of the garbage bag if your chinchilla reaches the garbage bag and chews it you are likely to have a dead chinchilla....

Pine or fleece.

 

[Isabella Whateva]

So, at the bottom of the cage, you have a layer of trashbag, then the cat litter/paper, then straw? I really wouldn't recommend that. Even if it seems like they leave the bag and litter alone, it could end up being pretty harmful to them. I know with my chins, they would have explored all the layers already. Sorry if I misinterpreted what you were saying, I'm a visual person so it's hard for me to understand complicated descriptions.

Fleece sounds like the best bet for you. That's what I do and it's a lot cleaner than any kind of bedding. You get a lot of random poops on the floor, but to me it's better than tons of shavings and hay.

 

[Christina Noraas]

So, at the bottom of the cage, you have a layer of trashbag, then the cat litter/paper, then straw? .

Yes, that's how I layer it, they actually do leave it alone because Rex prefers to be on the upper levels and rarely on the bottom of the cage unless if it's to use the wheel but then he's all the way back at the top. I only recently started to use the litter, it's unscented and what not and everything but the straw is tucked away so the corners don't poke up and tempt them to chew. With Big Momma she isn't generally in her cage unless she's sleeping, because her cage is only a single level, I let her out more often because she was use to having a four/three level cage, depending on if I kept the very top ledge installed.

 

[greychins]

You said....

Or for the people that have horses the company which they buy their horse shavings from comes to their house and sells it to them in LARGE bulk, however it's mostly cattle around here.

.... would it be possible to contact one of these people and maybe buy some shavings from them? They might not miss the amount used for a cage or two....

 

[starleomach]

I am going to just be blunt here litter still gives off dust that is dangerous, it is also not safe to injest, it even needs to be watched with cats/kittens it is a toxic material. It is an accident waiting to happen...It takes ONCE for your chinchilla to get into it eat it and die a slow death. It is not an approved bedding in any way shape or form. I don't care how far or how protected. If your chinchilla dies from getting into the litter you put in the bottom after being warned it is 100% your fault.

 

[Christina Noraas]

Feed supply stores will have pine shaving, pet stores have pine shavings I have never had an issue with finding pine.

Ours do not carry pine shavings I'ved doubled checked; we don't go shopping unless it's for groceries which is when we do all of our other shopping and we only go to the grocery store about every month sometimes every two weeks.

We go to a large town, as in they have a walmart every two to three months if not longer. Because everything is so far away from our house. Basically unless if it's an emergency or for school we don't leave the house.

I'm going to buy fleece and line my cage with it; the cat litter and bag will be disposed of.

 

[Christina Noraas]

You said....



.... would it be possible to contact one of these people and maybe buy some shavings from them? They might not miss the amount used for a cage or two....

No, the last person who owned horses around my house died last year, I was just saying that, to give a perspective on how tough it is to find it.

We sell hay to a few horse ranchers that I know of, but they're 3+ hours south of our house. .

 

[Christina Noraas]

I am going to just be blunt here litter still gives off dust that is dangerous, it is also not safe to injest, it even needs to be watched with cats/kittens it is a toxic material. It is an accident waiting to happen...It takes ONCE for your chinchilla to get into it eat it and die a slow death. It is not an approved bedding in any way shape or form. I don't care how far or how protected. If your chinchilla dies from getting into the litter you put in the bottom after being warned it is 100% your fault.

The only reason why I put litter under the paper is because when I read about people having litter pans for their chins, I thought they meant literal cat litter until I posted this and I was clarified that it's a litter pan with wood shavings not actual littler, I'm taking it out.

 

[greychins]

No, the last person who owned horses around my house died last year, I was just saying that, to give a perspective on how tough it is to find it.

We sell hay to a few horse ranchers that I know of, but they're 3+ hours south of our house. .

I gotcha. I would suggest fleece then.

 

[Isabella Whateva]

Yeah, I think you'll really like the fleece. Plus it's fun cause you can get all kinds of cute patterns and stuff. I'm not sure what you'll do for the pan because you can't get pine shavings. You could order some online, but the shipping could end up being pricey. You could do without a litter pan, but you'd definitely HAVE to change the fleece at least every day, since it gets pretty gross when it's peed on