Best chin environment

[Jlynn6704]

Hello everyone!! I am so happy to say that very soon i will be adding two chins to my family. I have been searching a lot for the best cage. Any suggestions? It seems most of you have the ferret nation, is that the best one.

Also i have seen so many different decorations and style that i a, looking for suggestion on how to set up my cage and what are a must have??

I also like the idea of litter training my chins so please can you tell me how?? One last thing i see that people have everything lined in fleece, is that just for the droppings or is there another purpose??

Thanks for all your help!

 

[carmen holt]

i have my chin 10 weeks now he is a male and i noticed that he always went in one corner to pee so i put a pyrex bowl and put aspen bedding in there and thats the only place he pees so it was super easy I have a critter nation cage love it so much room for him to jump and play and for me to decorate the fleece is pretty to look at and it helps with his feet

 

[seachin]

If you have a hard time, soak up some fresh urine using shavings and mix it in with fresh shavings in the tray. Most of mine learn pretty quick this way. Sadly, some never do

 

[javachin]

Ferret Nations and Quality Cage are very good cages to use.

 

[Zoaea]

Basically they want a roomy cage with shelves but no ramps, avoid plastic shelves/items in the cages, the chins rip them up even if they are labeled as "chew resistant" (I mean chins enjoy chewing pumice, plastic is no obstacle...) People use fleece for multiple reasons, including because chins like to kick out sawdust from the cage, and to cover cages that have plastic shelving. I don't use fleece because I hate attaching it to the cage and washing it, so its a personal preference thing.

I would say plan on having some type of poo guards for the bottom and maybe the shelves if you hate cleaning up sawdust/poo's from the carpet every day. They love to kick stuff out of the cage when they run around. I also think they are happiest if they have at least one wooden hidey house. If you are getting a baby sometimes they are really clumsy with shelves and falling off of them, so you might want to start out with low shelves and place higher ones as they get used to it. It really depends on the chin and what kind of cage they lived in before you bought em too I think.

Then again my chin that would always fall off the shelf when he was young is a bit "special". =P

 

[Jlynn6704]

Thanks for all the great info!

Zoaea thats what I was confused about cause people talk about how good the ferret nation is but that cage has ramps. All the pics on the FN forum have shelves so can you take the shelves and ramps out to put your own in??

 

[mknoblich1]

I have a critter nation and I made wooden shelves myself to replace the ramps and plastic shelves that came with it. I got metal pans to replace the plastic bottoms of the cage from http://bassequipment.com

My chins love it but I'm going to be getting a ferret nation cage soon because my girls are to heavy for the bars on the critter nation cage now that they're older.

 

[Godofgods]

Thanks for all the great info!

Zoaea thats what I was confused about cause people talk about how good the ferret nation is but that cage has ramps. All the pics on the FN forum have shelves so can you take the shelves and ramps out to put your own in??

Yea, you can take any ramp or shelf out if you want. Would advise definitely taking the FN ramps out tho to make sure a chin doesn't catch there little feet on them and break a foot/leg, or worse.

I'm sure theres plenty of ppl on here that can make a ledge or shelf to your specifications, if you cant or don't want to do it yourself. Basically, you need a slab of chin safe wood (Cause they will chew on it). And cut it down to what ever size/shape you need.

And a method of attaching it safely and securely to your cage. I personally use a form of dowel screws. Similar to these. (Not that one specifically.) They have two sides. One side is designed to screw into the wood. The other side you can put a nut. (I prefer wing nuts. Much easier to deal with by hand.) So screw it into the wood, put a washer on each side and attach it to the cage. Then use a wing nut to secure it. I perosnaly think you should generally use at least two for security. More depending on the size/weight of the shelf.

This and this are pics of ledges i had. Both pic are very old and taken for different reasons, but you can see the ledges and how i attached mine. Note tho that those only have the one screw and washer attachment. All of mine now have two. Reason being, with only one, it is less secure and the ledges will give to one side or another. So they are often not level. And its only one extra screw set up to make sure nothing goes wrong and my chin doesn't risk getting hurt some how.