Cages?

[Rainierainbow]

1. Okay, so right now I have a really crappy cage and hope to find a better one. I live in a kinda small apartment, and don't have much money to spend. I have heard ferret and critter nation are good but I don't know what would be the best choice.

2. what does everyone use to clean the cages. Like every once in a while type of thing.

3. There is a picture of the cage at the bottom. For the time until I get the new cage is there anything not too expensive I can do to make this cage more fun?
Thank you!

 

[AZChins]

Your cage is okay. It's not bad at all. You just need to watch for the chin chewing on plastic, that would be the only thing I would worry about with it. If he's chewing on the shelf, you may want to remove it and replace it with a wooden one. If I had the cage here, I'd take out the shelf and put in ledges and maybe another toy or two. Sometimes a chin can be distracted from chewing on plastic with more toys (or pieces of wood.)

I think you have one of those hay ball things up top. You have to be careful with those because chins can get their legs caught and could get hurt...those are fine for guinea pigs, but can pose a risk for chins (because chins find all sorts of ways to get hurt with their acrobatics!)

Keep the cage clean and keep the chin busy with things to do! I give my chins cereal boxes and other paperboard food boxes, that can be a free toy...just toss it out if it gets peed on or destroyed.

 

[Cinder and Me]

I give my chins cereal boxes and other paperboard food boxes, that can be a free toy...just toss it out if it gets peed on or destroyed.

Just a quick question. I've thought about giving cereal boxes, oatmeal tubes or toilet paper/paper towel rolls but I wasn't sure if that was ok. If cardboard is ok, great! But what about the paint on the outside of the cereal and oatmeal containers?

Thanks!! )

 

[Pikaia]

You shouldn't give any cardboard with ink or anything like that. Just plain cardboard tubes. Toilet paper/paper towel rolls are okay. However, you have to make sure that your chin is only chewing these items and NOT ingesting them. They can cause impaction in chins. I actually stopped giving mine cardboard items for this reason.

 

[AZChins]

The ink used on cereal boxes is non toxic and won't hurt chinchillas at all. I've never had a chin get impacted on cardboard in over 15 years, so I can't speak from experience about that. But, I have asked about the ink used a few times calling around to food companies and the answer is that they have to use ink that is safe because it comes into contact with human food and they don't want to be sued over someone becoming sick. It's normally soy ink. You don't want chinchillas to actually eat cardboard, of course, but for the most part chinchillas just chew on the boxes and things and leave the shredded paper everywhere.

 

[Cinder and Me]

Thanks you guys! Those are nice, cheap play toys to give them! )

 

[Pikaia]

Mine actually eat it, so I don't wanna take any chances. I even stopped giving mine birdie bagels. I might be a little paranoid. LOL. They have plenty of other toys, so I don't worry about it.

 

[Pikaia]

***Sorry about the double post. I wanted to edit the post above and ended up making a new one!!

Susan- I can't even remember where I heard the story, but I think it was on this board- where a chin had a severe impaction and after he died they did a necropsy. They found a cardboard blockage. It just scared the crap out of me. Plus, it's been talked about a whole lot on this board. I just stay away.

Mine actually eat it, so I don't wanna take any chances. I even stopped giving mine birdie bagels. I might be a little paranoid. LOL. They have plenty of other toys, so I don't worry about it.

 

[AZChins]

It's the same with anything you put in the cage with chinchillas. A chinchilla could potentially get an impaction from eating wood, and that has happened a few times in the past to chins. They can get impactions from carefresh, pine bedding and anything else. The important thing is to watch what your chinchillas are doing. If they are eating non-food items, those things should be removed. It's the same thing with plastic. It's actually very rare for a chinchilla that has plastic shelving to become impacted from it, but it can happen. It's always best to be safe, but it's a good idea to be very observant about anything you use. (Bear in mind chinchillas have gotten impacted eating hay and pellets in the past as well. Sometimes impactions are caused because of decreased gut motility and issues with certain chinchillas.)

However, if a chinchilla doesn't eat cardboard or pine shavings or something else, these things can still be used. I guess if something isn't necessary, it doesn't have to be used at all. So, it doesn't matter that much.

 

[Rainierainbow]

Thank you! I have been considering ledges but was not sure it it was a good idea because of the size