Chi chi

[Chi chi chinchilla 123]

Hey everyone I've had my chinchilla Chi Chi for a year. Chi chi's cage came with plastic levels and steps in which I'm in the process of replacing with kiln dried pine, however I would like to provide Chi Chi with large branches for climbing on aswell. I was just wondering if anyone knew where I could purchase ones which are considered chinchilla safe. I've tried looking online for ones similar to the branches in the attached picture, but I just don't seem to be able to find any matches. Attached is a picture of Chi Chi on the day I got her.

 

[Amethyst]

Chins are not natural climbers or tree dwelling creatures, so I would advised against doing a similar set up. That setup is really more suited for something like a squirrel that actually climb and have larger paw with longer toes and claws to help grip onto branches, since chins hop not climb and don't have claws a setup like that increases likelihood of a fall. A fall of more then about a foot can seriously hurt or even kill an adult chin if they land wrong, so adding large branches like that comes with a very high risk of them falling. Also depending on how the branches branch off there is also an impalement risk if they fall onto a branch.

A better setup would be to add wood perches to the cage instead, which is something I do advise having. The easiest places to find those would be ones sold for large birds (just double check they are made with a chin safe wood), as well various sellers on Etsy and depending on where in the world you live some online chinchilla supply vendors also sell wood perches. Just make sure they over lap things so if they do miss a jump they don't have far to fall, and I wouldn't go any thinner then 1" thick.

Here is a couple pics of what I mean, it allows them to hop around on and sit on the perches.

 

[Chinmin]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[doublechins]

cute pic of Chi Chi! thanks for sharing.