chinchilla questions

[zooky]

so i have a couple of questions i wasnt able to find the answers to. such as..

1)what are healthy treat...can i feed them dried papaya made for chinchillas at petsmart?
2)what are some ways i can make natural toys for my chin
3)how long should i let my chinchilla out...is 1 hour a day good enough? and what time would he be awake? like is 5 pm ok? or is that too early
4)how big should his play area be. we have a homemade play pen thats a 3.5' by 10' and that includes his cage in the corner...but soon were getting a FN so that would take up more space. so in general how big should his play area/pen be?

 

[xBrianx619]

1)I personally dont feed my chinchilla anything from petsmart/petco/pet stores in general. I buy things from the kind people on this website that take the time out of their day to dry up some rose hips or make some hay cubes! I order from AZChins, and she's AWESOME!

2)As noted above, I buy my chins toys from these people too. But if you search the forum, there is topics on how to prepare wood the right way, what kind of wood to buy, which are safe for chins and which are not, and things like that.

3)Chinchillas are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk. One way I can tell if it's too early for my little guy is I just look in his cage. If he's awake, and chewing on some wood, or throwing a little toy around, I'll take that as he's awake and ready! I dont clean his cage out till about 10-11PM though, because I'm awake all night

4)I myself have a playpen that I bought off of Amazon, it's easier to put him in that when I am cleaning his cage and stuff, so I don't have to monitor where he's at in the room. I just searched amazon for a small dog playpen, I think mines about a 4-5 foot diameter. It's also open at the top and theres mesh around the outside of it, make sure that you get one that's high enough because those little suckers can jump!

Hope I helped out just a little bit!

 

[xBrianx619]

P.S. Here's the list of all of the people that sell things on this website, dunno if you knew about it!

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20384

 

[Jenn]

no fruits or veggies at all for chinchillas, whether fresh or dried.

 

[Kara315]

Most of the "treats" at petsmart aren't actually good for them. I use to give them some of those before coming here. Now I give them bite size plain shredded wheat which they love. Only things I get from petsmart are the Oxbow Pellets and Oxbow Hay, and chew sticks.

 

[zooky]

1)I personally dont feed my chinchilla anything from petsmart/petco/pet stores in general. I buy things from the kind people on this website that take the time out of their day to dry up some rose hips or make some hay cubes! I order from AZChins, and she's AWESOME!

2)As noted above, I buy my chins toys from these people too. But if you search the forum, there is topics on how to prepare wood the right way, what kind of wood to buy, which are safe for chins and which are not, and things like that.

3)Chinchillas are crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk. One way I can tell if it's too early for my little guy is I just look in his cage. If he's awake, and chewing on some wood, or throwing a little toy around, I'll take that as he's awake and ready! I dont clean his cage out till about 10-11PM though, because I'm awake all night

4)I myself have a playpen that I bought off of Amazon, it's easier to put him in that when I am cleaning his cage and stuff, so I don't have to monitor where he's at in the room. I just searched amazon for a small dog playpen, I think mines about a 4-5 foot diameter. It's also open at the top and theres mesh around the outside of it, make sure that you get one that's high enough because those little suckers can jump!

Hope I helped out just a little bit!

well for me i have him play in the pen instead of a chin proof room. so is it suppose to be a certain size? or is it ok if its just big enough for him to bounce around in?

 

[Jenn]

I don't think there is any hard and fast rule for a playpen size, except you want it to be tall. Most pens aren't tall enough, but there are playpens that have tops to make them more chin-safe. I have 2 playpens attached together and then attached to my chin's cage so she can come in and out of her cage and into the playpen as she desires. My chin isn't a jumper and has never tried to jump out of her pen in the 4 years I have had her. I try to make the pen size as large as I can that fits in my room. So whatever works for you.

 

[xBrianx619]

well for me i have him play in the pen instead of a chin proof room. so is it suppose to be a certain size? or is it ok if its just big enough for him to bounce around in?

I dont really think there's a size limit...but mine is about 4-5 foot diameter. He likes to jump and run on the walls of the playpen too. It's really durable.

 

[zooky]

I dont really think there's a size limit...but mine is about 4-5 foot diameter. He likes to jump and run on the walls of the playpen too. It's really durable.

well mine is a rectangular shape thats about 10' by 3.5' and soon some space will be taken up by a FN