Chins in the Kitchen

[mishellyshel]

So............how many of you have chins in your kitchen?? Does anyone have any concerns with this? I know my parents have come over and questioned me, but its not like his poop is bouncing into our food!

I have a very looooong kitchen, the actual area where cooking is done is very small but the area where the table & china cab is quite large.
When I rescued Zucca, the only space I had after quarantine was in my kitchen. I just moved him to a different section of the kitchen, where he is basically a half wall between my richie & stitch's cage. so now Richie & Zucca can see eachother all day. I thought the noise they made before was loud!!! wow, the three of them were just running up and down their cages the last few nites, sounds like a war!

just wondering if i am the only one who has chin cages as their main furniture!

 

[TheNobleFight]

It is so peculiar they act so territorial in small numbers. We are having the same issue with recent transplants... It's almost like they cage stomp! Behavior similar to primates beating their chest in the wild.
I have always worried about the sanitation factor with chins on my floors. Not for me, but I could see them flinging poo into my coffee when I am not looking(thank god it floats). More so, I worry about the levels of Arsenic, Mercury, and deadly bacteria they get on their pads. For that reason alone, i have trouble understanding that bathrooms are the best place for a chin to play. I will never forget those Nightline shows when I was a kid, talking about "Flesh Eating Bacteria" living all over my bathroom(even on my Rubber Duckies).

 

[Jenn]

My chin's cage is in the dining area (we eat in the living room, not in the dining room) which is adjacent to the kitchen. The kitchen and dining area are an open floor plan. The worry I had about birds or chins in the kitchen is the fumes that I would produce and how harmful they may be for my chin. Odors from simple food cooking, to the ocassional burning of food, to cleaning products used. She is in a corner, as far away in the shared space from the cooking area, and I don't think she is in any danger. I also don't let my chin play in the bathroom, but in her pen which is attached to her cage. But the reason I don't let her play in the bathroom is just because she was much too destructive and was ruining my trim boards and my cabinets.

 

[AZChins]

The bacteria content in the droppings and on the chins themselves isn't going to pose a safety hazard for people at all. Dust and fur and hay tend to be more annoying than anything else unless someone happens to be allergic to them. When the A/C is on in the house and the air circulates away from the chins I end up with a fine blanket of chinchilla fur all over everything nearly every day. For me having them near the kitchen would mean more fur (at one time I had them in the front room, so that was about 15 to 20 feet from the kitchen) and more cleaning.

It all comes down to containing and cleaning the mess. Granted, I am used to dozens of chins making an ungodly mess...but anyone with chins in the kitchen or another part of the house where people will be more often especially with food probably needs to sweep a couple times a day and keep on top of cleaning.

Flesh eating bacteria? That makes me want to get out a bucket of bleach water and clean everything down again. Yikes.

 

[Claire D]

I have always worried about the sanitation factor with chins on my floors. Not for me, but I could see them flinging poo into my coffee when I am not looking(thank god it floats). More so, I worry about the levels of Arsenic, Mercury, and deadly bacteria they get on their pads. For that reason alone, i have trouble understanding that bathrooms are the best place for a chin to play. I will never forget those Nightline shows when I was a kid, talking about "Flesh Eating Bacteria" living all over my bathroom(even on my Rubber Duckies).

Not sure what you do to have that kind of contamination on your floors :wacko:
It is usually sufficient to wash floors with pet safe disinfectants and allow the floor to dry before allowing the chins out - the bigger problem is making sure they can't get themselves into any chemicals, cabling, or toxic plants etc. Chemicals are probably the biggest issue in a bathroom setting.

As for the kitchen thing - personally I would not have a chin in the kitchen - but more for their safety than mine with fluctuating heat, humidity, and fumes etc.

 

[mishellyshel]

I do sweep several times a day. I also use clorox or lysol wipes on the floor near his cage and in the bathroom after all the chins have had their playtime. i also keep a brush & pan both in the bathroom & near the cage, as the dust in the bathroom is pretty bad on nights they all dust!!
Fortunately Zucca is one of the only chins I have that is pretty well litter trained! so i empty his litter every nite and dont get much of an odor from his cage. My other ones, well that is a different story!

 

[TheNobleFight]

LOL Maybe its just over the pond we have these problems... I mean hey, we use toxic Chinese Drywall to build hospitals and daycare centers. But I double dog dare you to swab your kitchen floor and Petri dish the sample. If its not white, green, black, and fuzzy, I will put on a kilt and do a youtube dance for you and all you friends.

 

[Claire D]

But I double dog dare you to swab your kitchen floor and Petri dish the sample. If its not white, green, black, and fuzzy, I will put on a kilt and do a youtube dance for you and all you friends.

Off you go then - I just washed my kitchen floor with bleach a little while ago. :laughitup:


Seriously though, bacteria are everywhere. Humans and all living beings are covered in bacteria and they don't generally cause a problem unless we have some form of immune problem or compromised skin. The whole media frenzy of programmes designed to scare people witless just drives me potty. We have them here too & I refuse to watch them - we were not designed to live in sterile environments & "a little bit of dirt never harmed anyone" as my Grandma used to say. :thumbsup:


For chins living in a house we simply need to take sensible precautions and use pet safe disinfectants appropriately, especially if we are letting them run about in bathrooms, kitchens etc.

 

[tunes]

If its not white, green, black, and fuzzy, I will put on a kilt and do a youtube dance for you and all you friends.

Okay, I wanna see this. Claire - go swab your floor.

I've had to keep chins in the kitchen, either through quarantine or when one was ill and I needed to keep them away from every one else. You have to constantly clean up because of the grossnest factor (I mean, it IS a kitchen), but other than that I don't think it's a big deal. We never eat in the kitchen either. We either eat at the desks or in front of the TV, and they sat far, far away from the stove (I have a large kitchen), so I didn't worry about it overmuch.

 

[AZChins]

I want to see him do it, too!!!!!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Rochelle and I would never stop laughing. KILT DANCE!!! Do you even have a kilt?

Speaking of kitchen floors... I usually get on my hands and knees and clean with a bucket of bleach water - I do this in the chin bathroom, as well. I know that that works well, but with my back it's not so great to do it every single day. I have this steamer thing that I have had for years and it says that it kills bacteria. Do you think the steamer is as good as the bleach? The steamer can't do as good a job as I do by hand, of course...but I wonder if it is worth using for disinfection purposes!

 

[Chub_Chub]

I want to see him do it, too!!!!!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Rochelle and I would never stop laughing. KILT DANCE!!! Do you even have a kilt?

I think thats what sewing machines are for... Fleece and kilts... :sewing:

 

[AZChins]

You make him Kilts? Really? This is very eye opening!

 

[Chub_Chub]

LOLOLOLOL no! But he can use my machine to make one for himself.. I'll be busy setting up the camera! :apple::banana::neener:

 

[Rescue Momma]

I have critters ALL over my house!!!!
At the moment since we have been freezing every night this week I have 4 rabbits in cages on my dining room table!
It's not like we use it to eat on.....LOL
People freak when I say that they are on the table. I clean up after them every evening and they are warm.

Skitzo one of my chins live in a FN in a doorway between the living room and dining room and loves it. He gets to see everything that's going on and gets tons of attention.

In my room I sleep in most of the time I have 2 other Chins in seperate FN cages.
Then the 2 Guinea Pigs are in a 3X4 CC cage.
I have a crate with the litter box for the cat in there too.
I spend MUCH time cleaning cages and floors but they are worth it.
Christmas a year ago I bought a little 2 gallon shop vac to clean up critter poop. ($20 at Sears) That way I can just vacuum out cages if I need too.
My regular house vac is not sitting around full of critter poop and fermenting.
When I'm not using the vacuum I have a broom and dust pan with a long handle to sweep up most of it.
And anything that I might miss the 5 dogs will eat for me.
I'm about ready to quit buying dog food!!!! :wacko:

Contrary to many peoples beliefs not all bacteria and germs are bad. We need some of them to balance things out.

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

[Q Do you think the steamer is as good as the bleach? The steamer can't do as good a job as I do by hand, of course...but I wonder if it is worth using for disinfection purposes![/QUOTE]

I think it does just as good a job, personally. I use boiling hot water to clean my floors and counters, and have never had anyone get sick if they pick something off the floor and eat it ( I have kids who think the 30 second rule is an actual rule ) :nah:

But I also clean with Bleach at least once every week, just to make sure it is really clean. But the only way to be sure I guess, is to get some petri dishes and do some swabs and see what grows!

Which gives me a great idea for my next science project!

 

[TheNobleFight]

Girls, I was only kidding... Not about the kilt dancing that is, I love a good Scottish Full Monty.:thumbsup:

I know everyone does there best to clean their floors, and chins are probably like humans in that their immune systems create antibody's for any pathogens in their environment. But no matter what you do... Airborne particles will contaminate your bleach floor before it dries, and no swab will come growth free. (proceeds to put his pants back on, and burn said kilt).:laughitup:

On a different note: I would stress that people not use Pine sol to clean anything. It leaves trace residue that will coat your stomach and intestines. I had to find this out the hard way, when I ran out of bleach one morning and decided to clean my Camelback water pouch with pine sol instead. This combined with a small amount of food poisoning(Botulism) at lunch turned into an emergency room visit. Needless to say, stomach pumping, food tubes, 10 lbs and 3 days later I was able to absorb food again. The pine oil caused the Botulism effects to worsen and not remedy through normal digestion.
That was a nice $5000 bill, not to mention the $200 warm blanket they offered me(Dont take the snuggie, it is not worth it).
So the moral of the story here is... If this happened to a human, I would hate to see what happens to a chin(that cannot vomit, and uses gut absorption for all it's nutrition). For what it is worth...

 

[scamperlittletika]

Mine are in the hallyway into the kitchen...

I have a 12 month old baby crawling around everywhere so there is no poop on the floor for more then 2 minutes. i clean it asap otherwise she'll think its food lol. my floor around the chins is probably a lot cleaner than the rest of the house

 

[Essentia]

Fritz is in the kitchen while he is in quarantine and healing, though not in the area we prepare our food. His on our kitchen table (which we have only used once this past year and that was for a hiloday gathering). The kitchen stays cooler than our living room, so it made more sense to let him stay there. Plus, all the syringes, meds, CC and everything is located in the kitchen so it makes everything nice and easy.

 

[ticklechin]

The entire Bay Area got to see chin poo in my kitchen, it does not bother me!

 

[InkedupTara]

The entire Bay Area got to see chin poo in my kitchen, it does not bother me!

More than just the bay area I seen that tv clip too!




I dont even like to be in MY kitchen, but my kitchen is smaller than my bathroom...... figure that one out!:hair: I think if the chin is happy.... then that is what matters.