DIY Melamine Natural Chin Cage Ideas

[jbrown5056]

The Backstory: I am currently building another 4x2x2 melamine vivarium for my bearded dragons and my brothers friend asked if i wanted to adopt his chinchilla instantly i said yes. So i thought as long as i'm building a lizard viv i thought i might as well build a cage the chin.


The Cage: I was thinking of building melamine 4x2x2 with 1/2 inch hinged wire doors and Stack it on the lizard enclosure.


The Decor: Since i love decorating my reptile cages, i thought i would make a natural chin cage. I was thinking making a false rock background to cover the three sides of the cage like this http://www.lizard-la...-terrarium.html but make false rock ledges jet out for. And then for the bottom i was thinking shaved aspen bedding with some driftwood to make a climbing tree and cut and sand a large granite stone for a homemade chinchller.
(note all the outside items such as driftwood, rocks, etc would be power washed, baked or boiled) i am also thinking of ways to make a wheel fit in a hollowed out tree stump


The Questions: Other than pellet diet and hay do chins like any particular fruits/veggies cause i almost always have organic squash, dandelion greens, mustard greens, cactus pads, carrots, and more available for my reptiles. which i think they would be willing to share.

I have some knowledge on chinchillas but i'm obviously no expert so any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shenanigans]

I dont know if melamine is safe for chins to chew on- I would suggest looking up chin safe woods and makeing sure everything is that type of wood has NEVER been sprayed with pesticides or treated in anyway chemically (Just boiled and baked to kill microbes and keep it from going bad). They don't need a climbing tree or ramp type structures as much as they like ledges to hop to&from. As for rocks- I dont know what the "false rock" would be. Other than granite and lava/blue cloud/pumice stones I would avoid most rocks. Anything put in reach of a chin will be chewed. A few things to avoid in the cage are anything plastic (eating it can cause impaction and kill a chin) and wire mesh floors (bad for feet), as well as any fabric besides fleece (it doesn't string apart like other fabrics do to cause intestinal issues or cut off circulation with threads).

I highly recommend looking around the forum here for info. Reading into the new owners threads will teach you a lot of info (and many people are willing to answer any questions there too- the only stupid questions are the unasked ones)
For cage ideas I recommend looking into the FN club thread (http://chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134&highlight=ferret+nation) a little- it'll give you an idea of typical cage setups and give you a feel for safe/unsafe and what chins enjoy.

Heres a thread of ggod/bad examples I saved so I dont have to keep retyping some of it http://chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44958

Also, check out all the vendors in classifieds (including the stores stickied at the top) Usually their products are much better and safer than ones at petstores marketed for chins. http://chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=29

 

[Amethyst]

Melamine is not safe to chew on, some people have made cages out of it, but you have to make sure there is no access to edges to chew on. http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23633 Also make sure it's well ventilated so the chin doesn't over heat.

When building a cage for a chin height is more important then wide, also as said they don't really climb as adults they hop mostly. I'm not sure about the background, the link doesn't load, if you are talking about those sticker like backgrounds I'd said not a good idea since the chin would probably peel it off and eat it. The false rock, I guess it depends on what it is, anything you put in the chin's cage will be chewed on so it has to be chewable and/or chin safe. Shelves and perches are the best way to go for hopping around on, wood, blue cloud stone, and pumice/lava rock are the best options to use since they double as a chew option. Chin wheels need to be a min of 14'-15' inches in diameter to avoid back injury, their spines don't bend backwards.

As to the idea of putting the chin cage above the lizard, I don't think that would work out, chins need to be in temps below 75 F at all times, it was 50 in here the other day and my guys were loving it. An ac unit is advised in the room they are kept in the summer to help keep the temp and humidity down. They don't have the ability to sweat, so fans don't help, and are basically wearing thick winter coveralls year round, in the wild it can get slightly below freezing and they are fine. I know there are some people here that have both reptiles and chins, hopefully one of them will chime in, but I'm not sure you can really house them in the same room easily due to the required temp differences.

All a chin needs is water in a bottle, a good quality pellet only food, and hay. Fruits and vegetables should be avoided as they are too high in sugar and with fresh, too much water content too. Also chins teeth grow all the time, both front and back teeth, so they need plenty of things to chew on. Wood chew toys and sticks should be available at all times.

 

[jbrown5056]

Melamine is not safe to chew on, some people have made cages out of it, but you have to make sure there is no access to edges to chew on. http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23633 Also make sure it's well ventilated so the chin doesn't over heat.

When building a cage for a chin height is more important then wide, also as said they don't really climb as adults they hop mostly. I'm not sure about the background, the link doesn't load, if you are talking about those sticker like backgrounds I'd said not a good idea since the chin would probably peel it off and eat it. The false rock, I guess it depends on what it is, anything you put in the chin's cage will be chewed on so it has to be chewable and/or chin safe. Shelves and perches are the best way to go for hopping around on, wood, blue cloud stone, and pumice/lava rock are the best options to use since they double as a chew option. Chin wheels need to be a min of 14'-15' inches in diameter to avoid back injury, their spines don't bend backwards.

As to the idea of putting the chin cage above the lizard, I don't think that would work out, chins need to be in temps below 75 F at all times, it was 50 in here the other day and my guys were loving it. An ac unit is advised in the room they are kept in the summer to help keep the temp and humidity down. They don't have the ability to sweat, so fans don't help, and are basically wearing thick winter coveralls year round, in the wild it can get slightly below freezing and they are fine. I know there are some people here that have both reptiles and chins, hopefully one of them will chime in, but I'm not sure you can really house them in the same room easily due to the required temp differences.

All a chin needs is water in a bottle, a good quality pellet only food, and hay. Fruits and vegetables should be avoided as they are too high in sugar and with fresh, too much water content too. Also chins teeth grow all the time, both front and back teeth, so they need plenty of things to chew on. Wood chew toys and sticks should be available at all times.

Thanks for the info, i'm thinking of building a melamine enclosure and all exposed edges will have stainless steel trim so chewing won't be a problem. Im also ditching the idea the background idea http://www.lizard-landscapes.com/reptile-terrarium.html cause it would take too much grout to make it chew proof instead im going with pine shelves. A homemade wheel similar to this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmbAApN0o6M and i got a heater/ac unit and a dehumidifier in a different room so i can keep temps around 65 degrees fahrenheit and humidity around 40-50 percent.

And also would a 2x2x4 enclosure be big enough? that would mean i would only need to use one 8x4 sheet on melamine and not have to get a custom order from home depot.