Help!! Chinchilla cage and bugs?!

[bianca]

Hey. my chinchillas cage had veerrrry tiny bugs in it today.. (similar to fruit flies but a tiny bit smaller maybe?) .. they were on his pumice stone, which was wet from his urine. I also found some in his food bowl

..i threw out EVERYTHING in the cage and power cleaned the cage and such..
do you think everything is alright now?

 

[starleomach]

I wish I could help but I have never had bugs in my cages before

Are you sure they weren't from the food? what do you feed?

 

[bianca]

my chinni eats oxbow food.

the thing is.. before today, his cage was not cleaned in a while i feel absolutely terrible.. but if i want honest responses, i think it is best that i am honest with everyone.
i cleaned everything with hot water and mild soap. and replaced his water dispenser and anything else he uses.

 

[bianca]

i am thinking of tossing the current bag of food and buying a new bag.. i may pour it into a sealed container.. do you think this is a sanitary idea? just in case it was the food..

 

[starleomach]

the longest I have ever gone without cleaning was 2 weeks and I had pneumonia and couldn't do anything other than feed water and pass out....I did not get bugs. How long was a while????

 

[bianca]

it was longer than 2 weeks. but i am just hoping that the little bugs (that appeared to be fruit flies) were just because of the smell of the urine..and not my animal.

do you think that my chinchi is happier though, now that he has a clean cage? i felt upset after cleaning it..since i had thrown out his hut (which was old anyway) and replaced it with a new one. i think he will get used to it.. since he was in his new hut today

i will clean the cage once a week though.. since i understand the importance of a clean home. i mean, i wouldnt be a happy person if my house was filthy!

 

[starleomach]

I am guessing the fruit flies came from maggots in the cage.....you really need to clean the cage at least 1 time a week. I try to clean mine 2x a week. I understand going a few days past cleaning day I mean I was supposed to clean today and I am going to do it tomorrow instead but there really is no reason to go that long......I mean more than 2 weeks I have 39 cages to clean and it takes me an hour...1 cage would be nothing like 10 minutes....

 

[greychins]

I think it could be because of the wet bedding. I once had someone house-sitting my chins/pets for 3 weeks. I had been planning on cleaning the cage right before I left, but long story short, I had to leave a few days early, and my house-sitter assured me she'd clean the cage...(she would have had to clean the cage at some point when I was gone anyway, but she assured me she'd clean it the first time right away). I come to find out mid-trip that she had some family emergency and couldn't actually house-sit, but would come and check on the pets like once a day... but she never did clean the cage. So after 3+ weeks of sitting there unchanged, (we were using pelleted aspen) the bedding was soaking wet and clumpy... and with tiny little bugs like fruit flies.

Checked the food, checked everything, and in the end I assumed that since the bedding was a moist surface, some bug must have laid some eggs....

 

[bianca]

MAGGOTS?! :O

i didnt see any...but they must be gone since i cleaned everything right?
im sorry.. i have a fear of bugs.. and i also hope it didnt effect my chin. (he seems to be completely normal though)

 

[starleomach]

where there are flies there are maggots....bleaching everything is a step..hopefully it doesn't happen again

 

[bianca]

:err: oh no!!
okay...... i am hoping it doesnt happen again.. since i am moving the cage into my bedroom tomorrow . :| ahh

 

[caiti]

Kristy--You must be very efficient. Or I'm super slow. It takes me at least an hour to clean my one chin's cage. First, I have to shovel all the bedding I can into a trash bag. Then, I vacuum the rest, the shelves, and all fleece accessories. Then I wipe down everything with the vinegar solution, then sand down any needed wood (and vacuum that up). Then replace with new bedding, usually replace her food, hay and vacuum around the cage. By the end of it, I'm wheezing, sneezing, my face is all red and hot and Chloe's jumping all over my lap, feet and head and popcorning everywhere haha. Granted, I'm allergic to her hay and I think her dust so that would account for the allergy attack slowing me down.

Bianca--now you know and can clean more often. I'm not sure what exactly caused the flies, could have been the waste from your chin accumulating, yes. Either way, you can't go back in time now so just watch out for them and if they don't go away, post again or ask for more help. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard. It takes me so long because I have allergies and don't have a pan in the cage and can't lift the cage up from the base so I can't just take it out and tilt the bedding into a trash can. Also, my chin didn't go for the whole potty training thing so fleece liners don't work so well for me but would have saved a lot of time if they did. I think I may have went near two weeks once, but not quite. The cage my chin is in is pretty large and there's a lot of floor space so it takes a while to get dirty, especially if I spot clean often but I almost always clean every week.

 

[mommyslittlechins2010]

i clean mine every two to three days caue of the three of them in one cage .

 

[ticklechin]

Bad husbandry can lead to nasty things for a chin like aspergillus fungus which grows on wet bedding, feeding on the ammonia from the urine-it can be inhaled and ingestesd and cause permanent damage to the lungs and intestinal tract, the chin can get infections of the feet and lungs from just the ammonia, it can get urine scald in the privates so bugs aside, keep your chin clean!

 

[Ash]

Kristy--You must be very efficient. Or I'm super slow. It takes me at least an hour to clean my one chin's cage. First, I have to shovel all the bedding I can into a trash bag. Then, I vacuum the rest, the shelves, and all fleece accessories. Then I wipe down everything with the vinegar solution, then sand down any needed wood (and vacuum that up). Then replace with new bedding, usually replace her food, hay and vacuum around the cage. By the end of it, I'm wheezing, sneezing, my face is all red and hot and Chloe's jumping all over my lap, feet and head and popcorning everywhere haha. Granted, I'm allergic to her hay and I think her dust so that would account for the allergy attack slowing me down.

I have 3 cages and it takes me about a half hour. The only thing I don't do is sand down wood. You're just slow :neener:


All kidding aside, the bugs probably came from the soiled bedding. Clean your cage at least once a week if you don't want it to happen again.

 

[starleomach]

I have it down to a science after 14 years. Now mind you the 1 hour is if I am not visiting and playing that is when I am doing the basic cleaning which is a Tuesday or Wednsday night event. I have a huge shopvac and I pretty much suck out the cage vacuming the shelves at the same time, I wash my bottles in the dishwasher on Sundays. And since I clean twice a week the pans are often cleaner and I just have to wipe a few down before adding the shavings. I do not have a ton of fleece items. only a few.

Sunday cleanings when I really clean throuroughly do take longer I wipe down all the pans and wash the feed bowls and water bottles, my point is if I can get it done that quickly why in the heck did she so long? there is NO excuse for that. she has 1 chinchilla, that is really sad she didn't get the cage cleaned for weeks..that is neglectful IMPO

Like Dawn said bad husbandry can lead to nasty things. It can cause URIs which can quickly go into pnemonia from the Amonia smell, it can cause fungus or skin infections. Just so many health issues.

 

[chinnychinchinchilla]

what room was the chinchilla in? im glad shes moving into your room cause then you will see her cage more often and will be able to know how dirty it is more. also your room will start to smell if you dont keep it clean so that will help you stay on top of it. how big is your cage? what do you use as bedding? is your chinchilla potty trained? lets say you have a 2 level ferret nation cage. it should be cleaned once a week if it has shavings and is potty trained. if the cage is smaller and your chinchilla is not potty trained your cage should be cleaned more than once a week.

 

[caiti]

You're just slow :neener:

You have no idea on how many levels, haha. I am very slow, though. I also let her out at the same time in a sectioned off area of my room that I can watch her but is small enough that I don't have to watch her like I do when she's got free run of the entire room. Sometimes I just put her in her carrier if I just don't have enough time to goof around, though. So I stop a few times every moment to play with her when she's out and keep one eye on her while I'm cleaning (which she's usually all over me because stuff is happening). But, really, I'm just slow--no excuse for it, ha.

Bianca, it's also a lot easier if you notice if your chin pees in a specific corner. My chin really only pees in two, maybe three different spots so spot cleaning is made a lot easier by that fact. I put a pyrex dish in the cage in the most used corner and that helps too. I can change it out every couple days and her cage stays cleaner and won't get unsanitary. Then, the weekly cleaning won't be so bad and waste won't accumulate as easily.

 

[itsangelaaa]

Bianca, if you're still worried about bugs you can scrub the whole cage with a 50/50 bleach/water solution, hose it down really well, and let it dry in the sun. The bleach and natural bacteria killing power of UV rays will kill whatever bugs/larvae are lurking around that the soap missed. It would suck if you moved the cage to your room and there were still little fly eggs hiding somewhere, then you'd have an infestation in your room too. I'd do so just to be safe

 

[bianca]

Thank you
Yeah. I cleaned his cage again last night.. No bugs since I saw them on Sunday. I think it's all gone since I used very hot water and soap, then hosed it down with high water pressure.