How can I make playtime more interesting?

[ChinsForLife]

Hey guys! Brainstorming ideas for making playtime interesting for my chinnies! I am trying to get back in the habit of letting them out to play in my chin-proofed room every day instead of every few days when they have their dust baths...(Lately I've been kinda lazy about that too and have just given it in their cage. Sometimes I'm just too tired.) Anyway, I always put out a few toys in a safe basket as well as some hay, a treat for Chico,(a rose hip, oats,[very few] crushed hibiscus, chamomile or jasmine) and sometimes an alfalfa cube for my (almost) 3 month old chin. (Of course, her playtime is only 10 minutes or so) I've seen people put out cardboard boxes and wooden bird ladders since they are under supervision but I need more ideas. I even thought about getting a stand-up 15"-16" plastic wheel just for playtime while I'm watching to make sure they don't chew it but I'm worried that would be a waste since they already have room to run when they're out and It's technically a hazard. What do all of you do to make playtime more interesting??

 

[ChinsForLife]

Any ideas @tunes @Amethyst @Binki @Chinmin @3CsMommyAgain ?

 

[Amethyst]

I'm not even sure you would beable to find a 15-16" plastic wheel anyway (normally the biggest they go is 12"), let alone a stand alone one, but playtime is for running around so I wouldn't bother with a wheel. You can get tunnels, even those cheap cat tunnels sold at dollar stores can work well. Depending on how much space you have and how compact it needs to be when not in use, you can also get or make small cat trees, just cover in fleece if needed. I realize these are expensive but to give you an idea of what I am talking about if you scroll down to the climbing toy WebShop--Cage Stuff | nolachinchillarescue.org. Hard plastic balls can also be fun for them to push around, with or without bells inside. That's about all I can think of off hand right now.

 

[ChinsForLife]

I'm not even sure you would beable to find a 15-16" plastic wheel anyway (normally the biggest they go is 12"), let alone a stand alone one, but playtime is for running around so I wouldn't bother with a wheel. You can get tunnels, even those cheap cat tunnels sold at dollar stores can work well. Depending on how much space you have and how compact it needs to be when not in use, you can also get or make small cat trees, just cover in fleece if needed. I realize these are expensive but to give you an idea of what I am talking about if you scroll down to the climbing toy WebShop--Cage Stuff | nolachinchillarescue.org. Hard plastic balls can also be fun for them to push around, with or without bells inside. That's about all I can think of off hand right now.

Thank you!!

 

[Binki]

A caveat: I only had (and have) rescue chins, namely slightly damaged adult singletons, very likely requiring at playtime more attention than two or more chins that can play with each other, but perhaps the props could be useful regardless.

For me the key for playtime has been to find out what makes the chin tick or rather, what floats its boat. My first boy was wild and bad tempered (no second guess why he was abandoned) but he was a brainiac. His thing was learning tricks with a clicker and playing games, his fav being hide and seek, with him doing most of the hiding and me doing most of the seeking. The main prop were tunnels made out of five sided stackable cardboard boxes with holes on all sides which could be quickly assembled in a great variety of ways. Inside that warren he run up and down popping out like a cuckoo to challenge me to catch him. As the play area was a long corridor I made a warren at each end so he could hide on either.

My current boy thing is athletics, mainly climbing and parkour, so I called into service things like parts of a cat climbing tree, a stepladder, children playsets (schools, fire stations and barns) assembled into barriers to jump over, a cat tunnel and home-made tunnels, his favs being Christmas panettone boxes ribbed with the inner tube of kitchen rolls; this not only helps to keep their shape but makes them bouncy, allowing him to use them as a kind of trampoline. All these (including myself) are propped along the walls of a longish corridor and I encourage him to run from prop to prop by singing songs with just the word 'run' as the lyrics, played on a xylophone. Since I am a pop music ignoramus, he has to put up with playground songs or bits of opera arias, all of them pathetically out of tune, but run he does and popcorns like crazy.

I should perhaps add that I am with him for the entire time so no danger of him chewing on plastic or cardboard. He went through a T-Rex stage in which he tried to clamp his teeth on everything but I trained him (by endless repetition) to stop any chewing using a loud 'no!'. He is not as smart as my first boy, but thus far learned about eight words, which make playtime quite fun for both of us.