Improving Thor's Life

[ThorChin]

My brother bought a chinchilla, Thor, at a petstore lat year because he thought a chinchilla would be fun. Unfortunately, Thor became one of those pets who is cool at first, but then kind of wears off and gets put away. The employees at the pet store sold him a cage that is too small. It is this one. My brother rarely lets Thor out of his cage because he is "too hard to put back in and poops all over the floor." I understand that these are bad excuses. The poor chinchilla is not active at all and just sleeps all day. He loves playing, but he has no toys and gets barely any attention.

What can I do to make his life better? Are there toys I can make for him? Once I put a shoe box in his cage, and he fell in love with it- chewed it up to pieces. What are some ways I could get him back in his cage once he's running around the room (which has been chinchilla-proofed)?

I just feel so bad for Thor, and I want to help him in any way that I can. Thank you!

 

[SunshineChins]

We put a dust house out for our chins to jump into when we are ready to put them back away. Seems to work most of the time but we have had some wise up and jump back out pretty fast to keep playing.

 

[Sandi]

Chins love to hop/jump and I know that wood ledges are very inexpensive maybe you could put a couple of them in there. You didn't mention this but are you able to take over the chin for your brother? Members on this forum sell chin safe wood chews that are not that expensive. My boys LOVES the apple wood sticks and theres a member here that sells them and you can get about 50-70 sticks for just $10 and that includes shipping!

 

[InkedupTara]

You can get toys from here, or other cool sites to put in his cage, a good wheel, and good food and fresh water if he is not going to get playtime. There are lots of people on here who make awesome chin toys

He needs a bigger cage, IMO. That cage is not suitable for a pet chinchilla, from a pet perspective, especially one with little interraction.

If your brother does not want to bother with him, why not try and get him to rehome him?

 

[Jenn]

Maybe your brother would let you have him. That way he would still be close by, but you could do what it takes to improve his life, yet be responsible for him. If he doesn't get a larger cage, what about a playpen or time out of the cage in the bathroom. A wheel or saucer is also great for exercise. Lots of chew toys, especially apple sticks are a favorite. And as mentioned, dust baths are necessary once a week or so.

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

The cage will do for now if it had to, but I would add a hidey house and some ledges. Really can make all the difference for the little guy.

Treats and things like that are cheap and easy...and the dust bath is always a good trick to get them back into the cage.


I think it's great that you're trying to help the little one...but why doesn't your brother re-home him is he doesn't play with him?


Your best bet is to go through the sellers list on here...find what you need and all of the prices :thumbsup:

 

[ThorChin]

The thing is, my brother really does like Thor, he just is too lazy to do the work to take care of him. He pets him and feeds him treats (dried bananas and other assorted chinchilla treats), but just doesn't ever clean the cage. He would never get rid of Thor, but maybe he would let me take care of him. We do live in the same house still, so it's not like he would see Thor any less. I clean all of my animal cages every Sunday (birds and rats), so I bet my brother would let me clean Thor's, too. I bet he would be glad if I helped out.

Thor has a hidey house and wood ledges, all of which he loves to chew. Maybe if I show my brother some pictures of the cage set-ups you guys have, he will be inspired to improve Thor's. I just wish I could get him a bigger cage.

Thanks for all of the advice! I will do as much as I can.

 

[InkedupTara]

I dont think the treats he is feeding his chin are good. Maybe offer a plain cheerio from time to time, but Banana's are high in sugar.

 

[ThorChin]

Apparently the pet store where we got him knows nothing about chinchillas. They sold us a cage that is obviously way to small (they said it was the right size) and told us that banana chips are good for chins if fed as a treat. At least they sold us Mazuri, which I know is good food. This is a small, single person-owned pet store that we have always gone to. They have great supplies, and their animals are always in good health, but they don't give any good pet advice when it comes to exotics.

We only go there because we don't like to support Petsmart and Petco.

 

[InkedupTara]

I found the same bad advice where I went too. Even books say a lot of different info, and a lot of it is personal choice and hey, you are doing the best thing you can do, asking questions here