The most confused I have ever been. Please help.

[Marcham93]

The Critter Nation cage I mentioned above says it comes with a plastic pan though... =/ Can I cover that with fleece? It seems like I can't escape the plastic even from the "best brand"! Ha.

 

[Pooky125]

You can try covering it with fleece, but I think most people just replace it. Either by tiling the bottom of the cage with marble tiles, or buying bass pans.

The link to order them can be found here.

 

[Marcham93]

You can try covering it with fleece, but I think most people just replace it. Either by tiling the bottom of the cage with marble tiles, or buying bass pans.

The link to order them can be found here.

Oh the pan is plastic yes, but I'm talking about the "ledge". It says, "Height adjustable shelves with removable plastic insert for easy cleaning"... but sounds like I can remove the plastic and just have the metal.

Will the pan be a problem? I saw Susan's website with cages and saw plastic pans on those, so I thought it would be okay.

 

[tunes]

Part of the reason the information is so scattered is because it's only in the last few years that chins became such a popular pet. Very few people were taking chins to a vet, so vets had limited experience. A few years ago I got with a new vet who had just graduated from veterinary school. He said that the amount of time they spent on pocket pets was literally a chapter. The focus was on large animals, dogs, and cats. Thankfully, he is a really smart guy who is willing to work with me. Half the time when I go in he says "never mind, you know this already." Experience is worth a lot when working with chins.

A brief remark about the shelves in cages being too hard to chew. When I first had chins, I purchased Super Pet cages. The chins did not chew the shelves at all, however, there was not a single cage that did not have a hole chewed through the bottom. They all seemed to do it at the same time. One day no hole, the next day holes everywhere. That day I ordered metal cages and runs.

 

[Chinmama]

As far as treats, I give ours rosehips, hibiscus, rose petals, old fashioned oats, cheerios, unsweetened shredded wheat, hay cubes, APD's Mountain Grass and Timothy Smacks, Oxbow's Timothy Treats and Barley Biscuits, chinchilla cookies that are homemade by a friend and Mrs. Pasture's cookies that I bust up with a hammer and only give in tiny pieces.

They also get a lot of non-food items as treats. Like assorted woods in the form of sticks, twigs and coins, vine items, loofah and pumice.

There are quite a few vendors here who sell safe items. Please don't ever feel like I am giving you advice because I want to sell you something. Clearly I want to have a successful business, but the well being of your chinchilla and sharing what knowledge I have is the most thing important to me.

 

[Marcham93]

Please don't ever feel like I am giving you advice because I want to sell you something. Clearly I want to have a successful business, but the well being of your chinchilla and sharing what knowledge I have is the most thing important to me.

Thanks.

It must have been the NY cynicism in me. :dance3:

I trust you guys now!

 

[Chinmama]

It must have been the NY cynicism in me. :dance3:

NY cynicism? Never! lol

Seriously, we all started out clueless and then wondering what in the world was right and wrong because of conflicting information. I can tell you, I started out as a new chinchilla owner 9 years ago and knew nothing about them. I quickly found a forum and just started reading and asking questions. It's the best way to learn. A lot of the people on this forum have given great advice over the years on various topics and I would trust some of them over my vet. I've actually gone to my vet and told her what I wanted her to do based on advice I've received here.

Yes, you'll get varying advice from time to time on different topics. You just have to do what you feel like is best for you and your chinchilla.

We're glad to have you here, and that you are asking questions and open to advice and opinions.

 

[Marcham93]

NY cynicism? Never! lol

:tease:

For treats such as cheerios and rosehips, how much can a chin have? I heard someone say about a teaspoon of treats a day. Which would be 1-2 rosehips or 5(?) Cherrios I believe.

 

[AZChins]

That would probably be too many Cheerios. One or maybe two rosehips would be alright, one or two Cheerios I think would be okay. The thing to remember with treats and supplements is that the chins will eat those first before anything else. They have a very small stomach and you want them to fill up on their good pellets and hay, not supplement or treats. Treats aren't at all necessary, they can be beneficial with bonding with a chin or teaching a chin that their human isn't so bad....but it's best to feed them sparingly. Sparingly not only because too much treats is bad but also because you will lose the specialness of treats if too many are given. You want the chin looking forward to it! If you can get them on schedule and get them to look forward to the treat at the same time, you've actually trained the chin (a little)!!

 

[Marcham93]

Okay, thanks Susan!

 

[Amphy64]

I don't understand why chin care is so "scattered". It is never this bad with parrot care... do vets/stores/manufacturers not know much about chins?

I think it's indeed because they're relatively uncommon, although it's an issue with other pets too, there's an awful lot of incorrect information out there about rabbits and I've found few vets to be really good rabbit vets. I think the fact that chins are less common, and considered an exotic, also means you get people like the users here engaging to try to learn about them in more depth themselves, since you kind of have to when you can't be confident in a vet's knowledge (my own vet told me 'Oh, we hardly ever see one of those', and acknowledged that she didn't know much about them at all). So, the incorrect or suspect information comes to light more easily when you have a community like that.

Think people (including me at times) also tend to underestimate chin's destructive tendencies - have you seen any of the pics. here of the chins that decided to chew their aluminium wheel?
Here's what my own little angel of destruction managed to do to his plastic carrier, in about 10 mins (he probably wasn't really trying or it'd have been worse):
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g148/Ampharos64/RaD05012011_zpsca7e7eab.jpg
Needless to say he has a metal one now! Considering shortly after I got him I also caught him chewing, and attempting to eat, great chunks of plaster off the wall, I wouldn't be inclined to trust chins with plastic.

So yup, I know it can be confusing, but best of luck filtering through it. : )