What to do?

[sarah999]

I have my chinchilla in a large Martin's cage with two of the three ramps taken out. I never realized that chins weren't supposed to be in wire cages, until about a month ago and I can't afford to buy a new cage, since the martins one is only a year old! My chin pees everywhere! and since i have a litter pan that slides out, the clean up is fairly easy(I just dump the litter and scrub the wire) I have been reading about using fleece liners to cover wire, but then I'd have to wash them all the time..I was also going to swap out the wire shelves for wooden ones, but then I'd have to replace and sand them constantly! What to do? Sorry for ranting...but does anyone have any ideas? Suggestions? Also any recommended things you would put in my chin's cage? Thanks for all the help!!!

 

[Carol~Anne]

Many if not most people have metal cages for their chins so I'm not sure where that one came from that you're not supposed to have them in that. Most people take out all the wire or plastic shelves and replace them with wooden ones. I have two chins that pee on their wooden shelves on a regular basis and I clean it up with hydrogen peroxide spray (chin is out of cage while cleaning) and they come up looking pretty good. Some people sand their wooden shelves but I'm too lazy to do that.

 

[tunes]

You don't have to sand the ledges constantly. It's all going to depend on how much he urinates on them. He may not do it at all. Poops, unless they get squishy, wipe right off, so there's no need to clean them either. You could put some ceramic tile on the floor of the cage, that would get him off the wire. You could do the same on the ledges, but then you would have to worry about them falling if he got real rambunctious. The cheapest, easiest, safest thing to use would be pine covering the shelves or removing the shelves and putting the pine in it's place.

Pine is cheap. You could get 10 or 12 boards and set them aside, and if you don't feel like sanding the shelves (which is beyond easy), you could just throw the old one out, put a new one in.

 

[fanofdmb84]

I agree, cleaning wood shelves is no biggie. I clean the hidey houses with a little bit of dish soap and some vinegar and water. Scrub them with a brush and let them dry, they're fine. My chins rarely pee on them anyway, so I haven't even had to wash any of my shelves yet. I think I may sand my shelves once a year or every other year, they are holding up and still looking great so far.

 

[CJR]

Fleece isn't that big of a deal to clean either, just to say... Like the others said, it depends on how much the chin pees on them.

 

[sarah999]

Thanks for all the help! I think I will put wooden shelves in and buy a slat of granite or something on the bottom! Oh...and about chins not being in wire cages, i meant on wire shelves, etc. sorry for the confusion! Where can i find the granite for really cheap?

 

[tunes]

Any home improvement store should have it, DIY, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.

 

[Rickman]

Granite is expensive - tile can be bought by the piece at Home Depot, Menards, etc. much more reasonable!
I've a couple of wire floored cages, and covered them with 1/4 x 1/4 hardware screen.
Big enough for things to go through, except feet! Also made a T shaped house, with a wood floor, which they seem to enjoy - center is smaller, [8"] than top and bottom, [12"] so they can run around it and "hide"! Real PIA to get them out, though, unless you can reach behind it!

 

[sarah999]

Ok, I think I'll find a tile slab of some sort at Home Depot! Thanks again!

 

[Carol~Anne]

Yes, tile is much thinner and easier to cut than granite and much less expensive. I've got a bunch of granite slabs sitting here on the hearth of my fireplace b/c my husband wants to redo it with granite but in order to cut it he has to use a really loud saw and hook up a garden hose so that the water runs while he's cutting it so the blade doesn't overheat. It's a horrible sound when he cuts the pieces and the pitch drives me crazy so needless to say we only have two pieces cut in two years, lol.

 

[Cheknnudol]

It's worth mentioning that if you have any non-chain countertop companies nearby they often have scrap granite and scrap marble around that you can just take. A place near my house keeps a crate where they just throw pieces that were flawed or too small to use on a finished project; anytime I need slabs for the chins they let me go through the crate.