What to or not to have in Chinchilla's cage

[marisacm55]

Hello,

I had gotten my chinchilla for free, which I was excited to meet the 3 year old chinchilla because I knew I'd fall in love with him. Just like I fall in love with every animal. So what he looked like or information you should ask, I did not. :facepalm: The important thing is he came with things he already needed, so I'd have an idea what I should be buying him. I've noticed that even though the person before me who seemed to care a great deal about him, had things wrong with his cage. Which I've added and replaced stuff. Since I'm new to this, I'm hoping someone can give me ideas what they keep in their chinchilla's cages. Here's the list I have for him

Items I have in his cage
- Plastic house (replaced with wood house)
- Plastic hamster water bottle (replaced with glass bottle for chinchillas)
- Plastic bowl
- Hay feeder (replacing soon for a more metal type one)
- Chinchilla wooden chew toys
- Salt thing for chinchillas
- Replacing cage soon with ferrets and adding wooden shelves.

Please comment below and tell me what you keep in your chinchilla cage or ideas. Also, can someone tell me where I get wooden shelves? I've seen none big enough to replace a metal shelve

(posted this, but couldn't find it. sorry, if it comes up twice)

 

[becky12883]

I would get a ceramic or metal food dish to replace the plastic. You can ditch the salt wheel too, they don't need them. In the diy section there are instructions on how to make your own shelves, or you can order some from Twilight Chinchillas, Fleece for Furries, Heather's Wood Candy or Whimsy's Menagerie. They're all on facebook.
In my cages I have: glass water bottles (on outside), coconut shells for food bowls, wood shelves, cuddle ledges (pvc tube cut in half), wood houses, glass litter pans (pyrex dishes), fleece liners, a fleece pillow, random hanging toys, and lots of chillers scattered about.

 

[ninjaturtletayy]

So glad you got rid of the plastic stuff. Like Becky said, the salt thing can go. Chins don't need them. For the food bowl, I personally have a shelf with a hole in it and a metal dish. I got it from Shooper aka Fleece for Furries and love it. I also got my shelves from her. She has a whole set that she sells for like $40-45 plus shipping. I think you get like 8 or 10 shelves for your cage, which was perfect for me. I also have a PVC tube covered in fleece, hammocks, and a Silver Surfer chin wheel in my cage. You can get the PVC tube and hammock from Fleece for Furries too. Or Annie of ChinChin (also on Facebook) sells tubes and hammocks too.

 

[akane]

Most pellets have salt so a salt wheel can OD them.

You pretty much want fleece and wood. Hammocks, tunnels, shelves, ledges, chewy sticks/blocks/coins... Mine don't really like overly processed wood beads and cubes. The bark is their favorite part. There are a few other safe materials like marble or granite chiller tiles and ceramic food dishes. Woven willow items. Coconut shells and husks. Loofah chunks. Some sites have natural rope and safe chew material toys and bird toys without plastic are much the same. You can get lots of bulk toy building materials on both chin and parrot sites. We have some pvc tubes and while they don't seem to bother chewing the really hard pvc some people do buy or make fleece covers for them. I like some of the wooden hay racks sold on here over the metal one we got. They are solid back, solid bottom, and rungs across the front so there isn't hay getting shoved out of the cage bars. I do have to knock poop out of them occasionally because the chins will perch on top but it's still an improvement over throwing it on a shelf. I tried willow hay racks and they spent 3 days ignoring the hay and chewing the willow in to tiny pieces all over their fleece. Ton of fun and very cheap but a huge mess and the hay just ended up on the floor.

Generally all wire floors and ramps are covered with fleece or granite tile as well. If possible it's best to just remove ramps. When they get going fast chins can injure themselves turning on to or landing on the slanted ramp. We only have one very shallow angled metal ramp with ridges for our weaning cage because the younger ones can't make it on to the top shelf. I have a critter nation one with a fleece cover but it's not in use.