Whats the best chinchilla dust

[NigelAndPeanut]

I have heard that oxbow and Kaytee dust changed their recipes and are bad Kaytee specifically making chins pull out their fur. So what dust do I use?

 

[Amethyst]

Oxbow Poof is fine, it's what I currently use. They changed what mine they get the dust from though. The blue cloud mine closed over 10 years ago so companies that use to sell blue cloud dust (Oxbow, Lixit, All Living Things, etc) now use the Blue Beauty mine for dust, which is in the same mountain range just a different mountain. The dust does look slightly different, but seems to clean just a well just more sparkly. If you are in the US the popular one now seems to be ChillDust, I've never tried it since I don't live in the US though and don't want to pay shipping.

Kaytee dust is terrible though (and kaytee is really a terrible brand over all), it is too gritty to properly clean the chin and has been known to cause skin irritation for some chins.

 

[Jawramik]

I haven't heard anything bad about the Oxbow or Kaytee dust....though just because I haven't heard about it doesn't mean there aren't problems. I do know that a lot of Kaytee products are outright dangerous, so I don't really trust them as a brand. Oxbow seems pretty hit or miss. Really the only products of theirs I buy/trust are their Essentials chin pellets and sometimes their hay in a pinch.

I was using You and Me dust (which is Petco's brand), but I noticed that sometimes my chin's eyes seemed a little watery after her dust baths. I wasn't over-bathing her, and her eyes would only be watery for the first couple hours or so after getting a dust bath, so I was pretty sure it was related to the dust. I decided to try Chilldust, since it had been recommended on several chin sites as being the best. So far she's only had one bath with the Chilldust, but I haven't seen any watery eyes so far, so yay!

So yeah, due to what I've read and my own (admittedly limited) experience, I'm inclined to recommend Chilldust. It seems to have a better and more even consistency than the Petco brand, and it seems like less dust escapes the bath house when she bathes. And most importantly, it doesn't seem to irritate my chin's eyes the way the other dust did.

I've also seen Blue Beauty and Pet Post recommended frequently, but I've never used them myself, so I couldn't tell you how they compare.

 

[NigelAndPeanut]

I will try chillidust as it seems most affordable

 

[Rocknrolldoc]

http://www.chilldust.com
RIP Blue Cloud dust because it was THE best. None of my chins really liked Blue Sparkle. It was obvious. They peed in it, which they never did with Blue Cloud and haven't since we switched to Chilldust. I could not find an answer as to why the Blue Cloud mine shut down. Speculation that the owner could not secure the material safety data sheet needed to continue operations? A handful of people had stocked up on Blue Cloud and resold it. I was able to buy it for a long time, but the price went up significantly last year. If you are willing to pay A LOT, you can probably still get some.

 

[HaXena]

Oxbow? Really? I’m surprised you recommend it
I’m disturbed by the “sparkles.”
As we know, chins bathe in volcanic ash in the wild. I have a hard time believing volcanic ash naturally has glitter in it. I also don’t understand how Oxbow can claim 100% pure volcanic ash and then also be sparkly???

Please correct me if I’m wrong

my rescue had a watery eye for over a year until I found a dust w/out sparkles and left his bath in his habitate to use any time. That was several years ago and he hasn't had a watery eye since.

I really like Petpost bathing dust via Amazon...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NLJ6TD...abc_QR71361G0HZ2V1H0QZSD?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Jawramik]

Oxbow? Really? I’m surprised you recommend it
I’m disturbed by the “sparkles.”
As we know, chins bathe in volcanic ash in the wild. I have a hard time believing volcanic ash naturally has glitter in it. I also don’t understand how Oxbow can claim 100% pure volcanic ash and then also be sparkly???

Please correct me if I’m wrong

my rescue had a watery eye for over a year until I found a dust w/out sparkles and left his bath in his habitate to use any time. That was several years ago and he hasn't had a watery eye since.

I really like Petpost bathing dust via Amazon...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NLJ6TD...abc_QR71361G0HZ2V1H0QZSD?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It's not glitter. The sparkle you see is likely a naturally-occuring mineral like silica or mica that's in or near the pumice stone that's mined and ground up to make bathing dust. As far as I know, it's not harmful to chins, although I also noticed that my girl would get slightly watery eyes when I was using a more sparkly dust. Switching to Chilldust (which isn't sparkly) seems to have solved the problem.

It seems like some chins may have some sensitivity to the more sparkly dust, but others don't seem bothered by it.

EDIT: For all I know, the eye irritation isn't even caused by the sparkly bits. It could be something else that certain chins react to. Dust from different mines is all going to have slight differences in its makeup, and there's any number of variables that could contribute to eye irritation.

 

[Amethyst]

Oxbow? Really? I’m surprised you recommend it
I’m disturbed by the “sparkles.”
As we know, chins bathe in volcanic ash in the wild. I have a hard time believing volcanic ash naturally has glitter in it. I also don’t understand how Oxbow can claim 100% pure volcanic ash and then also be sparkly???

Please correct me if I’m wrong

my rescue had a watery eye for over a year until I found a dust w/out sparkles and left his bath in his habitate to use any time. That was several years ago and he hasn't had a watery eye since.

I really like Petpost bathing dust via Amazon...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NLJ6TD...abc_QR71361G0HZ2V1H0QZSD?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It really doesn't look that much different then the blue cloud dust that everyone use to use. When I switched I had a pile side by side and only noticed a little bit more sparkle from the blue beauty dust then from the blue cloud. Also different volcano have different rock make ups depending on where they are mined, and can even be different colors some is grey, some is white, and some is black (never seen black pumice sold as safe though). So yes the volcanic ash that is mined from the mines like the old blue cloud and the new blue beauty (both in the same mountain range) do have something shiny in it, but it doesn't make them any less volcanic ash. It looks like the dust you linked is from Idaho, so yes it will look different.

On a side note, it's not advised at all to leave the dust in the cage all the time. It can lead to skin, lung, and eye issues. It's your chin though.

 

[TataChinnyluv91]

Actually volcanic ash is incredibly “sparkly” and is actually beautiful women used to use it as eye shadow, even though it can be toxic to humans.