Bath Dust on ChinSpin

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

808chindad

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 30, 2018
Messages
45
Location
Hawaii
A few days ago, I gave my pair of chins their first dust bath after I acquired them. For their first bath I put their 1 gallon penny jar in their CN cage. After they were done, they decided a run on the ChinSpin was in order. I try to sweep up as much dust as possible from inside the ChinSpin drum. In the future, I will try to encourage them to dust bath outside of their cage. Does anyone know what the effects of the dust, if any, will do over time to the ChinSpin bearings?
 
I've heard that chin dust will eventually wear down the bearings...but eventually is the key word there (I read that on the info booklet I got from the seller with my ChinSpin). Despite dutiful cleaning, the dust particles are so fine that it's unfortunately probably one of those things that's inevitable. They sent me free spare bearings with my ChinSpin for when the current ones get too run down by dust. :) But you can also buy just the spare replacement bearings if/when you need them from Quality Cage Crafters.
Chins are just dusty little boogers :) My entire room and places my chin has never touched get coated in Blue Cloud and I've just sorta...accepted it and upped my dusting regimen, haha.
But if it's any frame of reference, I've had my ChinSpin for a year and haven't needed to replace the bearing yet. I'm sure there's someone on here who's had one even longer without having to change it out. :) Cheers!
 
Dust will damage wheels over time. Some get chewed up faster than the dust does anything and some last well enough they eventually get worn down. All of the ones built to last generally can have the parts replaced.

I don't have chinspins though so I don't know how difficult it is to swap the bearings. I have some silver surfer wheels I just replace as they chew the aluminum and some free standing flying saucer type steel wheels from exotic nutrition. Exotic Nutrition treadmills probably break down sooner than chinspins but are a piece of cake to slide in a new bearing shaft and screw it back together. Actually comes apart a bit too easy sometimes and more active chinchillas may unscrew the saucer from the base. All wheels have downsides.
 
I guess I'll just have to prepare and clean the ChinSpin the best I can. And to maximize the bearing life, I will have to give my chins their dust bath outside of their cage. I tried it once before but they seemed more intent on just running and frolicking than bathing outside of their cage! LOL.
 
We keep a 4' long plastic bottom guinea pig cage with the dust bath in it on top of one set of ferret nations. On top of a wooden pine dowel attached to a 2x4 chunk on each end so they can't chew it through the cage. When we clean a cage we pop them in there until we are done. They don't have a whole lot to do besides spend 10mins dusting and between the dust bath and the cage bottom it mostly stays contained.

When we had fewer we used a covered cat litter box in the bathroom and left them for considerably longer. Then just swept up the dust on the floor afterward. The bathroom of this old farmhouse though has more holes than swiss cheese and some chinchilla sized from people installing crappy DIY plumbing jobs over the decades.
 
Back
Top