Dust bath ingredients

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.

LGarl

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 2, 2015
Messages
116
Location
South Portland, ME
I have Kaytee dust bath for my chin and the ingredients info is:

"All natural dusting powder - Inert natural volcanic mineral containing aluminum silicate or more commonly know as pumice, volcanic ash or pumicite."

When I google aluminum silicate I don't find anything that says it's volcanic ash. So I'm guessing the description is volcanic ash mixed with aluminum silicate? That sounds bad.

Could this dust be the reason my chin is itching and barbering? Should I switch him to Blue Cloud dust?
 
Honestly I have used kaytee dust, generic petco dust, oxbow dust, and I just purchased a highly rated blue cloud dust from Amazon I can't remember the brand, I have never noticed a difference. However if your chinchilla is having issues it wouldn't hurt to try another dust.

I also just started buying blue cloud rocks and my chinchillas love them!
 
The basic none specific dust is pretty much all the same, so long as you make sure you are getting the dust not the sand, the biggest difference seems to be the coarseness and mining locations. The blue cloud dust is all the same regardless of brand, it all comes from blue cloud mountain mines in California, just different packaging for each brand but the same exact dust.
Volcanic ash is a mix of rock, volcanic glass, and minerals, one mineral that can be found is aluminum silicate (which chinchilla dust is make from), blue cloud dust is just the soft aluminum silicate dust without the other gritty stuff.

Itchiness is most commonly caused by dry skin do to over bathing, try cutting the baths down to once or twice a week if you give them more often. Pretty much any other cause would probably need a vet, like round worm or allergy to something. A chin isn't going to be hurt by being dirty/greasy, but dry skin can crack and leave openings for infection. The barbering has many causes, stress, boredom, improper diet, or habit are the most common. Unfortunately in some cases chins continue to chew their fur even after the issue is resolved because it has now become too much of a habit.
 
It's all the same if it says blue cloud dust. The blue cloud rocks is what they make the dust with. I myself go to the mine it's in SO CA. I sell both dust & rocks.
 
I hate the smell of the petco/petsmart who knows what brand blue cloud from pet stores, it must the be stuff they put in it so it won't clump from humidity, I don't know what else it can be. I buy from Snickers above, that way it comes from the mine to me with no processing.
 
Thanks for the comments. I've taken him to the vet and my chin doesn't have any health issues. So we're addressing boredom and stress, but nothing seems to curtail the barbering. I'm afraid now it's become a bad habit. The person who had him before me said he barbered occasionally but now he does it all the time.

There's always balls of fuzz in his wooden cubby and the spots are getting bigger.
 
Blue cloud dust is the way to go. You also don't leave the bath house in there for more than 10 minutes or so, monitoring them the whole time. So if you use other dust, you can make sure they're not eating it while they have it in their cage.
 
Back
Top