Shelf dropping

Ever since i had my chinchilla he drops from the shelves, i am a bit worried he might hurt himself :cry3: Anyone have ideas as to why they do this?

Kags :thumbsup:

How tall is your cage? Do you have anything in the middle to prevent him from falling all the way to the bottom?

It's suggest that you put a couple shelves or a large hammock that goes all the way across your cage so that if your chin does fall he won't fall all the way to the bottom, and this lessens the likelihood that he will seriously hurt himself.

Some chins are more clumsy than others, but I haven't had any real issues with my chins falling off of their shelves.. How large of shelves are you using?

How is he when he is on flat surfaces? Does he run into things? Does he do anything weird like turing in circles? Does his head tilt? When you say dropping do you mean it looks like he falls off the shelf and does not end up on his feet?

Is he just jumping from the top to the bottom, or is he falling?

Hi all and thanks for the responses

Alli713 :- The cage is 3ftx3ft,( quiet spacious) he has a couple of large 15inch corner shelves. He tends to sleep on the edge of his shelves and just drop to the bottom while still asleep. ( lol he may just be clumsy )

ticklechin:- He is fine otherwise, he doesnt run into things,or run in circles nor does his head tilt to one side, but when he falls he doesnt always land on his feet.

cuddlebug:- He runs and jumps around the cage very happy with him self, but the while asleep on the shelf he just falls :/

Other than that he is very active, clean and very playful at night and loves to get out the cage and run around the lounge

Thankyou all

Karen

Since he's falling all the way to the bottom, I would suggest either getting or making some shelves that go all the way across the cage and stagger them at intervals so they're different heights and places in the cage.

He really could get hurt falling so far. And, also if he were to knock his jaw or teeth, he could develop maloclussion from the falls.

or get a hammock that can "catch" his fall.

The shelves are staggered in the cage i think i will invest in a hammock today for him

Thanks again

But I'm saying, do they go all the way across the cage? Like one shelf connecting from the front of the cage to the back? Or from one side to the other?

You need to have things that go all the way across the cage so he doesn't fall. Like I said, he can get hurt in the long run over this..

I would definitely work on the hammock/safety net approach. A few larger hammocks can cover all of the spots where he would fall while asleep - and then you can have the peace of mind of knowing he'll safely be caught every time he does a silly snoozing tumble.

Also, don't worry about too many hammocks getting in the way of a chin that wants to move around quickly in their cage when awake. I've got a 4ft tall cage for Turbo, that's got a floor on one side halfway up that goes halfway across and a hammock covering the other. If he wants to get down quickly, he jumps right along the gap between the wall and the hammock, thereby bypassing my safety measures and jumping down something like 3 1/2 feet. Little bugger. They learn to work with impediments and still fly around their cage.