litter training?

[lovelilfriends]

I have heard that it is possible to get chinchillas to urinate in a "litter box". but I have never met anybody who has actually done so. Has anyone made it work with their chins? If so what did you use as a box, and what did you use as litter? I would like to give it a try if it really works. Any hints would be appreciated. thanks!

 

[chinnychinchinchilla]

i think most people just put the litter box in the spot they go the most. after a while the chins go in there. not sure if there is another method.

 

[kdr13]

Both of my chins use litter boxes. My girl Sidney who we have had since she was 10 months old goes ONLY in her litter box no matter what. We just put her litter box in the corner she went in most time and put the litter box there. Now, we can move the litter box anywhere and she will ONLY go in the litter box.
My boy Fleury, we found him outside and I'm not sure how old he is but we are pretty sure hes older. We put a pan in the corner and he seemed to just pee in any corner so we put the litter pan in one corner, a chin chiller in another, his house in the other, and his hay in the last corner so he goes in his litter box to pee most of the time. Sometimes when I take the chinchiller out of his cage he will run to that corner and pee....I'm not sure why but he goes in it more than not.
Keep in mind, this is only for peeing....they poop EVERYWHERE and there is nothing you can do about that!

 

[Jenn]

Tinkerbell uses a litter box and it was really easy to get her to use it. At the time I was still using bedding, and I just put the litter pan, along with some of the soiled bedding, and put it in her favorite pee corner, and she used it right away. I conveniently put items in the other corners so she wouldn't switch to another corner to pee. It can be done, but I know that not all chins will use a pan. But it is worth a try.

 

[angels41105]

I used to have some who were litter trained... The standard method is that you take some of their used bedding and put it in a pan to give them an idea of where to go. Most animals go in spots they've marked, can't always say the same for chins though. Good luck, i'll be trying that again soon becuase i want to use fleece liners.

 

[lovelilfriends]

Thanks for the advice. I don't use bedding now it is just newspaper lining the bottom. should I just shred up some paper since that is what they are used to or is there a type of bedding that you guys have found works best?

 

[Dragonflye]

Newspaper is not a good cage lining material for chins. They can shred and chew it and become impacted. Aspen or kiln dried pine shavings are recommended. Fleece liners are good too provided your chin does not chew it.

 

[angels41105]

Agreed. Newspaper is not good. There's a lot of ink also that isn't good for them. I used pine in my litter pans.

 

[tunes]

The ink is safe, the issue is the impaction, as Nikki mentioned. It's also useless at being absorbent or keeping odor down.

 

[lovelilfriends]

Thanks for the input. when i tried bedding they ate it, and threw it out of the cage so there was really nothing on the bottom to absorb the urine. They don't chew the newspaper, so I assume they don't like it. But if they ever do start eating it i will defiantly keep the advice in mind and switch to something else. For now I will try some in the box and see if they eat it less than they did before.