Another chin' droppin' in to say hi.

[gsbuickman]

Hiya guys, this is Rain', my silly lil' chiller' :laughitup: .
I rescued Rain and a king snake from my ex's daughters retard of a boyfriend about 7 yrs ago, because he didn't know the first thing about taking care of animals.

I gave Willy the snake to my brother and he's doing great. Rain has come a long way as well and she's much happier now.

Her chilla hut is a 36"x24"x24" bird cage that I converted into a 3 level condo. I used outdoor play panels like you would use with hamsters to make a 2nd amd 3rd floor connected together with ramps. Her food, treats and a cold stone are on the top floor, with another cold stone on the second floor with her log hide and water bottle on the bottom floor. I use the pull out tray with newspaper and pine bedding for easy cleanup.

 

[Cass C]

I would pull out all the wire (especially the ramps) as it is hard on their feet and can lead to a broken leg. At the very least cover it with fleece. Other than that I'm glad you were able to rescue the poor chinchilla.

 

[tunes]

Welcome to you and Rain!

A lot of people use wire bottom cages, but as mentioned above, it can be hard on their feet. You need to be meticulous about keeping it clean because the urine build up can get into a tiny little crack and then you've got a nasty infection in the feet that can be really hard to clear up (research bumblefoot). You aren't going to be able to pull that bottom out I don't think without destroying the cage, but you can cover it with tile to make it cleaner and safer.

Another concern is ladder. It is just the perfect width of the rungs for a chin to have their food slide in and get stuck. Been there, done that, had to get the amputation of the leg because of it. If you are going to have a ladder, use a solid one, it's much safer.

Now, just so you know you aren't getting jumped on, just giving you some friendly advice from years of experience (and injuries) so you won't have to deal with the illness and the vet bills. You may never have a problem with your set up just the way it is. I, and most people here, just prefer to err on the side of caution.

Again, welcome and good on you for giving this little girl a better, safer home where she will be well cared for.

 

[Kokorobosoi]

I have to say, I love the carabiner you are using on the door- I thought I was the only one who did that lol! I tend to be a bit "extra cautious".

So I have to ask, isnt all that wire a pain to keep clean? I know my birdcage is a beast and takes forever, and thats so much more wire to scrub!! lol.... Im not sure Id have the patience for it.

Im glad you took in that little fuzzball- she is much better off than with whats his name it sounds like

 

[ticklechin]

All I can say is what a cutie!

 

[gsbuickman]

Thanks guys .

I never thought about the wire cages like that before. When I got rain she was already in this cage but there was only one ledge at the top of the cage with one really long really steep ramp going to it i didn't like that so i rebuilt it and added a full 2nd & 3rd floor w/ shorter easier ramps for her to negotiate.

I
haven't heard of covering the wire with fleece or tiles before, but I can understand how it would be easier to walk around on. However I would also think that it would cause a problem trying to keep it clean as well because the fleece or tiles would get dirty rather quickly, which is why I set this cage up like this.

Thats also why I keep all her food on the top floor so it stays clean, rather than have anything falling into it if it were anywhere else in the cage. I keep ni on the bottom of the cage for build up and wire brush it regularly every time I clean up and get the trash together so I can take it out to the curb for the garbage man.

I have a smaller solid bottom wire cage that I put her in when I clean the big cage out or transport her anywhere. Rather then cleaning all the bars separately I cheat a little bit. Depending on the weather outside I take her cage to the car wash and give you a good Sookie blasting then rinse it off. If it's too crappy to hit the car wash I put the cage in the bathtub, then I give it a thorough douching of orange citrus cleaner / degreaser a couple times, then spray it all down with hot water @ Clorox the tub afterwards.

It us a big bulky cage, but I'm a big boy so it's fairly easy to pick it up and move it around :hilarious:

 

[gsbuickman]

Another thing i thought about was all the hamsters we've had over the years with the kids. We would put a couple inches of pine bedding in their hammy houses. In this case I thought it would create problems as well as a big mess.

Since everything falls to the bottom of range house naturally the bottom floor gets the dirtiest. Would moving her log hide to the second floor with a solid bottom be a better idea rather than having it at the bottom ?.

About the only time she spends in the bottom of her House is when she's sleeping, taking a dust bath or getting a drink from her water bottle. When shes awake she spends her time on the top 2 floors, watching tv, munching on sticks (willow) and eating. I am sure after I go to sleep she has lengthy conversations with my cat, Scraggles as well :hilarious:

 

[tunes]

Ixnay on the degreaser and orange citrus. Stick with white vinegar and water. It's safe if you don't get it all off. It's also not going to hurt your chin's feet if you don't get it all off.

Lots of people use fleece liners for their cages. They change them out once every couple days, throw them in the washer, then reuse them. I tried doing it, but I just have too many chins for that, so I went back to pine shavings. The tiles are also good, you just sweep up the poop and it's clean again. When people use those types of things though, they generally have a litter box filled with shavings or carefresh in the pee spot in the cage. Almost all chins pee in the same spot. You can't litter train a chin as far as pooping (if they are breathing, they are pooping) but you can for the urine, which is really where the mess comes in using either tiles or fleece. Poop is easy. A healthy chin's poop is not squishy or nasty. It's firm and easy to remove.

 

[Cass C]

I use pine bedding in my triple level critter nation. I put a sheet under the cage so all I have to do is take it and shake it outside then vaccum or sweep up what's left.

 

[gsbuickman]

What kind of tiles are safe to use, ceramic, polymer ?. I definitely wouldn't want to try anything she met you on.

 

[gsbuickman]

Btw, here's the smaller solid bottom wireframe cage that I use if I need to transport Rain' or when I'm cleaning her big condo. It's 14"x24"x12" and if it wouldn't cause any issues I can line it with pine bedding.
I thought about setting this up for her to use long term but I thought it would be too small ?.

 

[Amethyst]

That little cage is way too small to live in long term, the minimum size cage is 2'x2'x2' or 8 cubic feet of space. That's the same size cage I have for my emergency/travel cage, and temp cage when I clean the main cage (only mine has a purple bottom instead of blue). Aside from size, the bottom is plastic which most chins will chew and if swallowed could cause a blockage.

For tile you want to use ceramic, stone tile work but can be hard to clean over time if the chin pees on it. Also ceramic is cheap if one breaks or gets too stained it's not an huge expense to replace.
Another thing, fleece really isn't that bad, my guys aren't litter trained and I use fleece and tiles in the cage and it's not hard to keep clean. The fleece is easily taken out, shaken or vacuumed off and thrown though the wash with vinegar, and the tiles wipe clean with a little water and vinegar. If you do a search on the forum for fleece you can find several threads with a run down of pros and cons if you want before completely dismissing the idea.
You could also just replace the wire shelves with a chin safe wood shelving (kiln dried pine is the most commonly used). As an added bonus the wood shelves give the chin something to chew on.

Another thing, I notice no toys in the cage, chins need to be always chewing, their teeth (incisors and molars) are always growing, so the lack of toys to chew on is a big problem. A variety of hanging and toss toys would be a good idea. Check out the vendors on here for toys or ideas of what to make for toys. If you check out the ferret nation club thread there is a ton of cage design ideas (for the ferret nation cage but you can use the stuff in other cages too) that can give you an idea of what to put in a cage.
Toys also help with boredom, unlike most other rodents chins are actually pretty intelligent, similar to a parrot, so toys and cage rearranging is mentally stimulating.

 

[gsbuickman]

Ugh, I really hate Android auto stupid spell correctconstantly changing wording according to what it deems appropriate, sorry

would you recommend ceramic or laminate tiles because I wouldn't want to use something she may chew on.

 

[gsbuickman]

Kool, thanks for the heads up . I thought about laminate tiles but Rain also likes to chew on her bath house as well so nevermind. I'll pick up some ceramic tiles at the local homer depot. Rain also has a pine ledge that she likes to hang out and chill on as well as an edible log hide that she's been working on. I have a supply of sticks that I collect for her from some of the trees in the neighborhood for her to chew on as well. At the moment I have pine, willow and crab apple sticks for her. She gets a couple fish sticks before I go to bed every night.

I how looked at some of those vendors and I'm planning on picking up some more toys for her, but I want to look at the local Petco and PetSmart first.

I put Rain in home little cage that I use for transporting her and got her big cage taken apart and put in the bathtub so I could give it a thorough douching since it's snowing outside.

I line the pull out tray under her cage with newspaper then put some Tidy Cat kitty litter in the back corners where is she likes to go potty, and put some pine bedding on top of it. When I slide the tray back under her cage the bedding used to set 1/8" below the floor of her cage, so it doesn't take long before those corners start to get build up on them so I would wire brush then before cleaning the tray out when I get the trash together for the garbage man.
This time around I left the wire rack that the tray used to set on out of the bottom of the cage. It turns out the train sets perfectly on top old the stand like it was made for it. Inly now instead of having an 1/8" between the pine bedding and the bottom of the cage, no I have 2" so there is plenty of room for everything to fall thru the floor of the cage into the tray, and it should eliminate most of the the buildup issue where she likes to go potty keeping things cleaner.

I"ll wait a couple of weeks and see how it works out, if not I can always change it back. In the meanwhile I'll get her some tiles and some toys. She doesn't really get that bored because she's out in the living room where she can pay attention to everything going on. She also likes to watch TV and see what I'm doing, and she also likes to chit chat with my silly cat.

 

[gsbuickman]

freshly cleaned with the lowered pull out tray

 

[Minccino]

She is a cutie Thanks for rescuing her and giving her a good home!