Can you dye a Chin...and other questions

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djeaton

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1. I know Sweetie loves rolled oats. She's climbing up/out on us to get them already. (She's very young and a lot more tame that some of the stories I've read.) Anyway, are they something that should be limited?

2. I'm getting some wood cut to cover the shelves and possibly make some corner ledges. Is there some very good reason to round off the corners? I don't have the equipment to do anything like that and was just going to have Lowes or someone cut them for me.

3. Is kiln-dried 6" wide pine OK? Would something else be better?

4. Now the weird question. My son was looking at orange hedgehogs online. He asked me, joking of course, if you could dye a Chinchilla. But that got me thinking of question #2. I've seen wood treats that are different colors. And I know paint is probably a bad idea. But could you use something like food coloring to dye wood ledges or houses? If so, how do you make sure the dye doesn't transfer to the chin? I'd hate for her to turn all blue from a blue ledge or something. Would be kinda hard to wash out when you can't get her wet.
 
1. Most people give a pinch between their thumb and first finger a couple times a week. I don't know that they should be necessarily limited, but it kind of takes away from the fun of a treat if you give them every day. Obviously you wouldn't want to give her a tablespoon every day, but a pinch every couple days makes a nice treat.

2. You don't need to round the corners unless you want to. Your chin will take care of it. If you do want to round them though, sand paper works great and you don't need to have equipment.

3. Whatever size you want it to be is fine. You'll know best what's going to fit in your cage.

4. Yes, they do pick up dye from the wood and the toys on occasion, especially if the wood happens to get wet or if they happen to be wet from the water bottle and then get in it. I'm not sure you can guarantee against it leaking and running, and as long as you're not showing, eventually it will wear away with dust baths.
 
So if you were going to dye stuff, is it worth the effort? Do chins like different colors? What do you use? What should you avoid?
 
Color is for you - chewing is for them. They don't care what color it is, but they do make pretty toys when you color them.

I don't color wood. I did once upon a time, but I got tired of pink heads, blue mouths, and orange feet. The chins really don't care whether it's colored or not - their job is to make it disappear.
 
I think the dying is to make the product more attractive to us, not the chins!
I've never had a chin refuse a "raw" piece of pine, and I don't even know if they see colors, or not!
 
I turned in this thread thinking you would ask if you can die a white chin blue or pink, you know, like the poodle:laughitup:
 
FiaSpice said:
I turned in this thread thinking you would ask if you can die a white chin blue or pink, you know, like the poodle:laughitup:
Click to expand...

So did I!! I looked at the title and was like WHAT?!? then I read it and went :laughitup: I will say Slippers likes blue things. And natural.... not sure if he is weird or what, bit if it is blue, he loves it.
 
Once, a lava bite turned my Mickey's white belly very pink. You could imagine the look on my face when I came down the stairs and saw him! I think I still have pictures of that somewhere. It took forever to come out, too.

I don't know if I would go through the trouble of dying the ledges. Your chin is going to whind up peeing on them anyway! Lol. The pee will not only transfer the color of the wood to your chin's butt, but it will also make the ledges look all blotchy and unevenly colored, very quickly.
 
Just my opinion but, I would not dye ledges and shelves. I would stick to chews although, my chins prefer natural wood with bark over dyed pine pieces.
 
My chins all prefer bark covered chews to coloured ones - But they do seem to be able to distinguish colour, my Black Velvet boy, Leroy (RIP) was obbsessed with the colour Red, h found it fascinating and would often run onto my desk in my room and run off with anything red he found on there!!
 
You know my ex boyfriend wanted to dye my white mosaic yellow so he would look like pikachu.

I opted to try and find a little costume. Lol I am not about to dye my chin!

But my Chins don't like anything colored. I have to buy all natural.
 
Euphoric, my husband once asked an employee at Petsmart "where do you keep the Pikachu supplies?" The poor guy looked at him kinda funny until he told him he meant chinhilla, then the guy busted up laughing.
 
Cuddlebug said:
Euphoric, my husband once asked an employee at Petsmart "where do you keep the Pikachu supplies?" The poor guy looked at him kinda funny until he told him he meant chinhilla, then the guy busted up laughing.
Click to expand...
:laughitup:
 
I wouldn't dye the wood. Your chin will chew on it anyhow.

As far as the treats, it should definitely be limited. All treats should be. A chinchilla's diet is very sensitive. A pinch a day is the most your chinnie should have. If you get whole treats, then one a day. If you give him raisins, one or two a week only.

As far as rounding the wood, it doesn't matter. He will chew it regardless.
 
Since they guys chew on their wooden perches, ledges, houses, etc., how often do they need to be replaced?
 
Depends on the chin and the "furniture". We have wooden ledges in both our boys' cages that have lasted for 6+ months, and should last for quite a bit longer. Koko has a wooden hidey house that's lasted as long as we've had him (since Oct). Wooden toys, however, won't last nearly that long... and it all really depends how chewy the chins are.
 
I have had ledges and shelves last for 2 + years. Some of my girls really chew a lot and others hardly touch any of the chew toys or shelves.
 
Euphoric said:
You know my ex boyfriend wanted to dye my white mosaic yellow so he would look like pikachu.

I opted to try and find a little costume. Lol I am not about to dye my chin!

But my Chins don't like anything colored. I have to buy all natural.
Click to expand...

The old owner of Boing (a 15 year old kid) bought him because he looked like Pikachu and named him that:rolleyes:
 
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