Chin barns?

[Shawn Fitzsimmons]

How do you people do it, without losing your sanity. :banghead:

I've seen people on here who have 100's of chins, barns full of them, etc.
I just can't see how you do it.

These are my questions:
How do you make enough room for all the cages, and what kind of cages do you use?
How to give enough time for each chin a day, and how to do make time to feed them and give them fresh water.
How do you keep the cages clean (Lord knows a chin can pee)?
How do you afford it all, because it is DANG expensive just having 2 chins. EX: How much for food, dust, hay, toys, accesories, wheels, wood, etc.

Sorry if these are personal, I've just been thinking about this all day.

 

[tunes]

How do you make enough room for all the cages, and what kind of cages do you use?
A breeders cages are usually much smaller than a pet owners. I use part 24 x 24 runs and part wire cages that are (I think) 36 deep, 24 high and 20 wide. Or thereabouts anyway. I want to switch over to all wire instead of runs.

How to give enough time for each chin a day, and how to do make time to feed them and give them fresh water.
I can feed and water the barn in about half an hour. After I do that, I go cage by cage and do a visual check of all the chins and that takes another 40 minutes, plus additional time to handle all the kits. The inside chins are another 30 minutes of feeding, watering, and checking. You sacrifice individual attention to every single chin on a one on one basis as your numbers go up. You try, but you can't spend even 15 minutes with each chin every single day. I would need 67 hours a day just for that.

How do you keep the cages clean (Lord knows a chin can pee)?
Saturday is cage cleaning day. Every Saturday. We're trying something new now. Two stacks of cages a day to try and keep them continually clean and fresh smelling.

How do you afford it all, because it is DANG expensive just having 2 chins. EX: How much for food, dust, hay, toys, accesories, wheels, wood, etc.
As a general rule, larger breeders don't use wheels or "accessories." It wouldn't be practical. I have 200 cages. I'd have to be Bill Gates to afford big cages, wheels, and a building to house them in as a pet owner does. Chins get food, dust, hay, hay cubes, and wood chews when I can afford to buy them for 250+ chins, which means they are a treat, not a staple. As far as affording it? The kids come first, then the chins and the other animals, and then me. It's been a looooong time since I've bought anything for myself. I choose to use my money for the animals instead.

 

[saszygirl1]

How do you make enough room for all the cages, and what kind of cages do you use?
A breeders cages are usually much smaller than a pet owners. I use part 24 x 24 runs and part wire cages that are (I think) 36 deep, 24 high and 20 wide. Or thereabouts anyway. I want to switch over to all wire instead of runs.

How to give enough time for each chin a day, and how to do make time to feed them and give them fresh water.
I can feed and water the barn in about half an hour. After I do that, I go cage by cage and do a visual check of all the chins and that takes another 40 minutes, plus additional time to handle all the kits. The inside chins are another 30 minutes of feeding, watering, and checking. You sacrifice individual attention to every single chin on a one on one basis as your numbers go up. You try, but you can't spend even 15 minutes with each chin every single day. I would need 67 hours a day just for that.

How do you keep the cages clean (Lord knows a chin can pee)?
Saturday is cage cleaning day. Every Saturday. We're trying something new now. Two stacks of cages a day to try and keep them continually clean and fresh smelling.

How do you afford it all, because it is DANG expensive just having 2 chins. EX: How much for food, dust, hay, toys, accesories, wheels, wood, etc.
As a general rule, larger breeders don't use wheels or "accessories." It wouldn't be practical. I have 200 cages. I'd have to be Bill Gates to afford big cages, wheels, and a building to house them in as a pet owner does. Chins get food, dust, hay, hay cubes, and wood chews when I can afford to buy them for 250+ chins, which means they are a treat, not a staple. As far as affording it? The kids come first, then the chins and the other animals, and then me. It's been a looooong time since I've bought anything for myself. I choose to use my money for the animals instead.

All I can say is Wow. I had no idea its that hard. You go girl.:idea::clap:

 

[yummychinchillatoys.com]

TUNES, how do you have time to get on here and chat with us????? WOW....

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

I agree. You go Tunes. I've got 8 chins and I still decide to spend my money on them. I pay my car payment and gas to and from school. Thats it. Other than that I spend money on the chins, though I just started working, but even when my parents paid for everything...the chins got more. I spent my birthday money on them too lol I had to buy a laptop for college and i wanted to take it back the second I walked out the store with it because I couldnt stop thinking about the things I could have bought for the chins with that money. My mom actually lechured me the whole way home about it
I couldn't imagine buying for 250+ chins.

 

[Chinniechantel]

Pretty much what Tunes said...we do half the cages on Saturday and half on Sunday for cleaning. We have about 60 cages. It does only take about an hour a night for food and water and then we play with the kits after that. We go through a box of shredded wheat every 2 days! They do all get a treat every other night and wood or pumice too. We do perches and houses in every cage, hammocks in most. I make all those. Water takes the longest and is the most annoying to do. We do playtime for them all at least a few times a month, we have 6 playpens and we do it by cage. We set a timer and let them play. I then weight the pregnant girls before returning them to the cage. It helps to have my husband do half the work, but it still takes up a majority of our day, and the other few hours we have left are spent with the birds and cooking for them! I too never buy anything for myself (as you can tell by my heals with chinchilla bite marks on them from 2 years ago) and any extra money goes to the chins, a new a/c, a new row of cages, new dehumidifier, new perches, houses, etc.

Every time we have a chance we are making more houses, more perches, more toys, I have a whole bedroom dedicated to chin toys and parts! There are 7 plastic dresser things with 5 drawers each full of toys and stuff and pear links, o rings and wire. It takes over your life, but I would not have it any other way.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

wow how do you feed in just a half hour?? I have 25 cages and it takes me about 1 1/2 hours to just feed and all weekend to clean cages thoroughly

 

[tunes]

wow how do you feed in just a half hour?? I have 25 cages and it takes me about 1 1/2 hours to just feed and all weekend to clean cages thoroughly

All the cages have feeders on the front. It doesn't take any time at all to whip through with the feeders. The actual feeding part of it only takes 5 or 6 minutes. Haying is different. Haying takes 20 minutes on it's own, but I don't do that every day, so I didn't include it. I haul it through watering, but that's what takes the longest. I can't imagine it taking me an hour and a half just to feed - wow.

Water bottle day is a pain in the butt, it's an all day thing. Fridays every bottle goes into the dishwasher to be washed, sterilized, and heat dried. Between the chins and the various other caged animals here, it takes two full loads of the dishwasher to get everybody done. It also takes forever for the dishwasher to finish because my hot water heater doesn't come close to heating up the water to sterilize, so the dishwasher has to heat it up and it can only do so much at a time. I love how sparkly the bottles come out though.

As far as "thoroughly cleaning." My daughter used to clean the entire barn, dump and scrape all the pans, refill, sweep up and bag all the shavings that fall in around 6 hours. She put her music on, got a rhythm going, and off she went. We just had to haul out the full bags of shavings for her and bring in clean bags. My boys and I do it now, so it's an all day project with the two of them and me, mostly because I'm just not as fast as the children are (I'm old!) and I like to visit with the chins as I go. I work with one, then we switch off and I work with the other. They have to earn their WOW money.

 

[Bethany2386]

Tunes - I don't know how you do it! And what is WOW money? LOL!

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

How do you make enough room for all the cages, and what kind of cages do you use?

I have runs. Each unit consists of 3 cages. Each unit is 48" long and 24" deep. The run is attached on the outside of the cage. 4 units are stacked on top of each other and are on wheels. My room can hold 24 units. Anymore than that and I am hindering ventilation and circulation.

How to give enough time for each chin a day, and how to do make time to feed them and give them fresh water.

I spend 30 minutes in the morning giving everyone a once over. I go down in the afternoon and check on everyone again. In the evening, I spend about 45 minutes down there feeding, dusting, haying, and cleaning the floors. Kits get looked over carefully and are handled. Water days are rough. I scrub all the bottles by hand with soap, hot water, and bleach. Taking a q-tip and cleaning out the spout.

How do you keep the cages clean (Lord knows a chin can pee)?

Cage cleaning day is on Thursday and that takes me 2 hours from start to finish-cleaning and feeding.


How do you afford it all, because it is DANG expensive just having 2 chins. EX: How much for food, dust, hay, toys, accesories, wheels, wood, etc.

I'm with tunes here. They get the bare minimum. I am in the process of making ledges for all of the cages and when I can I try to buy them branches to chew on. I spend about $30 a month in supplies...then additional $25 in lighting and ventilation costs on my electric bill.

 

[mishellyshel]

i just want to say thanks for sharing. everyone's description was very informative and something i was always curious about. i applaud each one of you for your dedication and thank you all for bringing quality pets into the world.

 

[Spoof]

How do you make enough room for all the cages
I bought a house that had a dedicated room in the shop that is heated/cooled. You will always be limited on the size of your accommodations, too many chins in a small area and your issues like fungus go way up, and production goes down.

, and what kind of cages do you use?
I custom built my own due to lack of a close cage supplier. They're made out of steel shelving, 18" x 18" x18". Cost me around $400 from start to finish for 32 holes = ~$12.50/hole.

How to give enough time for each chin a day, and how to do make time to feed them and give them fresh water.
I only have 22 chins at the moment, when I go through and check I play with the ones that like to be petted and handle the babies. They don't need feed/water every day. My feeders hold around 7 days worth of food and I have an automatic watering system which cuts my total cleaning/feeding time down to 20 minutes once a week.

How do you keep the cages clean (Lord knows a chin can pee)?
Shop Vac, the 20 gallon one, and a broom for the floor.

How do you afford it all, because it is DANG expensive just having 2 chins.
Oh, you get to know breeders and other people as you're in it over time and someone is always trying to pawn off a few extras on you. If you're really good, don't buy any chins, don't go to any shows or have any odd vet bills for the year you can break even. I like to buy chins too much. )

EX: How much for food, dust, hay, toys, accesories, wheels, wood, etc.
50lb bag of PANR = 3 months.
Bale of Timothy hay = 3 months
Bag of hay cubes = 3 months
Bag of pelleted horse bedding = 3 weeks.
Electricity for the building is ~$30-40/mo
Lumber for replacement shelves every 3 months.
Miscellaneous watering system parts, wire, etc.
Air conditioners, dehumidifiers and air filters... hopefully a couple years!

Peggy - you're nuts. But you know that. I can't imagine having more than 100 chins, it's a lot of work. I've always capped out at 60.

 

[tunes]

Tunes - I don't know how you do it! And what is WOW money? LOL!

World of Warcraft

Peggy - you're nuts. But you know that.

It's said that a person is judged by the company they keep. Let's see, that would be Becky, Tara, Laurie, Sandi, Tawana, Nikki, Meanie, Sug.....should I continue? :neener:

 

[ChinchillaSteve]

Haha Tunes I was thinking of world of warcraft but didn't really expect to be right!

You people really love chins do you?
Maybe some day i'll decide to take dozens of chinnies ... who knows!

 

[cintistatern2005]

For those of you that have hundreds of chins do you use automatic watering systems? also do they really work well?

 

[AZChins]

I don't use a watering system, I have bottles. I can keep it cleaner and monitor who is drinking water much better. The watering system had problems with leaking and cleaning the nozzles took me way too long. Other people like them, but I really do prefer nice bottles over the watering system.

 

[tunes]

Nope, see my comments above. I use water bottles. It's a pain and it takes forever, but I know who is and isn't drinking, I know when a bottle leaks, my barn doesn't flood from an entire system leak, I can sterilize each bottle and top, pipeclean out each glass tube - so for me the pros outweigh the cons.

 

[Mystic]

Wow, everyone, thanks for sharing that information. That's a butt load of work.
I have 2 chins, work 30+ hours a week, have 3 college classes and find it hard to manage my time around that. I can't even imagine having a couple hundred chinchillas to tend to daily.

 

[Sandi]

Quote:
Peggy - you're nuts. But you know that.

It's said that a person is judged by the company they keep. Let's see, that would be Becky, Tara, Laurie, Sandi, Tawana, Nikki, Meanie, Sug.....should I continue? :neener:

Hey! Wait a minute, I'm the one that dresses up my animals, nevermind.

 

[jags]

How do you make enough room for all the cages

The chins, All 750 breeding females, 220 breeding males and around 450 growing animals are housed in their own barn.

What kind of cages do you use?

The breeders are all on solid bottom runs and colony cages with the growers all in single solid bottom cages of their own.

How to give enough time for each chin a day, and how to do make time to feed them and give them fresh water.

Their is no play with the chins time at our place, I have found that with most chins the right climate and the conditions its kept in make more of a differance to its temperment than holding them. It only takes an hour to feed (3 - 50lb bags) and about 15 min to water each day. All animals are checked each night for leaky water nipples, feed usage, droppings, new babies and overall heath which takes about another hour depending on what you come across. If Jeri, Joshua and I are all working at it at the same time we are usually done in an hour.

How do you keep the cages clean (Lord knows a chin can pee)?

We have hired help for most of the cleaning and for caring for the animals when we are away. Its a full time job that once done you just start over again.

How do you afford it all, because it is DANG expensive just having 2 chins.

The more animals you have, the more cost you have, so the more sales you must have. Raising quality animals helps. And at other times the day job covers the cost.