Chinchillas and Apartments?

[clb]

I have been wanting a chin since I was a child. Well now I am an adult with a family of my own and currently rent. It has been my plan to wait until we had a house to get my very desired chins, it seems that house dream gets pushed back every year.

How do chins do in apartments? I mean is there anything they are missing out on, like play time? Do you think it's just best if I continue to wait for a house to get chins or would it be okay to get one while renting?

 

[AZChins]

They seem to be alright in apartments, well, as long as caged pets are allowed to be in those apartments. You may have to scale back on the size of the cage due to space constraints, that would be the only thing that I could imagine would be something you'd have a problem with in an apartment. When I was renting we had four chinchillas and they did fine, but we had a rather large space so we had room for the chins.

 

[Chinmama]

You can set up a play pen for your chinchilla so it can't chew on any walls.

Another concern with an apartment would be whether you have control of the heat and air conditioning or if the apartment complex does? If the complex does you just want to be sure you are prepared to cool your chinchilla down if the apartment is warm and the AC isn't turned on yet.

Also, if maintenance regularly comes in to spray for bugs you need to make sure they aren't spraying near the cage.

 

[Pikaia]

Chins will do fine in apartments! You can get a playpen for playtime as chinmama said. Make sure you have some sort of A/C, as chinchillas require it. Other than that, the biggest problem you will face are the landlords. I have come to realize that apartment buildings are not very tolerant of pets other than cats/small dogs. I rent an apartment but my landlord lives below me and had no problem with my chinchillas.

Make sure you ask first though! I would hate for you to get one and then find out you are not permitted to have it. That's how I got Chichi in the first place.

 

[Dreamlite]

I live in a apt. Be sure to ask the landloard 1st. Some are ok with caged animals but others aren't. I control the heat in my apt which is important and they don't spray the building. I got a 2 bedroom apt so the chins have their own room to play in.

 

[kellylynnmarie]

Chins are fine in apartments! I live in a 2-bedroom so my boys have their own room for playtime. A playpen is smart so they don't chew on the walls or anything. And I agree with what everyone else is saying... my apt building doesn't spray and I control both heat and AC... but, try not to skimp on the size of the cage... they need their room to run!

 

[Riven]

Chins and apartments get along great! Better than a dog or cat I think, you an always do playtime in the bathroom if you want. Like said above, just make sure it's okay with your landlord.

 

[clb]

Yeah landlord would be fine with it, just have to pay an extra $25.00 a month. Lol yeah I'll be paying chin's rent. We do have a room that is basically storage right now that could be chins room if cleaned out. Oh and we have central air here.

It's really something I'm thinking about.

 

[javachin]

They do just fine in apartment. The only thing of concern would be AC, but it seems you have that. Like someone suggested, you could get a playpen if you're worried about them chewing baseboards. Just make sure to keep them far enough from the wall, either in their cage or in a pen. I found the hard way that chins like textured drywall. : /

 

[Pikaia]

Yeah, I had that problem with baseboards. I have an old fireplace in my living room (house was built in 1907) and those little critters tried to chew it!!! Needless to say, we built a playpen immediately. My landlord would kill me!!

 

[Godofgods]

I currently have 5 chins in my apartment. The difficulties are usually space and money. If your house plan keeps getting pushed back, are you sure you want to take on the financial aspect of a chinchilla. (Chin, cage, supplies, vets etc.)

The other thing is the quality of the apartment. One thing about having ferrets as well, they find all the little nuks and cranny's you wouldn't normally see. And they are a ton of em here. When some of my chins were babies, and escaped the cage, i was scared to death they would run into a hole in the wall. Because their was no way to get them out, short of teaing the wall down.

Last thing ill mention is probably something you might not think of right away. And that is the paint on the wall. My slumlord's don't replace anything. And the only thing they will fix are things that can be cover up with a coat of (cheap) paint.

It appears that the room i keep my chins in had wall tiles at one point (before we got here). When they were torn down, they didn't remove any of the guk stuff behind it, just painted over it. Again and again. As a result, it would peal of in sheets, and when my chins were out, they would target that wall to try and eat a piece.

This is their favorite section of wall. I eventually covered the whole wall with a thing of fleece.

just something to think about lol.

 

[clb]

Making a playpen is doable. I would need to make one anyways as I don't want any accidental runaways with our cat roaming the house. Our cat already tore up our carpets when he was a kitten, we shall be paying for that when ever we move out.

 

[Chinessa]

I live in a studio apartment with my chinchilla. She still gets supervised play time and she has her own corner in my apartment where her cage and all of her supplies are. My landlord is fine with caged animals, so that was never a problem for me.

I do agree with the AC and heat control. Another thing I would point out, to go along with the wall comment, is to make sure your walls do not have lead paint. I live in a rather old building and a long time ago there used to be lead paint on the walls. Granted, there are plenty of layers of paint over top of that now, but I still make sure my Abbey doesn't get even the smallest nibble of wall. I don't want the possibility of lead poisoning or something worse.

I have an old Martin's cage that has a wire mesh bottom, so I put a rug underneath of her cage so that it wouldn't mess up my carpet. I also have about a 5 inch gap between the walls and every side of her cage that would be in contact with it. So depending on what type of cage you get, this may or may not be a problem.

I think chins do great in apartments. There are just little housing details that come along with it, but you'll figure them out once you actually have a chin.

 

[IowaChinLuvinChic]

I live in a roomy 2 bedroom apartment and my chin is happy =) He has his FN cage set up in my bedroom, and I take him in the bathroom for playtime, he gets to interact with me constantly since I spend majority of my free time in here, and my A/C is central air that I control, same with heat, so all that is handled. I think chins are fine in apartments, and my landlord doesn't have issue with anything caged/tanked as long as it doesn't stink and lucky for me chins don't =) I do want to move eventually and get a lot larger place for more furbabies, but my chinchilla Fredward is my only pet =)

 

[3CsMommy]

The biggest down sides of apartment living with chins are what happens when someone else causes damage requiring repairs (backed up toilet a floor below) or the utilities go out. We had that problem multiple times this summer thanks to thunderstorms, which means the air conditioning went off in an apartment that NEVER goes below 75* without help (even with windows open in the dead of winter in Buffalo). Thankfully I got the boys into a friend's basement when the power didn't kick back on right away, but if I hadn't been able to reach her, we'd have had trouble. I'd say having a back up plan and a "bug out" bag ready to go at all times are even more important when you rent. If you've got space for the cage, you've got space for the animals, but your options of alternative locations within your home are limited to the apartment. It's not like you'd have access to a safe basement location in August if the AC quits, and keeping your car running with the AC on in it can be prohibitively expensive.