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SpaceChinnie

SpaceChinnie

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
58
Location
Syracuse NY
Hello all! After a year or so of learning from this site, I finally have gotten my chin cage to what I think are "acceptable" levels and would love to hear some constructive criticism from you all. I'm looking for any chin safety hazards, better arrangement of items, or any comments really! Tell me what you think, good or bad.:thumbsup:

I also want to say to all the Chin supply store owners on this site, I couldnt have done it without you! (especially Camphor Chins and QMC!) I even learned to sew liners from the C&H DIY! OK, now to the pictures!

Overall picture of top and bottom
CIMG2556-1.jpg


Just the top of the FN
CIMG2553.jpg


And now the bottom
CIMG2557.jpg



Sorry if the pictures are huge. I tried resizing, but it makes one teeny tiny and the others huge.:wacko:

PS, if there is anything I can put in their cage that lessens stress let me know. My girls are starting to show some chewing signs on their fur. I cant tell who is chewing who yet but they're starting to look ragged.
 
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What's that thing in the bottom left corner?! I've never seen one before!

To me they look awesome for chins, but I'm not super experienced with this.
 
I think it looks good!

As far as chewing goes, it's not always just stress related. Some chins just chew no matter what you do. But one thing you can try is to give more variety in chew toys so it may perhaps lessen boredom and give them other things to chew on.

I have one girl that chews and she just decides to chew, sometimes it's stress related other times not.
 
Where do they pee? I don't see a place, but I might be missing it! :p I have a pie pan I put shavings in for my chins, they seem to like it!

I also don't see a water bottle? Or a hay holder? Do you just give them a bit of hay at a certain time? My cage has hay all over it all the time :p

I think the set up looks good! And it's cleaner than my cage will ever be I think :p Good Job!
 
My chin started chewing until I realized it was because I had him in the living room, where my boyfriend and I always are. I realized it was stressing him to have us always in the room, it made it difficult for him to sleep. Is your cage in a high-traffic area?
 
Monarch - oh, right! I guess I've only seen chin spins, and assumed that the flying saucer wouldn't be that different - but it is very space-agey! Wonder if my boy would like one like that...
 
SusieJJ said:
Where do they pee? I don't see a place, but I might be missing it! :p I have a pie pan I put shavings in for my chins, they seem to like it!

I also don't see a water bottle? Or a hay holder? Do you just give them a bit of hay at a certain time? My cage has hay all over it all the time :p

I think the set up looks good! And it's cleaner than my cage will ever be I think :p Good Job!
Click to expand...

A lot of people don't use litter pans and just let the chins pee on the fleece. I do it both ways here. Some chins just don't take to the litter pan and pee wherever anyway.
 
My chin looked like he was getting bored/stressed, so instead of mostly hanging toys, I have those and things he can carry around and re-arrange as he wants. His favourites are coconut shells, those little cardboard circle things (I can't remember what they're called. bagel somethings?), willow shapes (stars, hearts, etc), and I make him things he can take apart- like two wood coins connected by a stick, or ones similar to qualitymutationchinchilla.com 's toss and treat toy.

I don't have experience with actual chewing chinchillas, but I hope I was able to help some!
 
My (former) chewer needed hanging toys rotated; different types of wood, different parts of the cage. I'd usually rearrange something every weekend, move a ledge or a perch, swap hammocks and tubes around a little, anything to alleviate the boredom. If their hanging toys are always in the same place, or always the same kind of wood, that might be one way to figure out if it's genetic or environmental barbering.

Otherwise, looks awesome to me. :) I like the hay bag at the top. Going to have to make one of those myself here pretty soon.
 
Gzifa (the chin that's my avatar) says that cage is rubbish & is not at all suitable for a chinchilla. In fact, she says it is so terrible & sub-standard that you should immediately send it across the ocean to the UK so that she can inspect it for herself. She also says she will give it a thorough testing to see if it is even remotely suitable for a chinchilla (but she suspects it will need several year's worth of testing to ensure the tests are accurate) :p

;)

Your chins are very lucky to have an owner to spoil them as you do. :thumbs:
 
Thanks for all the comments everyone! I guess no real hazards were spotted, so i'm really happy about that. I'll have to buy them some more hanging toys. There are a couple attached to the doors, but its probably hard to see, and they could definetly use some more.

As far as the chin bathroom goes, they just go wherever they like. I wash the liners often. Kiwi, my standard was potty trained, but after Cookie came along, she's not trained and thinks the dish full of shavings is a dust bath, and well...you can imagine thats not sanitary. lol:laughitup:

I think i'll start moving the hanging toys about to spice things up a bit for them. Thanks for the suggestion. Sometimes I get stuck in a routine of fill the toy, and put it back.

The cage is in a low traffic area, they actually have their own room. I often think that it may be too low traffic actually. I'm not around during the day while they sleep, but i'm in the other room for most of the night. I want them to have more human interaction, but like everyone else, I often get busy and they dont get playtime every night.

Thanks for all the great feedback. As always, this forum rocks for learning about chins!! :dance3:
 
Essentia said:
A lot of people don't use litter pans and just let the chins pee on the fleece. I do it both ways here. Some chins just don't take to the litter pan and pee wherever anyway.
Click to expand...

oooh interesting! How often do you change the fleece this way? I might try that.. cause their pee spot is at the end of a wooden ramp my dad built for them.. and it just makes a bigger mess than I think is necessary :p
 
I change mine every other day, or every third day depending on the mess. I think the trick is to change it before it starts to smell, because if human noses can smell the odor, it must be really strong to chins.
 
SpaceChinnie said:
I change mine every other day, or every third day depending on the mess. I think the trick is to change it before it starts to smell, because if human noses can smell the odor, it must be really strong to chins.
Click to expand...

That's what I do with the one chin I have who refuses to use a litter pan. The other two boys are great about using the potty, but Chico does his business everywhere except the potty. :hair:
 
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