Do Chins need a night light?

[djeaton]

I've seen lots of advice/warnings about temperature, but what about other environmental factors like sound and light? Smells? Humidity? Should we leave a bit of light in the room overnight so they can see their ledges and such?
Daniel

 

[Rebecca]

My boys see fine in the dark without a light. Humidity is definitely something you want to watch out for. If you live in a humid area, the best thing you can do, to my knowledge, is to supply them with more dust baths than usual.

 

[Chinniechantel]

I have my chins in a room with no windows. I have lights on automatic timers, 12 hours on 12 off. They do fine in the dark.

Humidity needs to be compensated with cooler air conditioning. My chins stay at 65 because it is SO humid here, that is comparable to 72 elsewhere.

Smells should be kept away from chins, no scented bedding, scented dust, etc. They have sensitive sense of smells and it can be very stressful and even dangerous for them to have certain smells around all the time.

I have found my chins like the radio on, it helps with all the little noises around and ever since we have been having so many thunderstorms, I leave it on all the time. They like classical or country, haha.

 

[starleomach]

No night light here. The seem to do fine.

 

[chinchewy1]

We live in Maryland which can be pretty humid but our AC also takes out quite a bit of it. We have them in the lower level of our house so there are really no smells getting to them like cooking smells and such. We use natural cleaners so there are no chemical smells either.

 

[AZChins]

I have nightlights in the chin rooms that come on at night. Mostly they are for me so that I can go in and look around a bit without turning all the lights on. They do fine in the dark though, like everyone else said.

You want to keep ammonia smell down in the chin room because normally the smell means that the ammonia level is pretty high and can cause problems. Cooking food smells don't seem to bother them, I don't think that they have a really acute sense of smell in the first place.

Humidity needs to be kept within comfortable levels. Normally I just tell people that if it feels comfortable in the room for humans wearing jeans and a t-shirt then the chins are probably fine. Humans tend to start getting warm at 78 to 79° with maybe 40 to 50% humidity. Anything greater than that in humidity or temperature is probably making the chins uncomfortable. If you have air conditioning, it will probably keep the air dry enough.

 

[designer chins]

After Forty Years has a good chapter on light. Lots of info in that book. I keep re-reading sections and still feel like I've missed things!

 

[mishellyshel]

i leave a little light on at night for them, i also have been leaving the radio on.
dont think either are necessities but luxuries that i like to bestow upon my little fuzzbutts! (who i actually miss while i am at work!), especially my doggie.

 

[Sandi]

I have a nightlight as well, mostly for me as I sometimes get up to check on them and so that my daughter doesn't run into their cage, as she sometimes sleep walks.

 

[Dust Fly]

My chinchilla doesn't have any light at night besides the moon if it's bright enough. She gets by quite fine.

 

[feistychins]

I leave a nightlight on to simulate moon light.

 

[Snickers]

I also have a night light to simulate moon light. I also have a small fluorescent light in the chin room for me.

 

[IslandDreamer322]

We leave a night light on for the chins- Not too sure if they notice it- but it helps if I have to go in there in the middle of the night for something.

 

[Aneesa's Muse]

The girls may see some of the red light that comes from various "lizard lights" ..and I don't think they mind it much ........but Mr. Phoenix sleeps in our room and he gets down right crotchet'y when we even have a lamp on for us to read by..

...so no night lights for us!

 

[Mystic]

I have never had a nightlight for my chin(s) but they seem to do just fine without one. As for humidity I tend to keep it around 35-40%