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HaleyGoBoom

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Alright, so I'm bringing home a new chinchilla soon (first time owner), and I've got all my supplies ready. Well, I was reading the "New Chin Owner Mistakes" thread and realized that although I don't have any plastic in the new cage I'm buying (and it is a very very large cage, I'm most likely going to get a pair now), I did buy some Kaytee brand stuff.

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and I also got the Kaytee Dust Bath (non scented)

So I want to make sure I have all this straight,

I want to get
-Mazuri for pellets
-Blue Cloud for dust
- ? what's the best hay
- and is that bedding safe/comfortable
 
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I also bought these! I'm glad I saved the receipt!
 
The wood chews are absolutely fine, though you could probably find them in bulk online for much cheaper.

As for the food and such, Kaytee feed is not the greatest feed. It contains preservatives that are not good for chinchillas. I would bring it back and go with a higher quality feed like Mazuri, PANR, Tradition or Oxbow. I sell PANR and Mazuri, and I know others on here sell Tradition and Oxbow. Even with shipping the prices for PANR are cheaper than anything you would buy in a pet store.

As for their hay it's hit or miss. Sometimes it's fine, other times it's old and brown. If you use Kaytee hay just make sure go for the freshest looking mini bag you can find. Oxbow is a bit more expensive ($10.00 for 40 oz.) at PetSmart but is really worth the money. My chins eat more Oxbow hay than they ever did the Kaytee hay, so even though it costs a little more, the chins are actually eating more and you are throwing away less. When you open the Oxbow bag you will see (and smell!) the difference between the hay.

In terms of bedding, Kaytee is absolutely fine. Aspen is aspen is aspen, and it really doesn't matter who makes it. Pine bedding is also fine to use. I prefer Aspen as the pieces are usually smaller and easier to vacuum from the floor, but other than that both are fine to use.

For dust, I would recommend going with Blue Cloud or Blue Sparkle. There are a lot of sellers on here that carry it. The difference in a chin's coat dusted with either of these is amazing. When I first got my chin I used the Kaytee dust. I decided to try someone with Blue Sparkle and the change was AMAZING. I now use Blue Cloud, but either of them are great. Again, even with shipping you will probably be paying less for the higher quality dust than you would for a smaller container of Kaytee dust.
 
Alright thank you so much for the advice! I'll be ordering some Mazuri and Blue Cloud and heading straight back to the PetSmart to return some of the things I've purchased. I really wish I found this site earlier, I love the toys and the things people sell on here. I have been to your store before, and I'm wondering how much a pound of food lasts with one chinchilla? I'm looking at the Purina Advanced Nutrition.
 
If I remember right, the dye on those wood chews will give your chins different color hands and mouth, too! Don't panic, as it will wear-off in a week or two, but you'll have multi-colored chins in the meantime! I'd use the natural ones!
 
One chinchilla will usually go through about 3 lbs. of food in a month. Now, some go through less, some go through a bit more. It purely depends on the chinchilla. I actually just ordered a new bag and it will be here Friday if you would like something fresher than what I have now so it will last you longer.

Just an FYI, I can fit 11 lbs. in a flat rate priority shipping box. 11 lbs will last you 4-5 months. I specifically contacted Purina Mills to ask them what they would recommend in terms of the time frame for their feed before it started to lose nutritional value and they told me 6 months.
 
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Well I'll be adopting my first chinchilla in late March, and latest being early April. I'd love to order from you then though, you're prices are very good and I have you bookmarked! I'm just waiting for Spring Break before I bring a little one home, just so I can spend the time with him while he adjusts and make sure that I begin his routine and find out what works and so on, but I definitely look forward to doing business with you in the future, I just don't want to make the mistake of buying food now and it going bad, I didn't realize that with the whole hay thing.
 
As long as hay is kept dry in an area that's not in direct sunlight it doesn't really go "bad" in the time frame that chins go through it. I've had hay for 6 months and it still looked and smelled as fresh as when I still got it. I now purchase in smaller 40 oz. bags just because it's more convenient for me, and the hay goes way too quickly to even dream of it going bad. :p
 
If you haven't opened the dust, you can return it. Otherwise, if you already opened it, just use it up. It goes quickly enough. :) Then you can get some Blue Cloud or Blue Sparkle.
 
I agree with the dust. The Kaytee isn't the best, but it'll do. It's not as fine as Blue Cloud, and you will notice a huge difference if you use one and then the other.
 
Yeah, if you bought the dust, you can use it, it just isn't cost effective since for the price of one of those little containers you can get 10 lbs of blue cloud from someone online.

I agree about the food. Kaytee food has preservatives in it that have been shown to cause cancer in rats over time. So not something I would risk with my chins. Tradition, PANR, Mazuri, Oxbow, Pen Pals, Kline and maybe a couple others I missed are all really good. Sometimes you can find Mazuri or Oxbow in stores. But of course it's always freshest when buying from a mill or from someone who gets it from the mill.

They hay is probably fine. Although it's been said that Kaytee uses a dye on their hay to make it appear more green. So I tend to use Oxbow. Or if you live near farms, sometimes you can get a whole bale of timothy. But for one or two chins, a bag from the store is fine.

As far as bedding, I use pine. Some people use aspen but it's more expensive. And others still use Carefresh which is the most expensive. Some chins will try to eat the carefresh though so I just stick to pine. Any brand of these types of bedding is okay.

And most wood chews from the store are okay except for the peach twigs. Peach is toxic so don't buy those.
 
Essentia said:
I specifically contacted Purina Mills to ask them what they would recommend in terms of the time frame for their feed before it started to lose nutritional value and they told me 6 months.
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So they start to lose nutrition at 6 months? I have a 10 lb bag I got in January that was milled 12/28/08 so it will start to get a little off six months from the december date? So should I throw out anything NOT used in the 6 months?

I'm just asking because they seem to be going through it well but they aren't even halfway through and we have 2 completely on the PANR eating 2 or so tablespoons a day and we have 2 we're weaning onto it. I'm just hoping it'll get used up by the time it starts going bad. I mean it was less than $6 so not a big deal if we have to throw out some food.
 
I don't think that the food actually goes bad, it just looses some of the nutritional value of the vitamins that are in it. I don't think your chins would get sick or anything eating older feed. Besides the fact that they also eat hay which they get some nutrients out of. I think that the 6 months is a basic guideline, but it's not like the food is going to make your chin sick if you happen to feed food older than 6 months.

I've heard others say that in an unopened bag that is sitting in a cool dry area, that the feed stays fine up to a year, but like stated just looses some of the nutritional value. I mean, think of all the chin feed in petstores. I can bet most of that is older than 6 months and chins aren't dying off of it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't care if it's older than 6 months, as I think it's important to find fresh feed, but if you were to feed your chin it, they aren't going to die because of it.

But seeing as feed isn't all that expensive, if you have some older feed, I would just go ahead and get some fresher :)
 
You can also use fleece for bedding. I really enjoy it and my girls box trained themselves. I have a small box of pine bedding where they peep that I clean daily and I change out the fleece liner twice a week because chinchillas are celebrated poopers!

Mine are just a double layer of fleece but I know others have sewn a towel in the middle for added absorbancy and there are people who make liners too.
 
EveningChin said:
You can also use fleece for bedding. I really enjoy it and my girls box trained themselves. I have a small box of pine bedding where they peep that I clean daily and I change out the fleece liner twice a week because chinchillas are celebrated poopers!

Mine are just a double layer of fleece but I know others have sewn a towel in the middle for added absorbancy and there are people who make liners too.
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About the Fleece liners, I just purchased this cage from a member

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I'm going to take out the ramps, but I'm not sure if the shelving is removable, but I don't know how the fleece liners would work (without some sort of shelf or removable bottom). I was just going to put the marble tile I have in the cage I built on the bottom and in the extra space on the flooring have aspen.
 
Rickman said:
If I remember right, the dye on those wood chews will give your chins different color hands and mouth, too! Don't panic, as it will wear-off in a week or two, but you'll have multi-colored chins in the meantime! I'd use the natural ones!
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haha aww poor little rainbow chins, I can just imagine them staring at their paws "What's happened!" ((or are they colorblind? o_O ))
 
Wow! That is an impresively large cage! Good idea taking out the ramps. If you can't get the platforms off I would run by the local lumber store or Ace and grab some chin safe wood 1/4" - 1/2" thick to cover the wire mesh so no toes get stuck and it doesn't irritate any chinchilla feet.

It does appear to have a slide pan under the wire floor. I would resist putting the tiles in and leaving a space for then to relieve their waste (I think thats what you were describing, correcting if I'm wrong) Because chinchilla's don't really poop in one place. They will, in my experience, wet in one place but poo is a free for all and goes everywhere.

The marble does soumd great because it will naturally stay cooler than room temp.


I just prefer Fleece liners because I just grab out shake it onto the front lawn or the garden (pretty good fertilizer btw) and then drop it in with my other laundry. I have two so while one is in the wash the other is in the cage. Simple to take care of, in expensive, and you don't need to purchase them as often. I do use pine or aspen shavings in their wetting area as I said before.

Oh and nope they aren't color blind.
 
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