Hello from skitz and I

[Slickdevil08]

Hello there. My name is Justin and I have a 4 month old chin named skitz. This is my first chin so learning as I go so bare with me . Recently I have noticed something abnormal. He covered his food with the stuffing in his cage and I'm not sure why? Anybody have any thoughts on this ?

 

[chechinchillas]

Hi Justin,
Welcome! Love the chin name. My guess is he is probably just running around the cage kicking up shavings and they are getting on top of the food dish. I use feeding dishes that attach to the side of the cage and up off of the bottom of cage about 2". This helps to keep them from dumping the bowl over and helps to keep the shavings off of the pellets, but I still find shavings on top of my pellet bowls once in a while too. (They also pull my metal feed dishes off of the cage wire wall sometimes too for fun).

 

[Lirana]

Welcome!

I keep the food dish on a shelf rather than in the litter. I'll find an occasional poo or litter piece in there, but mostly it stays clean. As long as Skitz is still eating, it's probably nothing to worry about.

 

[Slickdevil08]

Thanks yeah the name fits him well and ok ill try getting his food dish up a little higher to see if that stops the problem

 

[Jenn]

Hi Justin and welcome! I'm wondering if your chin is accidentally kicking up shavings into his food bowl, or if he feels the need to hide his food? I would move his food bowl to a different area, either a bowl that hangs from the side of his cage, or move it to a higher larger shelf, so that it is away from the shavings.

 

[Slickdevil08]

Yeah he has a small little castle that he plays on maybe ill stick it up there so that it's away from the shavings? When u say shavings do you mean the cotton stuff that I got? Cuz the cotton stuff is what I have is there something that's better?

 

[6Dusters]

Welcome to the forum. It's a wonderful place for you to start.

Are you using Care Fresh as bedding? If so, it would be a good idea to change. It's some sort of paper I believe. Chins like to eat it and its not good to do so.
You would be suprised as I was to see the size of their intestines. About the size of a couple leads in a pencil. Impaction "could" happen if eating too much of the stuff.

Switch over to pine or aspen. Pine is my favorite choice. They can also chew it and eat it without problems. And its much cheaper to use.
And of course moving the food bowl away from the bedding ( or shavings as we refer to pine or aspen) is helpful.

 

[Slickdevil08]

ok so when i head to the store on monday i know some brands use chemicals and such that are bad for the chinchilla so i should look for pine shavings that will be good for the chin how much do they normally go?

 

[6Dusters]

Go to a pet store or big box petstore that sells pine bedding.

Here is a link to Petsmart brand.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754694&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No

I think the large bag runs about $11. I buy large bags at my feed store for $6 a bag and its twice as large.

 

[Sandi]

Welcome to the forum! If you do decide to move his food bowl to a shelf don't be surprised if he decides to kick it over unless you secure it or buy a bowl that bolts to the side of the cage.

 

[Lirana]

Hi again! I mapped out your area and found Franklin Feed & Supply Co. It's apparently some weird amalgam of pet supply and hardware store. In case the Petsmart near you doesn't have what you're looking for, you could try this place as a backup.

When we go to the Petsmart to pickup bedding, we like to lift every single bag that they have. Sometimes you'll find a really heavy one, and it'll last almost twice as long!

 

[Slickdevil08]

Ok ill try that and yeah that's were we get most of his stuff from the hardware and supply store