Keeping Clean

[Lily&Lucy]

I was just wondering how everyone keeps or attempts to keep the area around their chinchilla cage clean. I've been trying to find tips to cut down on some of the mess. I was thinking about getting those metal shelf guards to try and help a little. Does anyone else have those and if so do they work? I was looking on quality cages and they have the ones that go the length of the shelves in a set of three for $13 (http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=129_142_143_146&products_id=1791) or they have individual ones that do the length and the width for $13 each (http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=129_142_143_149&products_id=1771). I am not sure if that extra little protection is worth the extra cost.

I was also thinking if I got the cage a stand that it might help make it look less messy, easier to vacuum, and I could store some of their stuff under it which would be helpful.

I would appreciate any input and ideas! Thank you!

 

[mistywaterwoman]

Honestly, there's a lot you can TRY, but the bottom line is that chins are messy. They FLING poo and hay, and it's going to be all over the floor every morning.

The metal guards on the outside of the cage (like from Quality Cage) help keep some of the debris inside, as do "poo catchers" on your shelves, which is basically a small wooden rim around the back and sides of your shelves. Those were invented by Simply Chintastic.

My cages are on stands (Ferret Nations) and it does help to be able to roll them forward and vacuum behind it. A Dust Buster is your friend when you own chins!!

:thumbsup:

 

[caiti]

Yea, dust buster all the way. Everday just spend a minute vacuuming up around the cage and it gets easy to deal with.

 

[Olallie]

The quality cage gaurds are okay to use, but they by no means keep everything in. also once a poo gets suck under it then well all the poos get rolled out haha.

 

[Lily&Lucy]

Oh yeah I never expected any guard to keep all their poos in I just wanted to minimize it. I keep a shop vac in the corner of my room and I vacuum before I leave but I am going to be moving in with a friend who doesn't have chinchillas so I don't want minimize the wow they poo a lot shock. lol

I have actually been thinking about it and I think I am going to try and go to lowes and get some wood to make little poo guards for their shelves. I like the way the wood looks verses the metal anyway and I figured it may be less expensive.

 

[mishellyshel]

i keep a broom & dust brush with a long handle by their cages and each cage has extra tall custom metal pans. the pans cut out almost all of the mess, i sweep 1 or 2 times per day, usually at the end of the night when I restash all their food, hay, treats, etc..

 

[AZChins]

I clean up around the cages everyday once in the morning and at night. With chinchillas you just have to keep up with the mess to keep it manageable. I use a Shark electric sweeper...that works great around, underneath and behind cages for picking up hay and poos.

 

[tams]

i have a shop vac that I would be lost without right now!! and it's super nice to get in there and just vacuum the poo off the shelves!

 

[Maia]

I have a Shark mini vac as well, the best thing ever!! I just vacuum around his cage and shelves daily, and also use it to clean up after playtime. Then just open it and dump out all the poo! So convenient!

 

[Sierra]

I have carpet in our bedroom in our apartment and my vacuum gets so clogged up every once in a while and its so funny watching Dustin unclog it *evil :hilarious: So when we close on our house we are putting hardwood floors in our bedroom with a clear office mat underneath it. I'm definitely getting one of those Shark vacuums now. :thumbsup:

 

[Sierra]

Is this the vacuum you have?

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=118428

 

[tams]

I have carpet in my apartment and I found some bamboo mats (look like wood roll mats) that I found at a closeout store near me. got them for $3 a piece. Got 2 of them for under the cage. Makes cleaning soooo much easier, but the poo still gets everywhere!!

 

[Lily&Lucy]

So I've been busy for the past two days I took the shelves I had and put wood around them, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be. lol But I think the result wasn't bad. It also gave me a chance to re-arrange some of the shelves. The stand for the cage arrived today as well. Here are the results, I'd love input, because I still don't know how I feel about the placement of the shelves.

 

[Carol~Anne]

You've done a great job with those shelves. As far as the placement, I can only see from that one angle and it looks good but I can't see if there's any big drop offs where a chin could fall and get an injury. Maybe take a pic from another angle as well?

My chin room is always a disaster and it's not from flying poops b/c most of the cages are wood with a mesh front. It's when they are out for playtime that they make a HUGE mess of the room with dust and poop and the occasional puddle of pee. The broom and dustpan are my best friends.

 

[Lily&Lucy]

You've done a great job with those shelves. As far as the placement, I can only see from that one angle and it looks good but I can't see if there's any big drop offs where a chin could fall and get an injury. Maybe take a pic from another angle as well?

Thanks for the input! Here are two more pictures of the side and of the front straight on.

 

[Carol~Anne]

It 'looks' like a safe placement of shelves but it is a little hard to know for sure. Just take a look at the centre of the cage from top to bottom and make sure there is always either a shelf or ledge or something that is in place so that if they do take a fall, they aren't falling the whole height of the cage.

Your cage looks similar to one of mine and these shelves are placed so there open spaces from top to bottom. The furthest the chin can fall is probably around 18" or maybe a bit less.

 

[Carol~Anne]

these shelves are placed so there open spaces from top to bottom.

I meant to say: "these shelves are placed so there are NO open spaces from top to bottom." I can't seem to type anything right these days for some reason.

 

[Cheknnudol]

The two boys I've had for the last couple of years have been in a giant parrot cage with the seed guards attached, and I usually only had to vacuum every few days. I figured this was the amount of poo on the floor everyone had, and couldn't see what all the fuss about the mess was about here on the forum.

This last weekend I picked up 2 new boys with a FN from Diamond Dreams and in the first 8 hours they were in my home they had more mess on the floor than I EVER had around the parrot cage over a couple days. NOW I know what you're all talking about

My point, though, is that I never realized how much the seed guards helped until now and OH MAN do I recommend finding a way to attach some to any cage you've got.

I have attached a photo of a cage similar to mine to sort of show you guys what kind of seed guards I'm talking about. Let gravity do its thing when they poo-fling and the seed guards just guide it back to where it belongs: in the pan!

 

[Lily&Lucy]

Wow those seed guards are a really great idea! I can just imagine how much they cut down on runaway poos!