Mom bought a new cage,

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Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
126
Location
Southeast Texas!
because she complained about the mess the chins where making in the ferret nation. and now she expects me to sell the fn142 to pay for the new cage cost.

the cage she bought is a small, upright, bird cage with the guard around it.
ugh with being sick and her doing all this i dont know what to do.

it's obviously two small for the chinchillas, it's loud and unstable, and it doesn't have enough adequate space for their toys / chews / hidey houses.

what should i do?
 
Are you chins fleece chewers? If not you could make a fleece bumper around the bottom of the cage or along the sides of the shelves to contain the mess a little better.
 
No they aren't fleece chewers, but we have already gone through that stage to.

I'm thinking about moving them into the my first chinchilla home cage you can purchase at petco, minus the plastic shelves and such.

I have a wire "thing" i can sit in the cage so they can't dig up any bedding.
 
I would try to make wooden gaurds to put around the base of the ledges and pans, they usually kick poos off the shelf and if they hit something it might not go on the floor...
 
That cage is really small compared to a FN...If you are going to get one from Petco I woud get a large Ferret cage
 
Your right, next time I order shelfs then I'll buy them with a guard around them
I think I'm about to go set up the other cage, i'll show you guys some pics and ya'll can tell me what you think?
 
I think that cage is worse than FN, I would try for the gaurds. That cage's bars are too wide, and there will be an even bigger mess...
 
If you are going to go with something that small, I'd go with this instead - we used it before upgrading to the FN142. It's obviously not built as well (and I think they started skimping even more on material - we bought a second one so we could do temp housing for both of our boys at my parents' over the holidays, and the newer one had much thinner bars), but the mess isn't as bad with the grating. Honestly though, it's really not enough room to permanently house 3 chins. Unfortunately the mess is part of what you sign up for with chins - no cage will completely eliminate the problem.
 
I wouldn't use either of those cages, especially not the second one. Neither one is big enough for 3 chinchillas to live in, especially not 3 chins who were used to living in a FN142. You stuff them in that small of a cage, and I'd be watching for fights.
 
I agree with Peggy.

I'd ask your mom to return the cage. And explain to her that you would like to try getting guards for the FN.
 
http://www.petco.com/product/13557/Super-Pet-My-First-Home-Complete-Kit-for-Chinchillas.aspx

^^ This is now what they're currently in,
ETA; I only have two chins, the baby died.

Also, I know that this may not "seem" big enough, but for the time being, it will resolve my issue until I can talk more to my mother about all of this.

Yes, I understand that they are messy animals, but with the ferret nation no matter what cleaning you do this was poop everywhere. So I'm going to talk to her about bringing about the bird cage, and see if she'll use some of that money toward fn renovations.
 

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I put a brown rug under my cages. That way, the poos just blend in! We had beige carpet before and I was constantly vacuuming. We took the carpet up and put down wood and a rug. Now, once a day I run the vacuum around and it looks good.
 
Considering the bar spacing on the cages you just showed pictures of, I am confused on how these will keep down on the mess. The bar spacing is the same on a FN, just vertical instead of horizontal. If it's the pan at the bottom, I would recommend just getting a 4-5 inch deep metal pan from bassequiptment. You can also buy thin pieces of pine trim from lowes and make backs for your shelves. Those two things alone (which will cost you less than buying a new, smaller cage) should cut down on the mess significantly and they can stay in the same cage they know and love.
 
Consider covering the FN with hardware cloth. I did that with mine to make it baby safe. I had some extra 1/8 inch from another project, and it has worked wonders on the mess too.

Linda
 
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