New chin makes me very nervous when jumping

[mdav]

First off I apologize if this has been asked before, I tried searching but nothing came up specifically about this that I could find...

I adopted my first chin on Sunday from a college student who felt the chin was being neglected. He appears very healthy (lush coat, firm poop, nice teeth and nails, rolls in his dust) and has a very sweet, curious temperament.

The only thing that concerns me is that, when I got the chin, he was in what appeared to be a large rabbit or gerbil cage. It had no ledges for jumping. I bought him a bigger cage that has ledges that are about 18"Lx4"W. I also installed ramps initially. He did fine with the ramps and ledges together, so I decided to take the ramps out tonight and see how he did. The ledges are spaced fairly close together...I'd say under 6" apart in any direction.

He absolutely terrified me when he tried to jump from one ledge to another without the ramps. He was very clumsy, and landed quite heavily and awkwardly. This is not what I expected to see. It appeared so precarious that I actually decided to put the ramps back in.

Am I overreacting? Is this normal for a chinchilla?

 

[mgonya]

Chins get used to things being in the same place. You move something and they usually run into it. They actually don't need ramps as they jump very high. Mine tear through their cages like a tornado. Sometimes they miss a ledge too.

 

[turtlemoon]

when you say he landed awkwardly, how do you mean?
hm. i'm sure it's nothing to worry about. remove the ramps and see how he does. if you notice him failing his landing and falling quite often, then go ahead and place the ramps back in his cage. if they're plastic, or mesh, cover them with either fleece, cardboard, or you can even use those brown paper bags that come in the mail (the kinds one would use as book covers on textbooks =P).

 

[mdav]

Thank you both for taking the time to respond. Turtlemoon, when I say awkwardly I mean VERY ungracefully. A couple of times it literally looked like he was going to fall on his face.

Based on what the two of you have said, I'm getting the impression that he is used to the ramps and he may have been a bit clumsy just because it was different. Basically, he would probably acclimate to the ledges alone if he had some time. Maybe I am being overly cautious because I really, really don't want him getting hurt.

 

[Cinder and Me]

Another suggestion is to make sure he doesn't have a straight fall to the bottom of the cage. I believe I read on here that there should be something to break their fall, so they don't fall more than 18". I never thought of that very early on when I got a 4' tall cage and my girl was so graceful and precise it never occurred to me that she could fall. Well, I think she slipped on her poo or flat out missed her landing and she fell, hard. She didn't hurt herself thankfully, and that was the one and only time I allowed that to happen (as far as I was aware of). I moved a hammock towards the center and added a few more ledges.

 

[Godofgods]

They definitely have good memories, so they are accustomed to things being in the same spot as they remember. When you change something like that it could take a little bit for them to get used to it. Especially if it is something they are unfamiliar with.

And it is a good idea to design it so that if he should fall from anywhere, it is a short fall. You don't want them to hurt themselves. It really depends on the type of cage you have to decide the best ways to go about doing that. Probably the most common i hear is to place hammocks around/underneath to make sure if they fall its right into something like that. Used to break the fall so to speak.

I would suggest giving him some time to get used to the new surroundings. If he still has issues after a while, then there might be an underlying physical problem. But its more likely hes getting used to new things. - Even after a few years my chins sometimes get to fast for there own good and slip up when hoping from ledge to ledge.

 

[mdav]

Thank you for the advice about the hammock. I ordered one for him.

 

[turtlemoon]

piggy-backing on what Cinder and Me said, just make sure you have something for him to land on so that he doesn't have hard falls.

Cinder and Me, i'm sorry for your loss. i see you lost your little chin recently, after over a decade. must be hard. ):

 

[akane]

When I asked about modifying a 4-5' bird cage for chins I was told not to let them fall more than about 1' by making sure things overlap. You can place things in the way or you can buy your own wood to make wider ledges. 6" boards are standard and sometimes you can find 10" wide (if your cage bars can support the weight). Lowes here and some menards will also cut them to size for you. then put in this special screw called a hanger bolt. Get big washers (one goes inside the wires and one goes outside the wires) and a wingnut that fits the screw.

It's the same concept as this
http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_perches.shtml

except you are putting 2 or 3 screws in to a flat board instead of a round perch. It's also tons cheaper than repeatedly buying new commercial wood perches. We found the closed nuts to be very difficult to drive in without breaking them even after drilling so we ended up using pliers to turn the hanger bolt. However we were using hickory wood cut from a downed tree which is a very hard wood instead of softwood boards from the store.

 

[mdav]

All great suggestions - thanks for the helpful and thoughtful responses. I literally ordered the fleece set with a hammock as soon as I saw the advice. It's big enough to span the entire width of the cage. As soon as the hammock comes, I am going to try again and give him some more time to adjust. If it's still an issue, I will go to Lowe's and make some wider ledges for him.

I appreciate that my question was taken in earnest and you all took the time to help me and my chin out. Thanks again.

 

[Cinder and Me]

Cinder and Me, i'm sorry for your loss. i see you lost your little chin recently, after over a decade. must be hard. ):

Thanks. I honestly still can't believe it at times. I swear my brain still makes the noise of her jumping around - I sometimes "hear" her bouncing around like she used to. Very strange - and my husband heard it too one night when I was asleep and he was in the room across from her cage. Its an adjustment after over a decade with her.

 

[mdav]

Cinder, I am so, so sorry for your loss. I am new to the world of Chinchilla ownership, but I've lost other pets and I know how hard it can be. Here is a poem that helped me a lot when I lost my dear pug in March.

Farewell, Master, yet not farewell.
Where I go, you too shall dwell.
I am gone before your face,
A moment's time, a little space.
When you come where I have stepped
You will wonder why you wept.
- Edwin Arnold

I hope you can find solace in the fact that your little chin no longer has any worries or ailments to plague her.

---

As far as the original topic, I'm happy to report that Bigelow is fully able to jump now without making me catch my breath. His new ferret nation helps a lot along with the strategic placement of his new hammocks and some new shelves. Thanks again to everyone who provided their helpful input.

 

[Spodumena]

Sorry to pull up an old thread - but I have a question related to the initial post!

Our 5 month old chins are (generally) fairly graceful (for kits...?), but after putting in some new ledges to try to jazz up their house for them, they occasionally mis-calculate a jump and are *super* clumsy. I caught one of them dozily getting up from a nap and trying to get into the hammock with one paw, missing, and falling about 15-16 inches onto his bottom as I looked on in horror. Naturally, I want to remedy this.

I am considering getting a second single hammock and trying to strategically place it below the double hammock towards the top level, but given how the cage is designed, I am mainly worried about them catching their legs/feet in the chains that suspend the hammock in the middle. Am I over-worrying about this? Does anyone have any experiences with mid-level hammock hanging and the best way to break up cages? I don't have a ferret nation unfortunately -- so I can't break up the levels like those do... Here's what we're working with:

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/little-zoo-flight-chinchilla--degu--rat-and-chipmunk-cage

Hope someone can share some chin wisdom!

 

[Amethyst]

I guess it would depend on the chain if it's possible to get stuck on. I've use a chain on one of my hammocks, and ending up using wooden blocks string onto the chain, so it doubles as a chew toy. I've also used haywire, and metal toy kabobs (like these) to reach places in the cage to hook the hammocks to.

Also another idea to break up the middle is use pieces of wood the width of the cage, here is a old pics of my cage that shows you the middle spanning shelves and the hammock with wood blocks on a chain and on a kabob thing.

 

[Spodumena]

Ah! I really like the idea of using wood blocks on the chains to double as chew toys. The chains worry me because I'm afraid the chins won't see them, but if they know there's something *chewy* there -- different story. Good idea! Thank you!

(And your chins are super spoiled - what a fun house!)

 

[Godofgods]

You definitely want to position things so that in case of a fall it is a very short one. If your worried about chains then look up some hammock vendors here and get some fleece hammocks. They usually come with more of a shower hook connection that would be harder to get stuck on.

Also how far do the ledges stick out from the cage? I generally use (common) 6" wide wood. Which means irl its about 5.5" wide. I find that to be a good minimum size for my chins. - I also have one chin with physical issues who cant move around well. Se his ledges are 8" wide (7.5").

 

[Spodumena]

The upper ledges that lead to the hammock are about 5.5"-6", and the lower shelves are about 9 inches -- I hoped the overlap would help a bit, but they always seem to fall right past it (I've taken to putting fleecy pillows under it so they at least get a padded landing). I just honestly think they get too excited playing that they don't fully think about how to get into the silly thing properly.

Thanks -- I've just discovered the hammocks with shower-curtain type hooks and ordered a large open one to try to act as a acrobat-net for the clumsy guys. The hooks make me less nervous.

Now if only they don't take to chewing on every anti-pill fleece surface I've put in their house... they've already starting having a bit of a nibble at the current hammock. *sigh*