peeing in their hay

[shadowsong]

So apparently my chinchillas like to pretend their hay is bedding and pee in it. I didn't notice in their old cage because loose hay got mixed in with their actual bedding. However, in the new cage they pulled all their hay out of the rack, piled it up on one of the wooden shelves, and started peeing like they'd just invented the toilet.

I can fix part of the problem by making sure that hay pulled out of the rack falls to the ground floor of the cage rather than a shelf, but how do I solve the underlying issue and teach them that hay is for eating and not for peeing in?

 

[Brittney]

My boy did that too for the longest time. I would go to grab the hay he pulled out of the rack and just left on the self because I was going to throw it away, big mistake. Fingers got drenched in chin pee. :vomit: I have since placed his hay rack on the bottom of his cage. I figure, he's obviously not going to eat it if he's throwing it out, so if he wants to pee on it, at least pee on the bedding. Since then, no more pee surprises.

 

[alli713]

All my chins do this to some extent. They like to pee on the hay, I'm not sure why. But, mine aren't pulling all of the hay out and then peeing on it. They just pee on the stuff that they eat part of and then discard the rest.

What type of hay are you using? Perhaps they just don't like the taste of it so they aren't eating any of it.

 

[Kula]

I cut my hay into 2" pieces and mix it into the food, otherwise my chinchillas climb into the hay basket and pee.

 

[mishellyshel]

since i moved my boys to a new cage, which has a built in hay holder i noticed the one peed in it! i used to keep it in toilet paper tubes, so I thnk i am going to put it in the tube and put the tube in the holder!

 

[Newchinmom]

My babies will pull most of the hay out of their holder and try to find the "totally perfect" ones to eat, the rest got left on floor and will have poos in them sometimes soaked in pees. I was shopping in grocery stores and wandered through pet's section and I found this in bird's shelf, it's made by "Brown's" to hold birdseed cakes and it's under $4, it's easy to open and close and it comes with chains to hang on top of cage, it's fun to watch them standing on ledge trying to get hays out of it. There will be a few hays drop on the floor but not as much, I still keep the claypot hay holder in there and fill half way with hays. It seems to work out for me so far. I know you can make your own hanging type hay holder with wire and stuff, but I'm not handy enough to make it.

 

[Carol~Anne]

One or both of my mosaic boys pee on the hay that is dragged out and there was always a pee/hay stain on the wooden shelf and out came the hydrogen peroxide to clean it up.

Just recently I put a square ceramic floor tile on that shelf which is much easier to clean up than the wood. That's been my solution, other than giving up on peeing on dragged out hay.