PVC pipe

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cosmo

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
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56
One more noobie thread from me, sorry again, but alot of misleading info out there, but you all seem to steer me right and save me alot of time figuring out exactly what is best for our chin. So I'm reading to add some PVC tunnels, some say I have to cover them with fleece, while some say you dont have to while they're same website says plastic kills.

So does it need covered, if so I can, if not completely covered and sewn, can you glue fleece down on PVC and make a maze for them?

TIA
 
I have PVC with covers, bought from one of the vendors on here. I personally wouldn't put them in uncovered because in would worry and they don't look as nice.
 
I have one for my chins and they have covers on them. I have never seen them chew on it or the cloth. They are a eye sore with out covers but if yr chins are in a room people don't go in to it
may not matter. I keep my chins in my bedroom so company only see them if they go out of there way to visit the chins. Which my family does. :p

I can't answer the plastic question because I'm not sure about the conflict in information myself. I do know my vet said not to use plastic or cloth if the chins chew on it.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
 
Yeah I guess my main concern is why you keep reading no plastic but these seem ok even uncovered??
 
I read that PVC is ok because of the way it crumbles when chewed. It's least likely of all the plastics to cause impaction if chewed.
 
I had covers on mine but they would still chew the fleece. They do look better in cages but I leave them off due to chewing.
 
Personally I wouldnt leave it uncovered. Chewing plastic, PVC, abs etc it's really all the same hazard, chins chew every thing, many people Belive PVC 'is too hard for them to chew on' yet I always see chew marks on all the edges of their PVC.
I would not glue fleece to it, trust me after a week you will want to wash the fleece, it does get dusty furry and dirty.
I personally am not a PVC fan at all while many make thier tubes from PVC with fleece covers, I really don't like that PVC gasses off fumes over time-likely nothing noticeable but I still wouldn't want it around my chins who would be sleeping in it.
There are people who sell tubes on here, you'll find most are PVC with a fleece tube cover, some are cardboard with a fleece cover (a vendor up here that I got mine from sells the cardboard ones) and some are metal with a cover, you can get really nice metal ones from fuzzies kingdom.... Or you can make a metal one from a soup, coffee jumbo can :)
 
It is not that PVC is "too hard to chew on", how thick and hard the PVC is prevents the chinchillas from breaking off a chunk large enough to cause impaction. They can only due the behavior that they should do...which is gnawing on the PVC to leave bite marks. They can eventually wittle down a large area on the PVC, but they are not ingesting it.

Chinchillas, like other rodents have an area between the incisors and molars called the diastema. When they are gnawing, flesh will fill the area of the diastema which prevents particles from entering into their mouth from what they are gnawing on.

I have used PVC uncovered with my chinchillas for around 10 years and they do fine on it. Like anything a chinchilla can gnaw on, it eventually needs replaced.
 
my chins ahve chewed PVC - be carefull with it, I'd say keep it covered (there are a lot of peopel in the classified section who sell fleece covers if you don't want to make them). As soon as I can I'm going to replace my PVC with metal tubes
 
I have one chin that I can't give covered PVC or he uses it as a toilet (exclusively, the little boogerhead!). The other two, I have to cover pipes for, or they nibble it. That said, a fleece tube is the default hide for all three when they want to hunker down during daylight sleeping. They're awesome additions to a cage.
 
I have a chin that chewed the edge of his PVC tube through the fleece. He didn't make a hole in the fleece, just made substancial impressions in the PVC. Then he stopped working the edge and started pulling the fleece. I know when to change the fleece - when he starts pulling on it! I don't trust this chin with anything plastic.

My other chin has a cardboard tube in a fleece cover and never lays a tooth on it. He'd have that tube torn up if it was bare. He loves to chew anything paper. He also has a PVC ledge and doesn't mess with it either. I think he'd be different with it if it were bare and I won't risk it.

My previous chin loved to chew any kind of plastic. No naked PVC in my house. Not worth the risk.
 
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