Well... that didn't last long...

[Morganpanda]

Wish I could show you pictures of the progress that Sigma has done on his chew toys in less than a week- but unfortunately, they're all torn to shreds mixed into his bedding. Oh my.

Yea, now I see why people want to make their own toys instead of buying them. My chin managed to shred up $50 in about a week.

Welp, not doing THAT again!

Is it normally this pricey for your chew toys?
How often are you replacing your chew toys?

 

[Basket_of_Chinchillas]

I normally buy a ton of bulk toy 'parts' from Zoey and Lilos Toybox and then use a combinations of superpet ka-bob hangers (the metal stick with the bell) and coconut rope to put them together. It's REALLY cost effective (http://www.zoeyandlilostoybox.com/)
I also keep a wide variety of chews in the cage at any given time so my boys tend to chew lots, but it's spread out over a lot of different toys.

 

[Amethyst]

I don't even bother with pet store bought toys anymore, over priced and not always safe. For example I've been buying toy parts online you can get a pound of wood, the whirlies or drilled coins work great to make toys, for about $8-$15 per pound depending on type. If he is a real big chewer try some of the harder woods like arbutus or manzanita they should last longer, assuming your chin likes them. I also recently bought 100 little wooden spoons for $4 (10 for $0.40), they don't last long but for the price it's not bad. Don't just stick with chunks of wood though, shredding is fun, lol. Definitely check out the vendors on the forum here, toys can be made affordability. I've been shopping at Chinchilla Park Place but they have a link to AZ Chins for people in the US. As Basket of Chinchillas said, those ka-bob hangers work well, the rope is good but they chew it and it needs to be replaced (but is pretty cheap) and can cause the whole toy to fall to the ground, I also use hay wire to string toys on, just have to make sure the ends are curled.

 

[AZChins]

The best thing to do for a really heavy chewer is to get wood and things that take a little longer to chew up. Most chins love seagrass and bamboo shredders and vine stuff, but those get expensive in a hurry when the chins are set on destruction!

Arbutus, manzanita, pecan and larger pieces of apple wood can last much longer. You can definitely make your own toys. Way back when I started caring for chinchillas most of us would just have a big chunk of pine or another wood for the chins to destroy. They will chew on just about anything when they only have one or two things to chew.

You could go to Home Depot or Lowes and get the kiln dried wood there and cut it into pieces for toys or leave it in a larger chunk. It sounds like you have a chin that loves to chew! You really shouldn't be spending THAT much on toys for one chin...unless you want to...it doesn't have to be that expensive. And, remember, just because a chin can't destroy something quickly it doesn't make that toy a bad toy or something that the chins don't like. Chinchillas tend to go for what they can demolish completely first, you can give your chinchilla wood and things that take longer to disassemble and he will like them.

 

[Bovril]

What really kills me is shipping. I don't want to pay more on shipping than I do on my actual toys. I ordered bulk toy parts from chinchillacity.com so I got a lot of stuff for very low prices, but what sold me was the flat rate $5.50
Shipping.

 

[PetoftheDay]

One thing you can o is check with any orchards in your area - Bovril, try Bolton Orchards for example, and ask if they have any prunings, or apple branches around, or when they would if they could set some aside for you! Lumber yards too might have scraps of chin-safe woods, although you'd have to give them a list. They would not know, most of them, off the top of their heads!

My dad used to cut and dry Popple branches for my bunny, which she adored!

 

[Chinmama]

We have one heavy chewer and one not so heavy chewer, so I totally feel your pain! ZZ has our "Carnival" toy in his cage right now, and it's been there well over a month with only a little gone off the bottom. I can put the same toy in Marble's cage and it'll be gone overnight.

You just have to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn't. In our case, Marble gets the woody toys that stand up to a lot of chewing and ZZ gets a nice mix.

A lot of the toys we sell are tested on ZZ and Marble first and then tweaked based on how they chew them. I know how it is to spend a fortune on toys to have them destroyed overnight, so we try to come up with combinations to meet all the chewing needs on one toy that will - hopefully - last.

 

[ticklechin]

Give me a heavy chewer any day, I will gladly pay the price of toys every time!