Which Cage Would You Recommend?

[Skiklutz]

Hi everyone,

Our baby chinchilla Tay Tay is now 8 months old and when we got her she was 3 months old and small. Because of blessed lockdown, we bought a cage that was for a guinea pig but fairly tall. Now that she’s grown quite a lot, we’re going to get her a new cage better suited for a chinchilla.

We’re looking at both the Critter Nation and Ferret Nation Double Cages.

From what I’ve gathered by looking at the two, the Ferret Nation Cage’s bars are vertical and spaced 1” apart and the Critter Nation Cage‘s bars are horizontal and spaced ½” apart. Being that our chinny loves to climb in her current cage, I’m leaning towards the Critter Nation. Only things is, it that the difference in price between the two is fairly hefty. Amazon sells the Critter Nation for $482.14 and Pet Valu here in Ontario, Canada sells the Ferret Nation for $349.00. Gotta inform hubby on why one is better than the other as it’s a fairly large ticket item.

We love our baby and know that she’ll be with us for many years to come, so I want to make the right decision to have the best and most suitable cage for her.

Could some of you share which cage you’d recommend and why?

Just thought I’d attach a photo of our baby enjoying her Christmas wooden gingerbread treat. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and that we have a Better New Year than this one!!!

 

[Amethyst]

I prefer the Ferret Nation over the Critter Nation, and I have a Ferret Nation. The bars on the FN are a bit thicker, and the weld points are closer together horizontally making them stronger. The CN you have to make sure when putting items like ledges, perches, and wheels in that you have them supported over several bars or the bars can break. Also with the 1" bar spacing it allows you to be able to give scratches/pets as well as give sticks and treats through the bars without having to open the cage.

The only real advantages I see with the CN is with the smaller bar spacing it's good for kits under about 4-6 months since they are still small enough to escape though 1". Also the narrower bars are also good if you have small kids or other animals in the house like cats, the smaller spacing makes it harder to getting a paw, claw, or finger in to poke the chin.

I've found most chins grow out of the climbing the cage by about a year, it tends to be more a kit thing, and they can still climb a FN if they really wanted to. A proper set up of the cage should have lots of ledges, perches, and shelves anyway which should satisfy the desire to get up higher in a much safer way.

 

[Skiklutz]

Thank you for your response and your insights. She’s our first chinny and so this is all new to us.

I will be adding a few ledges to her new cage. She currently has 2 and her hammock, which she loves .

She has also grown much, much stronger and when she wants our attention, uses her back legs to kick the bars of her current cage, so the strength of the Ferret Nation cage sounds like it would stand up better to this.

 

[Skiklutz]

Are there anymore members who can chime in on which cage you’ve got and why you prefer it?

 

[schmittre]

I also have ferret nation and got it for similar reasons as amethyst said. I had a different cage for when my boys were smaller and the bars were thinner and had some break that were holding ledges in the most used spots. I’ve had my ferret nation now for a year and a half with two chins and added a third in a bit over six months ago and have had no issues with the strengths of bars/breaking. I have ledges all over with multiple on one piece/side of the cage and they have had no issues. I also like to be able to stick my fingers in and give them little pets with the 1” spacing when I walk by.

 

[borwin98]

Hi everyone,

Our baby chinchilla Tay Tay is now 8 months old and when we got her she was 3 months old and small. Because of blessed lockdown, we bought a cage that was for a guinea pig but fairly tall. Now that she’s grown quite a lot, we’re going to get her a new cage better suited for a chinchilla.

We’re looking at both the Critter Nation and Ferret Nation Double Cages.

From what I’ve gathered by looking at the two, the Ferret Nation Cage’s bars are vertical and spaced 1” apart and the Critter Nation Cage‘s bars are horizontal and spaced ½” apart. Being that our chinny loves to climb in her current cage, I’m leaning towards the Critter Nation. Only things is, it that the difference in price between the two is fairly hefty. Amazon sells the Critter Nation for $482.14 and Pet Valu here in Ontario, Canada sells the Ferret Nation for $349.00. Gotta inform hubby on why one is better than the other as it’s a fairly large ticket item.

We love our baby and know that she’ll be with us for many years to come, so I want to make the right decision to have the best and most suitable cage for her.

Could some of you share which cage you’d recommend and why?

Just thought I’d attach a photo of our baby enjoying her Christmas wooden gingerbread treat. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and that we have a Better New Year than this one!!!

I would suggest a Ferret Nation cage, sturdy, easy to clean, however I would look into purchasing metal trays with the 3" sides. Chinchillas will chew the plastic ones that come with this cage. Not suitable for very young chinchillas as they can get through the 1" bars but I think it's Ferret Nation that has a third story that fits with 1/2" bars which will give even more room for when smaller chins grow up. The third story can be separated from the rest of the cage while it's needed. The Ferret Nation has sturdy bars which are better for the heavy Spin Chin Wheel. As my family of chinchins has grown I've added another Ferret Nation cage, one for the boys and one for the girls.

 

[Skiklutz]

I also have ferret nation and got it for similar reasons as amethyst said. I had a different cage for when my boys were smaller and the bars were thinner and had some break that were holding ledges in the most used spots. I’ve had my ferret nation now for a year and a half with two chins and added a third in a bit over six months ago and have had no issues with the strengths of bars/breaking. I have ledges all over with multiple on one piece/side of the cage and they have had no issues. I also like to be able to stick my fingers in and give them little pets with the 1” spacing when I walk by.

Thank you so much for your response. Being that she’s going to be a year old at the end of February, it stands to reason that she’s going to grow bigger and stronger. Sounds like the Ferret Nation will be a more durable choice in the long run. Tay Tay loves chin scratches and I never thought that the smaller space between the wires on the Critter Nation would impede that.

 

[Skiklutz]

I would suggest a Ferret Nation cage, sturdy, easy to clean, however I would look into purchasing metal trays with the 3" sides. Chinchillas will chew the plastic ones that come with this cage. Not suitable for very young chinchillas as they can get through the 1" bars but I think it's Ferret Nation that has a third story that fits with 1/2" bars which will give even more room for when smaller chins grow up. The third story can be separated from the rest of the cage while it's needed. The Ferret Nation has sturdy bars which are better for the heavy Spin Chin Wheel. As my family of chinchins has grown I've added another Ferret Nation cage, one for the boys and one for the girls.

Thanks for your honest response and especially over the Chin Spin wheel. We just had ours delivered a couple of weeks ago and we cannot put it in her current cage because the walls of the bottom of her cage taper inward and the wheel won’t move.

I’ll be ordering the Ferret Nation cage tomorrow.

 

[Amethyst]

Since you are in Canada if you want metal pans, like suggested above, to replace the plastic, I suggest going with either Flower Town Chinchillas - Cage Accessories or Sunny Meadows Cages & Supplies I haven't gotten around to saving up for metal pans yet (shipping sucks, lol) so I cover my plastic pans in fleece so they can't chew them, and have a glass dish with shavings for peeing in.

 

[Skiklutz]

Thanks Amethys,

I really appreciate the links for both places. I’m thrilled that Flower Town Chinchillas is about 40-45 minutes away from where I live and Sunny Meadows is 30 minutes north of my home In Barrie, Ontario. We’ve got a fair bit of family in Barrie, so when I’ve saved up enough money for the pans or cage guards, I can visit family (after insane lockdown crap is over) and pick up my order from them.

For now I too am going to sew fleece covers for the pans and shelves for her cage. I hope that the fleece will deter her from chewing through down to the plastic. I’ve also bought a litter pan with critter litter and hope that she’ll use it instead of peeing on the fleece. Fingers crossed that she will take to it. I’ve read some posts here, that show some chins don’t all take easily to litter pans, hopefully mine will not be one of those.

She‘s an adolescent now and so in the past month when she doesn’t want to be picked up she does a hilarious standing wee-pee. Didn’t know that girl chinchillas were capable of this, and now I do.

 

[Skiklutz]

Thanks everybody for helping me on my decision on a cage for our girl . I’m going to be ordering it later today and because of Ontario being in full lockdown , I’ll need to see if Pet Valu will deliver it to our home instead of curb-side pick up. They only have them in their warehouse, so none of the actual stores have stock on-site.

I’m also going to approach Amazon to see if they’ll price match the cage as it’s the exact same model that they sell. Wish me luck because I’d rather have this heavy item delivered to our front door.

 

[Amethyst]

Thanks Amethys,

I really appreciate the links for both places. I’m thrilled that Flower Town Chinchillas is about 40-45 minutes away from where I live and Sunny Meadows is 30 minutes north of my home In Barrie, Ontario. We’ve got a fair bit of family in Barrie, so when I’ve saved up enough money for the pans or cage guards, I can visit family (after insane lockdown crap is over) and pick up my order from them.

For now I too am going to sew fleece covers for the pans and shelves for her cage. I hope that the fleece will deter her from chewing through down to the plastic. I’ve also bought a litter pan with critter litter and hope that she’ll use it instead of peeing on the fleece. Fingers crossed that she will take to it. I’ve read some posts here, that show some chins don’t all take easily to litter pans, hopefully mine will not be one of those.

She‘s an adolescent now and so in the past month when she doesn’t want to be picked up she does a hilarious standing wee-pee. Didn’t know that girl chinchillas were capable of this, and now I do.

Make sure the litter pan you got is glass or metal, the plastic ones in stores are not safe because they will chew them. I use a 11"x8" glass baking pan (I use to have a metal one but after a few years it rusted). Also if critter litter is that clay ball litter stuff it's not safe, if your chins decides to eat any of it it can get stuck in their gut. The only safe litter/bedding to use is either kiln dried pine or aspen shavings, if they chew and eat it it's digestible. Not all chins seem to catch on to litter training, but there are a few tricks that can help. Most chins seem to pick a spot to pee (most pick a corner my guys pee mostly off the shelf so it's in the middle of the cage), and it ends up being as simple as putting the litter pan there, otherwise you can try soaking up pee with shavings and putting them in the pan, and cleaning up the "accidents" so she only smells pee in one spot. It's best at first not to fully clean the litter pan too so it still has pee smell (dump the shavings but don't wipe the pan) until she catches on. You can also add a smooth rock big enough for the chin to sit on to the pan, for some reason chins like to sit on rocks to pee so it can encourage her to go there. Here is my guys litter pan ( I need to grab a bigger rock but this seems to work anyway)

My guys use the pan about 75% of the time, enough that I can go a week between washing the fleece, so not perfect but I figure good enough. If she doesn't pee in the pan you will likely need to wash the fleece at least a couple times a week. I made my fleece liners 3 layers thick, that way the pee has something to absorb into and also if they do chew it it's just more fleece inside. Fleece is only safe if they don't chew it though, if she chews it you will need to remove it. It's considered "safe" because most chins don't chew it, and if they do it doesn't unravel into strings like other fabric and a small amount swallowed should pass without issue, but if enough is swallowed it can still cause a blockage.

 

[Skiklutz]

Excellent tips, many thanks !!!

i just ordered her cage an hour ago and am so glad that I called customer service at Pet Valu because they didn’t have any left of the double cage, in their warehouse currently.

A wonderful lady named Natasha helped me find one at a store in Oshawa that’s near my in-laws home there and my husband will be picking it up through curb side pick up after work on Thursday. Yay!!!

The owner of that location told me that he had ordered 4 double cages a couple of weeks ago and that he’s already sold 3 of them, in that short span of time. I’m very glad that we bought from a Canadian retailer because all our small retailers are hurting from all these lockdowns . We’d like to see them survive and not be swallowed up by the big box ones.

 

[ChinsForLife]

From what I’ve gathered by looking at the two, the Ferret Nation Cage’s bars are vertical and spaced 1” apart and the Critter Nation Cage‘s bars are horizontal and spaced ½” apart. Being that our chinny loves to climb in her current cage, I’m leaning towards the Critter Nation. Only things is, it that the difference in price between the two is fairly hefty. Amazon sells the Critter Nation for $482.14 and Pet Valu here in Ontario, Canada sells the Ferret Nation for $349.00. Gotta inform hubby on why one is better than the other as it’s a fairly large ticket item.

Wow! That is expensive! I'm in America and it's only $260! May be more in other countries though.

 

[Skiklutz]

Wow! That is expensive! I'm in America and it's only $260! May be more in other countries though.

I wish that it was $260.00 here in Canada . The best price here is at Pet Valu for $349.99 plus (13%) tax, which brought the price up to $395.48.

Considering that our baby chinchee will hopefully live to 20 years old, it’s an investment in her best interest.

What has been frustrating was that I couldn’t get fleece to line the trays with because we were in strict province-wide lockdown (similar to your entire state being shutdown) and just had our stores other than the essential ones, finally open up again. All our stores that sold fabric and fleece were closed with very few that offered curbside pickup. I couldn’t get fleece since Boxing Day unless I was prepared to pay exorbitant prices for delivery online. Our Walmart stores here in Canada no longer have the fabric sections that they do in the States.

I just managed to purchase enough fleece from Fabricland to sew liners for the plastic trays for the new cage. I’m looking forward to getting this completed this week to ultimately move our sweet girl into her new abode.

I will post photos once I’ve set everything all up.