You will find lots of sites (
www.luvnchins.com/ mine) and varrying information on chinchillas ... when information conflicts ... just post a question on the board here ... we're all good at giving advice and can usually hash out any questions or answers that may not be clear for you.
Red Cedar bedding which I immediately changed to recycled paper
Your chinnie kisses your hand and thanks you for this!
2 year old daughter that, from what I could tell, would terrorize the poor guy; not to mention that they had a very demanding schedule and very rarely would give him the chance to play outside of his cage
In this particular case, confined inside the cage, was most likely much safer than the alternative. :-[
they also had been feeding him grapes as treats, which I switched to raisins.
Very good ... just keep it to one or two raisins a day ... more might cause dirrhea. Raisins are good training tools. Cut them in pieces so there is "more" of them.
...complete with a plastic, non-spoked wheel (which he doesn't seem to use), food bowl, water bottle, and plastic bath house which is devoted purely as a place for him to sleep in; for dust baths I use a popcorn bowl.
Plastic will be chewed and consumed by a chinchilla ... it does not soften in the digestive tract and can be lethal for a chin ... a very slow painful death. Please remove ALL plastic.
The best chin hut, is one made of untreated seasoned pine wood that can be easily made by you at a very reasonable price ... check out my chinchilla booklet on my site for instructions at:
http://luvnchins.com/LuvNChinsChinchillaBookletPrintable.html Never place a chin hut on an upper level unless you ancor it to the cage ... you would not want it to fall on top of your little one ... or take him/her for an unexpected very bumpy ride to the bottom of the cage.
All left-over wood can be cut into chew blocks for your chin to enjoy!
Your love, attention and care is what your chin needs most. Learn all you can to keep it safe and happy!
Right now I have him on Kaytee forti-diet.
Please check out your local Wal-Mart or PetsMart for
Mazuri Chinchilla Diet, or your local vet for
Oxbow Chinchilla Diet, or
Traditions Chinchilla Diet from many breeders.
"Deluxe", "forti-fied", "mix" listed on chinchilla food usually means it has addatives chins do not need or addatives that they will eat and leave/pick through the good chinchilla pellets and not eat what is best for them.
*You didn't ask about vitamins, but please do
not get the liquid ones to put into the water ... you never know how much your chin really gets and the light weakens the vitamins. You want to find the needed viatmins naturally in the food/treats and/or supplements you give your chin.
Be very careful of products listed as "good for chinchillas" or "made for chinchillas" that is also used with other small animals, especially mice or rats. Most manufactures do not do the necessary research, see the chinchilla listed as a rodent and
assume they can be given the same food and toys ... this is NOT true. Many "made for chinchillas" or the "chinchilla starter kit" is
anything but what your chin actually needs.
I guess I'll take the wheel out and replace it with some tubing or some more ledges.
Please use PVC pipe (the only safe plastic for chinchillas) and or wood to replace the hard plastic in the cage.
You are your chins best friend
or worst enemy. A good chin parent is the first and never the latter.
You are off to a good start ... you have the love and the good intentions, now you just have to learn the "dos and don'ts of chinchillas". You've come to the right place!
Two books all chinchilla people need are: The Joy of Chinchillas by Lani Richie and "After 40 Years ..." by Alice Kline.
These can be found on California Chins, a chinchilla research center (at:
http://www.cachins.org/ ) and the M.C.B.A (
http://www.mutationchinchillas.com/) websites. Check under "store" at both sites.
Jo Ann
