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[Esleyoga]

I've had my chinchilla since February this year and this will be our first winter together   I've noticed that since the weather turned cooler (she's inside - I would have no idea if/how she would notice the weather - it's just a corollation that I've made) she's been "burying" her food.  She dumps her pellets into her hay on the bottom floor of her cage and buries them.  Do chins hibernate or store food for winter?  She's about 8 months old now.  Could it be an age thing rather than a seasonal thing?  She eats first and then when she's done eating she just pours the rest.

[KCchins]

Chins don't store food for the winter but many dump their pellets and play with them.

[Abby W.]

Some of my chins will frequently tip their bowls over and play with the pellets.  I have a few that tip over the bowls to signal they are out of pellets, and only do it when the bowl is empty.  I also noticed one that started tipping it over and peeing on his pellets when I switched to a new food a while back...guess he wanted me to know his opinion on the matter 

[Jo Ann]

  Chinchillas do not hibernate. 

Does she have a cage mate?

How often do you empty the cage out completely and clean it good?

I have a few chins that like to have food/poop fights ... most of it lands in the floor.   

Does she urinate in the same area she is burying the food?

   Jo Ann

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Screw a tuna fish can to the cage so she can't.
You can buy feed dishes that attach, but a can works just as well.
I laugh at the ones who play with the dishes.
Got one guy that has a steel feed dish for his hay and he bangs it off everything in his cage.
Gets that loud sometimes I take it on him. But the he pouts so I end up giving it back to him.

[BrightEyed]

I have a male who moves things in his cage around a lot. I clean the cages every saturday and I have learned to wait until he gets his stuff the way he wants it before I put in fresh hay. He will dig out his hide out and one corner of the cage and the hay gets burried under the shavings. He was also the only chin I had to get a special feeding dish that screws into a holder bolted to the side of the cage. I had dishes that say in a ring that was bolted to the cage but you could lift out the dish and he would pull the dish out and throw his food everywhere.. then look at me to make sure I saw he had done it.