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[ahappycamper]

I think with glazed ceramics, glass it is easy to disinfect and clean weekly with either bleach or vinegar. Disinfecting metal requires vinegar, wood requires sandpaper, because wood is porous. What about terracotta? I have some terracotta pots I want to give my chinchilla and I wanted to know an effective way to disinfect? Will vinegar also be okay for this?

Also, I know it helps chinchillas teeth when they chew on pumice, wood and paper based materials(cardboard, paper towel rolls) but what about ceramics, glass, metal, terracotta? Do they chew these too, and do they also help with their teething? The reason I ask is that I want to make sure my chinchilla has enough chew toys in his cage, and there are many metal, ceramic, terracotta items in there so I want to know if these count into Po's(my chinchilla!) collection of chew toys. After all, I only want the best for him.

Lastly, is it possible for Po to eat TOO much wood? I give him a paper towel roll but I see that he eats a lot of it, and he also ate a lot of his wooden pine house. I know eating too much PLASTIC will hurt but why is this not the case for wood and cardboard?

[jeanat]

Hi,

You need to know terri cota is porus it also will powder. A good chew toy is dried apple wood with the bark on they love it.  I would not give papertowel rolls to my chin as they use glue and insectisides on them.  You can get pet safe card board at the pet shop fairly cheep.  Its ok for them to chew their houses if the house is made from klin dried pine.  When the chins chew they don't normally eat the stuff, it gets spit out as they chew.  Don't give Po plastic, if they get some in their intestines the sharp edges can cut them.  When they eat hay, it helps grind down the back teeth to keep them healthy so make sure there is lots of hay available. I don't think metal chewing is good for them as you can get the sharp edge cutting them problem.  Don't use Bleach, it is toxic.

[ahappycamper]

hi, thank you.

So would you recommend that I clean the terracotta pot I'm giving him just like I clean the wood, by using sand paper? Vinegar will sink in right, and then Po will not want to bite the terracotta because the vinegar will make it sour?

[Debbie.nl.ca]

I had to give up on the terracotta, some of my chins were chewing them to dust and I was afraid they'd ingest it, or breath in the dust.

[ahappycamper]

Debbie, yeah I agree with that. Po will chew on terracotta as well, and I always wondered myself if it would be harmful or not? BEtter to be safe than sorry, I think I'm going to take it out for now and not get the pot after all, unless of course someone else can chime in and let me know if it is indeed okay for chinchillas to chew on?