There are a few cages I would definitely endorse.
http://www.martinscages.com/products/cages/chinchilla/ (if you get one of these you really should replace all of the wire floors with wood)
http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=612I actually made my own cage. It took forever, but I was able to make a 36" x 36" x 18" cage and a 12" x 12" x 24" cage (for a smaller just in case cage) with metal trays from Bass Equipment for about $150 including the wire, trays, and wood. It's a lot less exhausting to buy a pre-fab one though.
I have two chins and they fit just fine in my cage. I also heard something about how a really big cage can be intimidating for the little guys at first.
For general care, this is what I do. (Keep in mind this is for two little chin boys)
-Two glass water bottles in the cage and two back up bottles. When one empties I fill a clean one and replace the empty bottle. I run the bottles under hot water on most days and then dishwasher two at a time every week. (So two will be washed this week and the others the next).
-I have two food dishes. I put three spoonfuls of Mazuri pellets in each dish every day. On Fridays I put a spoonful of grain supplement in addition to their food.
-I have two hay containers. I fill them up every 2-3 days. I clean up any hay they've scattered on those days as well. I use Oxbow Western Timothy. I read somewhere that if you use an alfalfa based pellet you should use a timothy based hay. And vice versa. I haven't really seen too many good timothy based pellets though.
-I have three wood hanging toys with bells on them. They like them.
-My dad built them a pretty epic wooden house. It's connected with dowel rods and consumable/non-toxic wood glue.
-I don't use wood shavings or anything like that. I've made two fleece/quilt beddings. They're basically fleece/3 layers of quilt/fleece. It's great. I switch out the blankets (pee pads) every two weeks and wash them in my washer machine. It works really well.
-I give them dust bathes twice a week. Usually Tuesday and Saturday.
-I give them an hour every night of play time. I use a white fence thing I bought at petsmart. It's about two feet high. Works really well I just connect it to my walls with plastic hooks and then let them out of their cage. (I also have wooden boards around the base boards on my walls so they can't chew on the base boards and ruin my apartment deposit). During their play time I switch out their food, water, hay, give them a bath, clean, ect.
-I clean the shelves and the surface of the pee pad with a little hand held dirt devil. The boys don't like that much, but it's not too loud and gets the job done quickly.
-I have several cardboard tubes for them to run through and chew on.
-At the end of the play session every now and then I give them new toys like wooden blocks to chew on and other little things to chew on. I also occasionally give them treats like rose hips, raisins, and apple sticks. I give them each one treat every few days. Depends on how cute they've been
I think that's the majority of the info about what I do.
Just don't sit on them and you should be fine lol. Hope this helps.
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Topic: Soon to be Chinchilla owner for the first time! (Read 8835 times)