Chinchillas.

[ChameleonRave]

Well, about a week and a half ago, my friend gave me one of their Chinchillas, they recieved a pair of 'females' a few years ago and they turned out to be a male and female pair. They've been looking for a new home for their Chinchilla for months now and with no one interested or suitable homes found, they turned to me. Me, being an animal lover agreed to take the female in, well am I regretting it, is what I keep asking myself? Every bit of me says yes! Gah, these things aren't anything that I expected them to be, I've had hamsters, guinea pigs and such in the past and I've held multiple Chinchillas and I've done so much research on these animals. They just aren't, what I thought they would be in the end. 1.) They take up a ton of space with their massive cage, and I'm used to huge cages, but they are vertical, not horizontal, their cages have both the horizontal and vertical factors to them. 2.) I have to vacuum multiple times a day, as if it doesn't make me seem like I have even more of an OCD cleaning issue that I all ready have. ha ha 3.) What the heck happened to them not getting bladder control, really? Please, I really enjoy you crapping on my bed while I have you out or crap flinging across my floors while you run on your wheel and you dismiss your bowels a little bit each time. All in all.. I don't like them anymore, they are sweet creatures, super soft and friendly, but if they didn't have the messiness factor and had some sort of bladder control, I'd like them a little bit more. O:

 

[maxttu]

So cute! Looks like you have quite the conundrum!

 

[ChameleonRave]

She certainly is, she sits on her platform closest to my bed and stares at me with her black beady eyes with her mouth wrapped around the cage wire. :3

 

[Kmw]

But wook at that itty bitty wittle face, soo adorable!

 

[pssh]

Have you tried fleece liners? I use them with my guinea pigs (they are suitable for chins too.) It makes cleaning much, much easier and quicker! The fleece allows for the pee to go through to the inner absorbent pad (if you're making them yourself, Uhaul pads work really, really, really well.) Then you buy a cheap ($10-$20) dirt devil or whatever and vacuum up the little poops once a day. Just pop out the fleece once a week or so and throw it in the wash. You can also make a little cage cover for the bottom 6+" so any poop that is flung will just hit the cover and fall back into the cage.

 

[ChameleonRave]

Have you tried fleece liners? I use them with my guinea pigs (they are suitable for chins too.) It makes cleaning much, much easier and quicker! The fleece allows for the pee to go through to the inner absorbent pad (if you're making them yourself, Uhaul pads work really, really, really well.) Then you buy a cheap ($10-$20) dirt devil or whatever and vacuum up the little poops once a day. Just pop out the fleece once a week or so and throw it in the wash. You can also make a little cage cover for the bottom 6+" so any poop that is flung will just hit the cover and fall back into the cage.

That's such a good idea! Would you mind posting pictures of your fleece liners? I would definitely try it out! I want to get her into a nice cage since hers is so old. I would really love the liners since the bottom is metal and it's rusted on the bottom. Also, what about like puppy pads?

 

[maddashash]

That's such a good idea! Would you mind posting pictures of your fleece liners? I would definitely try it out! I want to get her into a nice cage since hers is so old. I would really love the liners since the bottom is metal and it's rusted on the bottom. Also, what about like puppy pads?

Here is mine that i made in my rat cage. I have my rats litter trained so it makes it even easier to clean the cage. I have found that etsy.com has alot of people that make the liners and they run about $15. Its much much cheaper to make them.

 

[ChameleonRave]

Here is mine that i made in my rat cage. I have my rats litter trained so it makes it even easier to clean the cage. I have found that etsy.com has alot of people that make the liners and they run about $15. Its much much cheaper to make them.

I like them a lot! Are they made just like those fleece tie blankets? I am sure I can get my friend to help me make one. What do you put inside it? Any badding or just the fabric itself?

 

[maddashash]

I sandwiched 2 layers of bath towel between fleece on both the front and back. People do it alot of different ways, even putting something waterproof on the back

 

[ChameleonRave]

Maybe it was some sort of rubber? I'll look into it!

 

[maddashash]

Make sure whatever you use will be able to go through the washer and dryer

 

[pssh]

You dont really need a water proof layer on the bottom as you should be washing it fairly often. I used the Uhaul pads I meantioned as the absorbent layer but old towels will work too. My guinea pig cage is just so big that towels weren't big enough so towels just slipped my mind! There are a lot of people who make cage liners online, but if the cage base is really big, it could cost a lot! My guinea pig cage is like 56"x27" and liners that size are $60+! Here's a picture of one I made in the wrong size so my dogs use it instead to lay on it/under it (they like blankies.) It's too big to take a picture of the whole thing with my phone, so it's folded up.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/...-95E2-C274E44170DE-18937-00002A774F226265.jpg

 

[ChameleonRave]

My friend is going to be helping me make one for my Cinchilla. We are going to make it so that it's a sleeve that velcro's to the bottom and we are going to put puppy pads in it. It's going to be so much nicer than the bedding in it right now, or until I get a new setup for her. Thanks for the great ideas guys! I just need to find a way to build a barrier so she doesn't fling any food or feces out of her cage.

 

[pssh]

I don't know how much chins pee, but with my pigs, I could never get away with just puppy pads. Test it out and see how it works, you may have to cut some towels to size to fit in side the sleeve if the pads don't work well enough.

You could make the barrier out of fleece and use the velcro so it's easy to take off, or you could zip tie some acrylic or something around the outside of the bars at the bottom.

 

[Jac1582]

Here is mine that i made in my rat cage. I have my rats litter trained so it makes it even easier to clean the cage. I have found that etsy.com has alot of people that make the liners and they run about $15. Its much much cheaper to make them.

What kind of litter is that?

 

[ChameleonRave]

I don't know how much chins pee, but with my pigs, I could never get away with just puppy pads. Test it out and see how it works, you may have to cut some towels to size to fit in side the sleeve if the pads don't work well enough.

You could make the barrier out of fleece and use the velcro so it's easy to take off, or you could zip tie some acrylic or something around the outside of the bars at the bottom.

Yeah, I was thinking about that a while ago, she urinates a lot, like they let go a dam! That's the plan with the velcro, to make the fleece cover over the puppy pads/towels. I'll test out the towels and the puppy pads both and see what works best for the sleeve.

 

[Zajlol]

For mine I use dog training pads on the bottom of the cage and as for the flying poop, it's just gonna happen lol I use pee blockers on the sides to help somewhat.

 

[maddashash]

What kind of litter is that?

sorry for the late response the litter that i use for the rats is called critter litter by super pet. I use the one made for ferret and rabbits im sure if it works for the rats the chin shouldn't be too different in that respect.

 

[Jac1582]

Awesome thank you! Gona have to try that for my ferret