Chinchilla Care Packet
Thank you for purchasing/adopting a chinchilla from NWI Chinchillas. I hope you will enjoy your chinchilla for years to come. If you ever have any questions regarding your new pet, please feel free to call me at (219) 789-0026 or e-mail me at .
All of the information in this packet is also on our website: http://www.nwichinchillas.com
If there ever comes a time where you decide you do not want your chinchilla or cannot care for it any longer, give us a call and we will gladly take it back. Chinchillas adopted/sold by NWIC will always have a home with us.
Housing/Cage Setup
Temperature – Chinchillas prefer temperatures at or below 70 degrees, and require air-conditioning in the summer. If they are kept in a room above 75 degrees, they can get heatstroke and die. Though air conditioning is required, please keep your chinchilla away from the direct flow of the air conditioner and away from drafts.
Bedding – Kiln dried pine or aspen bedding should be used in your chinchilla’s cage. Carefresh-type bedding can also be used, but only if your chinchilla does not eat this type of bedding. Never use cedar bedding, as this type of bedding is toxic and can eventually kill your chinchilla. Some, but not all, chinchillas can be litter trained to pee (but not poo) in a small litter box.
Water Bottle – Chinchillas chew everything. That being said, some chinchillas are fine with plastic water bottles and do not chew them. If you have a plastic water bottle and your chinchilla chews through it, the next best thing is a glass water bottle. We sell Ryerson glass water bottles ($6) which your chinchilla will not be able to chew through. Also, you can find glass water bottles at pet stores – You can find the Lixit or All Living Things glass water bottle in the Bird section of pet stores, and SuperPet glass water bottles in the small animal section. A note of caution on the SuperPet glass water bottles – they are known to sometimes have problems with water flow.
Food Bowl – Again, chinchillas chew everything, so please avoid using plastic food bowls. The best type of bowl for your chinchilla is a heavy ceramic bowl, one that cannot be easily knocked over. Another alternative may be a metal bowl – specifically, a coop cup. Coop cups attach to the side of your cage so that they remain in place and cannot be moved around by your chinchilla.
Cage – Chinchillas need room to run, hop, and jump; they are not meant to be kept in an aquarium. The general rule of thumb is 2-4 square feet of cage space per chinchilla. The best cages are wire with no plastic, or a wire cage with a plastic base. Regarding the size of the cage, height is better than width. Chinchillas like to hop and jump, and the higher the cage is, the more they are able to do that and enjoy the space that you have provided for them.
Shelving is an important part of the cage. If you have/buy a cage with plastic shelves, we highly recommend that you replace them with wooden shelves. Shelves can be made out of pine or poplar lumber. Alternatively, we sell custom-sized pine shelves to fit the dimensions of your cage - see our "Supplies for Sale" page for details. Wire shelves are acceptable as well – though please be sure that the wire spacing is no larger than ½” x ½”, so that your chinchilla’s feet cannot fall through. Also, with wire shelving, please be sure to provide your chinchilla with places to rest their feet, so that they are not sitting on wire all day. Some good places to rest include a ceramic tile, a hidey house, or even a piece of chin-safe wood placed on the wire shelf.
If you are looking for a cage, we sell new and used cages, and can recommend several places for you to get a good-quality chinchilla cage from. While a bit pricy, a good place for cages is http://www.qualitycage.com. Another place we recommend for cages, a bit more reasonably priced, is Martin’s Cages - http://martinscages.com. Please note that if you do order from Martin’s, these cages do not come assembled – these cages require the use of c-ring pliers to clip the cage together. While the cages do come with everything you need to put them together, clipping together the cage is very time-consuming, especially for large cages. By request, we can clip together your cage from Martin’s, for a minimum of a $15 donation to the rescue.
If we had to pick one cage to keep adult chinchillas in – our pick would be the Ferret Nation 142 or 182. These cages can often be found used on craiglist, or can be bought new from http://www.ferret.com. If you do purchase one of these cages, a wise investment is replacing the plastic pans with metal pans, which are available for purchase at Bass Equipment - http://bassequipment.com/Cages/Ferret+Pans/default.aspx. The plastic shelves should also be replaced with wooden shelves for your chinchilla’s chewing pleasure.
Please note that chinchillas cannot be caged outdoors, during any portion of the year, due to their specific temperature requirements. In addition, chinchillas should not be kept in direct sunlight.
Hidey-House – Chinchillas, being prey animals, like to have something to hide in so they can feel secure and so that they do not get overly stressed. Please do not buy plastic igloos as hidey houses -- chinchillas will chew on these and can die from ingesting the plastic. We sell wooden hidey houses ($10-20), as do pet stores. Please do not buy the “Tiki huts” that pet stores sell – these are made with honey, and are too high in sugar content for chinchillas.
Feed
Your chinchilla is currently being fed Mazuri Chin Chow. We sell this food at $1.25 per pound, or a 25 pound bag for $30. Feel free to contact us if you would like to buy some; you are welcome to buy supplies from us at any time.
Pellets – Mazuri Chin Chow is one of the highly recommended foods for chinchillas and will keep your chinchilla healthy for years to come. Other goodpellets for chinchillas are Tradition and Oxbow, although Tradition is harder to find in the Midwest as it cannot be found in pet stores. Please do not feed your chinchilla any of the Kaytee-brand food. This is basically “chinchilla junk food” and will shorten the life of your chinchilla. This food can also cause diabetes, due to the sugar content in some of the “added extras.” If you are local and plan to continue using Mazuri, you may want to consider purchasing food from us: Mazuri costs around $10 for 2.5 pounds at Petsmart, versus
$2.50 for 2 pounds from us. Pellets should be free-fed; that is, you should not restrict the amount your chinchilla eats. Put in more food than your chinchilla will eat so that the chinchilla can choose how much they want to eat. Chinchillas will not overeat.
Hay – Chinchillas do not and cannot survive on only pellets. They also need hay to survive, and hay should make up at least half of a chinchilla’s diet. I recommend getting Oxbow’s Western Timothy Hay. If this brand of hay is not available to you, you can use the use Kaytee brand Timothy Hay. Both brands of hay are comparable in quality, but the Oxbow hay is known for being fresher. Hay should also be free-fed, as chinchillas will pick and eat the stalks they like the best. Please note that hay is necessary to help keep a chinchilla’s back teeth worn down. Alfalfa hay may be given to your chinchilla as an occasional treat, but due to the fact that Mazuri is alfalfa-based, a different hay should also be given to balance out the chinchilla’s diet. When it comes to hay, variety benefits your chinchilla. Different hays are chewed differently, so the more different types of hay that your chinchilla eats, the less likely they are to ever have teeth problems. Various other hays that can be given to your chinchilla include the following: oat hay, brome hay, botanical hay, orchard grass, and meadow hay. If you are interested in feeding mixed grass hay, we sell the hay that we feed our herd ($1.00/lb). It is grown locally, and is a mix of timothy hay, alfalfa, orchard grass, and rye.
Water – The water in your chinchilla’s cage should be fresh and should be changed often to prevent bacteria build-up. The water bottle should be scrubbed clean at least once a week.
Treats – Chinchillas under 6 months of age cannot have any treats. Many people want to buy their chinchilla every treat and chew toy available. Word to the wise: only buy chew toys at the pet store. The treats that pet stores sell (even the ones marketed for chinchillas) are generally not very good for chinchillas. In addition, please do not give your chinchilla fruits and vegetables--these are very high in natural sugars and can cause diabetes and premature death.
You may have read somewhere that chinchillas like raisins. They do. However, if they have more than one once in a blue moon, they can develop liver problems, kidney problems, or diabetes, due to the natural sugars in raisins. This can ultimately lead to an early death.
Our treat of preference is cheerios, which can be given a few times a day. The cheerios given to the chinchilla must be plain cheerios -- no yogurt cheerios, flavored cheerios, or anything like that – just plain cheerios. Other healthy treats (after the age of 6 months) include rosehips, dried rosebuds, rolled oats (not the quick-cook kind, look for “old fashioned oats”), oat tops (also known as oat groats), plain shredded wheat (the cereal), apple pellets, apple/wood sticks, or hanging chew toys. Several of these can be found at your local grocery store. While we sell hanging chew toys ($3-7), goodie bags ($2), and rosehips, we do not carry large quantities of some other popular items, like rosebuds. These treats, and much much more, can be purchased at this website: http://www.tjschinchillasupplies.com/. All sales benefit a variety of chinchilla rescues (ours being one of them). The owner is very friendly, prices are unbeatable, and orders are shipped out very quickly!
Please see our additional care pages for safe chew toys that can be bought at local pet stores.
Care
Dust Baths – Your chinchilla needs weekly dust baths. Just like human hair that hasn’t been washed, chinchilla fur that hasn’t been dusted will get matted and greasy. Dust baths are typically given twice a week, though dust baths can be given more often if it is especially humid. Please do not over-dust your chinchilla, as too much dust can dry out your chinchilla’s skin. We sell chinchilla dust – specifically Blue Sparkle – at $1.25/lb. Chinchilla dust is also sold at pet stores, typically in a 2-3 pound container for around $10. Please do not buy chinchilla bath sand – this is considerably coarser than bath dust, and is too coarse for your chinchilla’s fur.
Chinchillas should never be bathed in water. Because chinchillas have such dense fur, getting a chinchilla wet will trap the water close to the chinchilla’s skin and can lead to fungus growth if the chinchilla is not dried properly.
Chewing – Did I mention that chinchillas chew everything? If a chinchilla is given the run of the house, the chinchilla will find and chew electrical cords. They can get electrocuted and die from this. Because of their curiosity and desire to chew everything, chinchillas should only be let out for “playtime” while they are being thoroughly supervised. Chinchillas can jump about 5 feet from a standstill, so supervision is key as they can disappear in a matter of seconds.
Chinchillas need chew toys to grind down their teeth. If their teeth are not ground down, they may grow too long and the chinchilla can suffer from malocclusion. Malocclusion is usually fatal because it is often noticed when the condition is very advanced. Malocclusion it is caused when a chinchilla’s back teeth grow too long and grow upwards into the chinchilla’s brain. Because of this, it is an absolute necessity that chinchillas have chew toys in their cage. Wooden shelves help provide something to chew, but do not take the place of hanging chew toys.
While this seems to be a little known fact, chinchillas have back teeth, which are their molars (see picture below). Both a chinchilla’s front and bath teeth grow constantly. Chewing on wooden toys and shelves is what helps wear down the front teeth. Eating hay and chewing on toys helps wear down the back molars.
Exercise – Chinchillas, being the hyper animals that they are, require exercise. A good place for a chinchilla to get some exercise is to give them playtime in a closed bathroom or another small room where you can easily catch your chinchilla. Keep in mind that the chinchilla should be supervised during the entire playtime. When letting a chinchilla play in a bathroom, please be sure to put the toilet seat down, as getting chinchillas wet can cause potential health problems (if they were to jump in the toilet). Further, a chinchilla could easily drown in an open toilet.
One way to help keep your chinchilla entertained and exercised is to purchase a wheel for your chinchilla to run on. Please note: the wheels found at pet stores, regardless of the type, are too small for your chinchilla. The largest wheel that pet stores carry is a 12” wheel – chinchillas need at least a 14” wheel so that they do not have to bend their spine while running on it. Running on a too-small wheel could cause a permanent curvature in your chinchilla’s spine. The wheels that we use and recommend are the 15” Chin Spins, which can be found on Quality Cage’s website - http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1802. An alternative wheel is the 14” Silver Surfer - http://www.chinchillas.com/estore/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=63. Finally, there is the Flying Saucer - http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1803. Please note that while most chinchillas can figure out how to run on Chin Spins and Silver Surfers, not every chinchilla will be able to master running on a flying saucer.