Chinchilla Dust
Posted by Jennifer Snyder on Tue, Jul 01, 2008 @ 11:07 PM
Dusting is a must to keep your chinchilla healthy, happy and clean. Chinchillas are by their nature very clean animals. Their dense fur keeps them from getting parasites such as fleas and they have no natural odor or musk like ferrets or many other members of the rodent family.
Chinchillas come from a part of the world where free-standing water is in short supply. They do not "bathe" in water but in finely ground sand, or volcanic ash found in the Andes Mountains. The dust helps remove excess natural oils and moisture from their fur and gives them a healthy full look. It essentially acts as a dry shampoo. Without dust your chinchillas fur will start to look chunky and matted, much like your hair would look after a week or so without cleaning.
Not only is the chinchilla dust esential to keep your chinchilla looking great, it is also good for their overall mental health. Chinchillas enjoy having regular dust baths. It is a fun behavior for them to engage in and makes them very happy. If you have multiple chinchillas, they will bathe together and love it! As soon as you put the dust bowl out they normally will run over to it and hop right in and begin to do barrel rolls to get the dust all over their bodies. It's pretty entertaining to watch. We have a chinchilla video of this on the home page you can check out. I have not seen this myself but someone I spoke to in the past told me that their friends chinchilla died because she was inexperienced and did not buy dust for it. I don't know if this is true, but I would also not be willing to risk it. My chinchillas get pretty irritable after about half a week of not bathing. A bath at least once a week should be enough to keep your chinchilla looking and feeling great, but don't hesitate to let them really go at it. If you can give them dust baths daily, go for it! The only thing to watch for is dry skin. If your chinchilla seems to be scratching a lot, you may want to cut back a bit.
You should let your chinchilla "bathe" for at least five to ten minutes. We do not allow the dust to remain in the cages, because it becomes soilded pretty quickly. If you are good at keeping the dust from becoming soiled, you can also use it for multiple dusting sesions. Chinchilla dust can be found at most major pet store chains.