It's not just a quirky way your chinchilla chooses to pass the time; it's actually an important behavior that promotes good health and prevents serious harmful conditions. That's right, we're talking about chewing! First, a little background. . .
As you probably know, the chinchilla is a unique member of the rodent family. What you may not know, however, is that it is 1 of only 5 species of the 1700 species of rodents that not only possess a strong set of continuously growing incisor teeth but ALSO with continuously growing molars and premolars. This means that chinchillas must regularly chew and gnaw to file down these teeth throughout their lifetimes to avoid hazardous health problems like malocclusions - a condition in which the teeth are not properly worn down causing overgrowth, or in some cases teeth actually grow together, preventing the animal from eating regularly and resulting in painful dental disease, starvation, and ultimately, death. Signs of a malocclusion include weight loss, anorexia, drooling (or the so-called "slobbers", indicated by wet chin fur), coarse matter in the stool, incisor overgrowth (long front teeth), facial abscesses, exophthalmos (bulging eye), or ocular (eye) discharge. **If you notice any of these signs in your chinchilla, please contact an exotic pet veterinary specialist immediately**.
In the wild, chinchillas prevent malocclusions by eating coarse, fibrous grasses, tree bark, and herbs that aid in grinding down the teeth. In your home, your chinchilla relies on you to supply materials for this purpose. While a healthy, low-fat, coarse pellet diet, like Mazuri, will help your pet maintain proper dentition, additional items, such as leafy timothy hay, hay cubes, pumice stones, and twigs are also important supplements. If you notice your chinchilla is biting the cage bars, this is a common indication that he is not receiving adequate materials for filing his or her teeth and you should address that problem right away (especially if the cage bars have any coating or paint on them, which chinchillas should not ingest!)
Today I want to focus on a simple and common method chinchilla owners use to prevent malocclusion- chew sticks. While many pet supply manufacturers market wood chew toys for chinchillas, sadly some don't do their research and are providing wood from a variety of tree species that is toxic to chinchillas. So before buying sticks at the pet store or online, check the packaging for the type of wood to ensure it is on the following "Safe Wood Species" list:
Safe Wood Species for Chinchillas: apple, arbutus, ash, aspen, bamboo, blackberry, cholla, cottonwood, crabapple, dogwood, elm, gooseberry*, grapevine, hawthorn, hazelnut, loquat, magnolia, Manzanita, medlar, mulberry, pear, pecan, kiln-dried white pine, poplar, quince, rowanberry, rose hip, strawberry, and willow
Toxic Wood Species for Chinchillas: almond, apricot, beech, birch, black locust, black lotus, box elder, cedar, cherry, chestnut, china berry, citrus woods (like orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit), cypress, elderberry, eucalyptus, fir, hemlock, juniper, laurel, maple, myrtle, nectarine, oak, oleander, peach, fresh or pressure-treated or red pine, pinecones, plum, prune, redwood, spruce, walnut, yew, or any man made boards such as cardboard, fiberboard, or plywood
*Gooseberry is the wood commonly seen in Super Pet "Branch Bites". While my sources say that this variety of wood is not necessarily harmful to chinchillas, it does tend to splinter and fragment as the chinchilla chews the bark and I would advise choosing a more dense wood, such as apple, to reduce the possibility that the chinchilla consumes one of these small fragments.
Many of the woods on the toxic species list are members of the prunus family and are so categorized because of the poisonous hydrogen cyanide they release. In particular, I frequently come across peach wood chews advertised for chinchillas. Do not be fooled - these are absolutely toxic to chinchillas!
In my experience, I have not had much success locating safe woods for Tango in my local pet stores. For this reason, I have prepared apple wood chews at home using the instructions below.
Preparing Wood Chews:
1. Ensure that the wood you are about to prepare is listed on the "Safe Wood Species for Chinchillas" list.
2. Be certain that the tree from which you are about to cut from has never been sprayed by pesticides, fungicides, or other chemicals either directly or indirectly from nearby fields.
3. Begin gathering wood using clean pruning shears (as not to strip the bark), selecting live twigs off the tree that are about pencil-width and cut them off in about 4-inch pieces.
4. Once you have collected several sticks, soak the twigs in a tub of hot water and use a scrub brush to thoroughly clean each stick. After scrubbing, leave the wood in the tub until the surrounding water feels cool, swirling the sticks in the water periodically. As the (harmless) tannins are released from the wood, the water will turn an orange color.
5. Dump the water and repeat the soaking process in step 4 again.
6. Dump the water, rinse the sticks, and lay them out on old, clean towels to air dry. The next steps will require the use of an oven for an extended period of time, so do plan in advance.
7. Once the sticks are dry, and while the oven is still cool (do not pre-heat), lay a double layer of aluminum foil over your oven racks (rather than a baking sheet) and spread the dried sticks on the foil.
8. Set the oven to its lowest temperature, usually around 170 or 180 degrees F. Wait for the oven to reach that temperature, then turn it off again and let it cool while the sticks remain inside (refrain from opening the oven). It is important to remain near the oven during this process because chinchillas will reject the wood if it becomes burned.
9. Repeat the baking process (step 8) 4-5 times or until the sticks are very dry. When a stick is sufficiently baked, it will snap fairly easily (like a dead twig would) when you try to break it.
10. Allow sticks to completely cool before giving one to your pet.
Left: Baked apple sticks; right: chewed apple stick
I supply the sticks one at a time and discard them once the bark has been chewed off. For Tango, this usually equates to stick per day. Administer sticks as often as they are chewed! Since this, of course, is not the most energy efficient preparation process and it will likely fill the house with a strong aroma, you will want to prepare many sticks as possible in the same cycle and probably not right before you plan to have company!
Another option is to purchase these sticks already prepared for you from a knowledgeable online chinchilla supply retailer. My preferred vendor is Forchinate Chins at this website: http://geocities.com/forchinatechins/chincessories.htm . Ensure that the supplier is providing a safe wood for chinchillas from the list above and that it comes from a tree that has never been sprayed with chemicals. This addition to the cage will surely add excitement to your chinchilla's day and it's healthy for him too!
Happy trails!
Amanda