Cleaning your chinchilla’s cage may not be the most fun job in the world, but it is very important for your chinchilla’s health and the general cleanliness of your home.

By nature chinchillas are very clean animals. Unlike Ferrets they have no natural odor. They also spend much time grooming and cleaning their whiskers and fur. Also unlike ferrets they cannot really be litter trained. Though they will tend to urinate in one specific area of the cage (generally the corners) they cannot help where they poop.

You will need to spot clean around the edges of your chinchilla’s cage daily. For spot cleaning a small shop vac is nice to have around, and a dust pan and broom will also be handy. We also purchased tile to place under our chinchilla’s cage to help keep things clean. You will not want to place your chinchilla’s cage directly on carpet or hardwood, because it will likely become soiled. Title or even plastic runners are durable and easy to clean. You may be able to get extra tile from your local hardware store for a discount price. There are often scraps left over after a bathroom or kitchen has been tiled.

Your chinchilla’s cage will need to be cleaned thoroughly once a week. This means changing the bedding and wiping down bars that have become soiled. Be careful which kind of bedding you use. Both cedar and pine bedding are toxic to chinchillas and other small pets. They contain phenols, used to make them smell pleasant. These compounds cause constant irritation to the nasal passages, throat, and lungs of small animals giving bacteria an easy opening, thus commonly causing pneumonia. Phenols also affect organs such as the liver and kidneys, because these organs are responsible for filtering toxins out of the body. When presented with a large amount of toxins over time, they are unable to filter it all out and begin to fail. An animal with a damaged liver will have a depressed immune system, which can lead to other medical conditions and eventually death.

We use Kaytee Soft-Sorbent Bedding. The bedding comes in natural scents of lavender, mint or rose and is made from reclaimed resources. Lavender is our personal favorite. Lavender is known to remove nervous tension and have an overall calming effect, it also smells good! For a list of other pet friendly bedding please visit http://www.afrma.org/rminfo2.htm

Many people have asked me about newspaper. In the past I had heard that newspaper was not a great alternative because when it becomes soiled ink could become toxic. Also I had heard that it was not as absorbent as pet bedding and thus would cause excess odor and need changed far more frequently. However, according to an article published by Ohio State University regarding using newspaper as bedding for livestock, newspaper is now a safe alternative. Most publishers today use organic pigment and the study seems to suggest that it is a safe and cheap alternative. You can read more about this option at http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0136.html

If anyone out there happens to know other cheap, safe, and earth friendly alternative to purchasing bedding please let us know!

For those of you that love chichillas and want to learn the history of how chinchillas came from the Andes Mountains to your home, you may want to check out  Bowens chinchilla Museum in Anza California.Thanks to the many contributors from all around the nation and even around the world they claim to have managed to amass what has to be the best collection of historical chinchilla and chinchilla ranching memorabilia found anywhere!

At the museum you can check out the crate M.F. Chapman used to bring the first 11 chinchillas down from the Andes mountains in Chile to the U.S. in 1923 and some silly stuff like a chinchilla comb designed for your chin to comb herself! While you are there you can check out their award winning herd and even pick up a new chin to add to the family! Gary and Margot Neubaue, the mueseum owners, are also the proud owners of the largest and oldest  chinchilla ranch in the United states. A quote from their site says, "These chins are literally among the "best of the best" and in the hands of a serious breeder, they are the tools that can improve the species."

They purchased their first pair of chins in  1946 for a whooping $3,200,and you thought your chinchilla was expensive!

Here is a link to their website

http://www.bowenschinchillas.com/ 

I am trying to get an interview from them so stay tuned for more news and hopefully some expert tips from true chinchilla experts!

So you are considering breeding your chinchilla. Well there are some do's and don't that you should know before getting started.

Chinchillas are capable of reproduction from the ages of 4 to 6 months and can become pregnant as early as 5 1/2 months. Most chinchilla owners agree that this is to young to begin breeding your chinchilla and can cause complications to the pregnancy and risks to the young mother and kits. Waiting until they are one year old is safer for your chinchilla and the kits that will be growing inside of her.

It is best to separate male and female chinchillas at a young age (by 2 months) to prevent unexpected pregnancy. This includes separating siblings from one another that are male and female and mother and son. They do not know any better, they are chinchillas and it is up to their owner to ensure their safety and prevent unwanted pregnancy. It is also unsafe to inline breed. For the same reasons the humans do not (or should not) hook up with their folks or syblings, a chinchilla should not be allowed to breed with its immediate family.

Before you consider breeding your chinchilla, you should make sure that you are breeding a quality chinchilla that is close to breed standard (size, furr quality shape), has no health issues, is of a good size  and  a good temperament and has no signs of malocclusion (bad fit of the teeth).

Try pairing your chinchillas with a mate that will equal out the personality strengths and flaws. For example, if one chinchilla is a bit on the timid side, pair that chin with a mate that is a bit more adventurous and outgoing. There are certain pairing that are lethal when you get into cross breeding color mutations. We always breed our color mutation chinchillas to standards. It helps insure that the chinchillas will be born healthy and of a good size and weight. An excellent site to double check your breeding possibilities is

http://www.silverfallchinchilla.com/genetics/ChinCrossCalculator.aspx 

They actually have a breeding calculator specifically for chinchillas. Very neat stuff. 

Also before breeding your chinchilla you should be aware of a few basics

Chinchillas are pregnant  a little over 3 months. It is often difficult to know whether or not your chin is indeed pregnant. Mating usually occurs at night. You might notice a mating plug somewhere in the cage. There may be a little bit of fur around the cage as well. Change in behavior or temperament might be an indication that your female is pregnant. Her sides may start to look a bit wider as well, but you should not feel around for kits as it may damage the babies or cause the soon to be mother to become frightened. One of my chinchillas, Belle is a good breeder, but whenever she is near the final stages of pregnancy she starts to rip out the fur around her sides. The most recent time she looked very ratty and was barking at her two older daughters and chasing everyone away during play time. She wanted her space and we gave it to her. I gave her treats and spoke calmly to her, but let her have the space she needed. I didn't try to hold her. I just put my hand in to pet her when I would give her a treat. Less than a week later we had another furr ball running around the cage!

The birthing process is very natural for your chinchilla. You should not need to help or interfere. If there seem to be complications you will want to touch base with your veterinarian as sson as possible. Once your chinchilla gives birth the mother and the baby should be removed from the cage and placed into a cage with smaller bars (see chinchilla cages article for sizes). If the new mother chinchilla is left in with the male, they will likely breed again within 72 hours. Directly after giving birth your chinchilla will be most fertile and it is advice not to breed back. It proves to be hard on a chinchilla’s health to be nursing one litter while another is growing inside of her. Usually a chinchilla will have 1-3 kits, 1 being the most common, but there have been rare cases of as many as 7 being born. 

The baby chinchilla will be born with fur and it's eyes will be open very shortly after it is born. The fur is wet and the mother cleans the baby off and will eat the afterbirth. Many chinchilla breeders agree that since it is rich in protein it is ok for them to eat some of it, but it is not advised for them to eat the entire placenta if they have had more than one kit. Chinchillas are not meat eaters. The new baby will be jumping around within hours and look like a miniture chinchilla.

A good site to see what your baby chin looks like through the stages of pregnancy is

http://www.huggablepets.com/huggablepets/preg.shtml

Something extremely scary happened this morning. I walked into my chinchilla room to greet my 8 chinchillas and Smoke is missing the end of his finger! It was not bleeding, but the black little pad that is supposed to be there is gone leaving slightly exposed bone.

I have my chinchillas paired off 1 male and one female in each cage and they have never been aggressive towards one another with the pairs I have put together. He also didn't have any furr missing which is usually a sign that there was a chinchilla fight. I am thinking he may have caught it on something and damaged his foot. I took Smoke out of his cage to examine his injured foot and put Neosporin on it and put him back in with Elbow who started grooming him. There definitely didn't seem to be any aggressive behavior between the two.

I also called our veterinarian, which we are very lucky to have a veterinarian that actually owns her own chinchilla. In the end of the day, there really isn't much that can be done. They do not make tiny little chinchilla stitches. She recommended that I keep Neosporin on it and make sure it does not look worse in the next day or so. The only thing they could do would be to give him an antibiotic if it looks infected. If anyone has any suggestions other than Neosporin please let me know.

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

It's late one evening, you've had a long day, but alas your nocturnal furry friend is at the cage door, begging for his nightly rounds to stretch his legs outside of his cramped quarters.  You unlatch the door and the little guy makes a break for the living room.  It's okay though because you've chinchilla-proofed the area, meticulously blocking off any hole where he could escape, removing or securing electrical cords that he could chew, and vacuuming the carpet of any debris he might try to eat.  You yawn and track him down the hall toward the living room where the nightly news drones on the TV.  You locate your pet darting under the couch, and emerging again only to find darkness under the coffee table, so you reach behind you for the newspaper and sit down in your La-Z-Boy, intending to keep an eye to the floor in supervision.  Unbeknownst to you, your sweet little furball has become intrigued by the metal jungle gym underneath your recliner.  You kick up the foot rest and hear a terrifying squeal, but it is too late . . .

Ah, the recliner - the domestic chinchilla's nemesis.  An unlikely suspect next to the obvious dangers of live electrical wires and open areas of water, the reclining chair is a lesser known culprit that severely injures and claims lives of many pet chinchillas every year.  While it may just be a comfy retreat to you, the inside is, of course, filled with metal levers and gears which are easily accessed by your chinchilla slipping under the side panel.  Despite how quickly your chinchilla is able to get into these situations, they don't always have the same luck when trying to get out.  It only takes a second for them to become trapped and suddenly they're in severe danger.

While this scenario is not to depress you, it is to make you aware of a legitimate household threat to your pet so you can take the necessary precautions for their protection.  If the living room is an accessible area to your chinchilla, and assuming you have taken steps to remove all other dangerous objects there, add this one to your list.  Make a rule that no person is to sit in the reclining chair (or reclining couch, for that matter) while your chin is roaming to avoid this heartbreaking situation.  As we owners well know, these little creatures are inherently curious and it is our responsibility as their human companion to protect them when they cannot protect themselves.  This precaution may seem obvious, but it can be easy to forget especially when you have multiple chinchillas playing in that area, and multiple humans in the house.  You might know exactly where the little guys are at all times, but your spouse, hoping to catch the ball game on TV, might not!  Take necessary measures to ensure the safety of your chinchilla so that he may have a long and healthy life.  Happy trails!

Amanda

We're new to the Chinchilla Place family and wanted to introduce ourselves.  I'm Amanda and my chinchilla is a 2-yr-old, standard gray male named Tango (see photos on the "Chinchilla Pictures" page).  We recently relocated from southeastern Michigan to northeastern Tennessee and we're both adjusting to our new home!  I adopted Tango from a local Chinchilla rescue and re-homing organization in Michigan when he was 6 months old, and I've been in love with the little guy ever since!  He loves sleeping in his hidey house during the day, but has boundless energy at nightfall.  He's always been a faithful Chin Spin runner, but his new Flying Saucer is proving to be a challenge.  His favorite treats include rose hips (one daily for vitamin C), timothy hay cubes, and baked apple tree twigs.  While he enjoys a good scratch behind the ear from his human companions, Tango has always been the independent sort.  If he's to cuddle with us, it has to be on his terms!  I'm looking forward to sharing my knowledge on these unique animals and answering your questions.  Thanks Jennifer, for allowing me to contribute. 

This sweet little baby girl is the new addition to our Chinchilla family! Belle and Boo are the proud parents. She is very healthy, has bright eyes and is already nibbeling at her mother hay. We still haven't decided on a name yet, so we could use your help. Please vote bellow on the new chinchillas name!

	What should we name the new baby chinchilla?
	Name her Lily
	name her Mist
	Neither (Put your suggestion below)
Weight Loss Support

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.

So today I let my 7 chinchillas run wild together through my guest bedroom. Yes a messy adventure, but it was exciting. Like watching a national geographic show live. They don't all live together, we keep them in 3 different cages. 

B-B lives with Haze

Boo lives with Belle

Jelly Bean, Elbow and Smoke live together (couldn't seperate the twins!)

So it was interesting to watch them interact in such a large area.  I left the dust out so they could all take a nice bath while they played and explored. I figured as long as it's going to be a clean up afterwards, they mise well have a whole lot of fun!

For some unknown reason Belle despises Smoke. Perhaps it is because he shares a house right next-door with both of her daughters, but as soon as she laid eyes on him, the chase began. She was intent on running him back to his cage! I watched for a moment, but my general rule of thumb is to separate the chins when squealing and hair flying starts. They can be pretty nasty to each other if they have some unknown to human reason for a chinchilla vendetta; and Belle can be one scary momma! Smoke took off across the room jumped onto the bed 90 miles an hour and high tailed it to him cage. I like leaving the doors open in case they want a "safe spot" to relax.

Elbow is the smaller of the twins and the biggest scardy cat out of all of the herd. I couldn't even coax her out of the cage with the tastiest dried fruit chinchilla treat I had! I eventually picked her up and places her in the dust bowl so she would at least be as clean as the other chins. As soon as she was done dusting she hoped back in her cage and remained a spectator while the other chinchillas roamed the room wreaking havoc on my Vonnegut novels by nibbling the corners of the covers.

Elbow would call to her move adventures twin sis Jelly Bean every now and then as she watched from her chinchilla house.

Haze and B-B are the two smartest of the pack and also the least interested in...well me. They are quite happy with each other’s company and I believe B-B is expecting. She looked extra wide around her sides today and she staked out good hiding places with her chin life mate Haze.

Boo is bright white and an extremely sweet natured chinchilla. He is a little timid but also trusting when he is assured that the situation is safe. Belle and Boo really took to each other and it balanced their personalities out nicely. Before Boo, Belle was quite the wild woman! She had a tendency to spray and barked at me whenever I tried to get near her. Now, Belle is a sweet heart. She seems to respond to her name, or at least the treat in my hand and even enjoys when a pet under her chin and on top of her head.

After play time there is the tedious task of getting all of the chinchillas back to their proper homes. I rounded up the first five; Boo, Belle, Smoke, Jelly Bean &Elbow (who was alreay in the cage) with relative ease, but Haze and B-B...now that was a chore. They were no where to be found!

In our house we are VERY cautious to make sure our chinchillas are not on the loose, because we have a greyhound. She never bothers them when we are at home, but she also doesn't get into the trash while we are at home .It's always best to be cautious with other pets, especially if your pet happens to be a retired racing dog that was trained to run after a funny "rabbit".

I began to panic a little when I couldn't find them in the first 10 minutes. Had they slipped under the door? Was that possible? The room isn't THAT big, but they had been extra crafty in finding a very good hiding space. Both of them were inside the arm rest of our pull out couch! We didn't want to squish them and no treat was working this time. We decided the waiting game was the best way to snag them. B-B came out first and Haze eventually came to investigate her disappearance. Victory was ours!

We missed our original movie time but still made it to the Hulk later this evening, which I might add is surprisingly good. Edward Norton is one heck of actor.