Since chinchillas are very active pets, you should give them a place where they can do tricks and interact with their toys. They also enjoy chewing, so the best cage for your chinchilla should be metal, preferably wire.
However, since chinchillas have delicate feet and are susceptible to illnesses like bumblefoot, they require a solid floor.
Since chinchillas are sociable creatures, ensuring enough room for a companion or partner should be a top concern. Size, length, and environmental richness are the most crucial factors when looking for a chinchilla habitat.
This is why here is a list of all the essential considerations that you need to incorporate in your chinchilla’s cage for their utmost comfort and security:
Chinchilla Cage Ideas
1. Chinchilla-Chiller Cooling Plate
If you don’t have a temperature-stable atmosphere, you particularly need this. A cooling pad is a device that resembles a stone that is placed inside the cage so the chinchilla can lie down on it to cool off.
Essentially, it aids the chinchilla in preventing heat exhaustion and heatstroke on hotter days.
Due to their thick fur and lack of sweat glands, chinchillas can quickly become overheated without you even recognizing it. They will naturally seek coolness if you provide them with a cooling plate so they can serve themselves.
2. Efficient Litter Box
Even though not all chinchillas can be instructed to use the toilet, significantly, if you acquire an older, set-in-their-ways chinchilla, a litter box will be helpful when you have a little one.
It will be easier to clean up their bodily waste if they are trained to utilize that one restroom location.
Fortunately, chinchillas can be trained to relieve themselves in a specific location, such as a litter box. Thus, installing a litter box in the cage will significantly lessen the work required to clean it.
3. Water Bottles
It might surprise you that chinchillas need to drink water just as much as any other animal or human does. As a result, you need to provide your pet with a decent, durable water bottle they can quickly drink from.
Since water is essential for all living things, you must have access to it. Water bowls are not the healthiest or most secure alternative because they pose the danger of spilling water and making the chinchilla’s fur wet.
To avoid such spills and to make it simple for your chinchilla to drink anytime they want, try your best to purchase a bottle with stoppers that clip to your cage.
4. Comfortable Hideouts
When chinchillas are exhausted, it helps them to have structures inside their cage that give them a place to retreat and nest down for sleep.
Hiding places are where your chinchilla may hide and feel safe during uncomfortable or frightful circumstances.
As chinchillas prefer to feel secure in a nest, these areas can take the form of anything, such as a box or a tunnel, where they might bury them to feel safer.
5. Hay Rack and Pellet Bowl
A feeding bowl is necessary to provide food for your chinchilla to feed whenever they wish and to help prevent your pet from spilling and splattering food all over the cage.
Hay snacks are a favorite food of chinchillas, and hay racks are simply bowls that may be placed to have their regular feeding pellets. A hay rack is just as crucial as food since hay snacks give them variety in their diets.
6. Chewing Toys
Chinchillas are playful creatures. They enjoy playing a lot. They also enjoy chewing on objects. What better items for children to play with and gnaw on than wooden sticks? There are many kinds of chinchilla toys available.
Their main functions are to amuse the animals and maintain their continually elongating teeth gently filed down; if they become too long, they can be dangerous and unpleasant.
The best toys are made of wood, yet some are made of plastic. It is not a good idea to go outside and gather twigs from the yard for your pet to chew on because some types of wood and fungi can be hazardous to animals.
7. Lots of Ledges
Heights in their cage enable the chinchillas to satisfy their need to climb and jump because they live in mountainous regions in the wild where there are many places to climb and investigate.
It is an excellent idea to provide them with different levels to play on inside their cage because it can give them the impression that their house has more space than it does.
Although some cages already have levels installed, which is fantastic, you can also add your own if you do so securely. Getting your chinchilla a great, big cage with various levels to jump and climb on is the finest thing you can do for them.
8. Comfortable Bedding
Having a substrate helps keep the animal’s waste inside its space and gives comfort and substance to soak up its toilet habits.
The substrate must be safe for them to chew on and soft and cushiony so that the chinchilla can move around. If they suddenly feel the urge to eat their bedding, this is.
It must also be sufficiently absorbing to help you catch the chinchilla’s liquids so you can help with any cleanup. Shredded paper and pelleted matting are two of your most excellent options. They are smooth and absorbent, which is ideal.
9. Exercising Equipment
An activity wheel is the most typical item in a chinchilla’s cage because it is practical and straightforward. These are also suitable for the small animal’s basic self-entertainment.
Toys like an exercise wheel will make your pet feel less lonely if you don’t have enough time to play with them.
A metal chinchilla wheel is a suitable type. A word of advice: get one that has been oiled, as your chinchilla will probably be running a marathon precisely as you are attempting to get to bed.
10. Hammock
It would be advantageous to have a cozy location that they defined as their snug, comfy spot since, similar to hiding spaces, chinchillas want to have their own spaces.
Chinchilla hammocks are often composed of rope or fleece and come in single or double layers. Having them is unnecessary because their primary purpose is to provide your chinchilla’s cage with a sense of safety and home.
Conclusion
Chinchillas require their cages to be the utmost safe and secure place while having adequate food and entertainment resources.
Incorporating all the essential elements mentioned above for your chinchilla’s cage can provide them with the required nesting environment. Just be mindful of adding each thing keeping your chinchilla’s behavioral and personal preferences as a priority.
