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Post by laura331 on Dec 30, 2011 22:29:21 GMT -5
I would just like some advice on the things i need to buy and do to chin-proof my apartment before I finally get my chinchilla.
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Dec 31, 2011 10:13:35 GMT -5
If you can keep them confined to one room while out, it is a lot easier than trying to chin-proof an entire apartment. Lots of people like to do playtime in the bathroom, because it already hardly has anything at floor level, and so makes a really EASY place to chin proof. All you have to do is make sure the toilet seat is down, the tub is dry, and anything made of plastic is up high. Alternately, if you want to let them out in a bedroom or living room, you can use Marshall Ferret Playpen gates to make a little safe corral for them to run around in. www.ferret.com/item/marshall-ferret-playpen-11-panel/650889/I have a whole room for the chins, so I bought two sets of the playpen gates and I ran them all around the edges of the whole room, with all their supplies and such on the outside, and just their toys on the inside, and I hook the edges of the gate to the bottoms of the cages to contain them. Here's a pic. If you don't have the money to get those right away, you can use cardboard panels to save your baseboards, as long as you can still lock them into one room. That is what I did before I invested the money in the gate system.
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Post by suzi1780 on Dec 31, 2011 13:32:57 GMT -5
If you do use the bathroom for playtime, make sure you check the bottom of your sink. Many sink counters have a small open area on the left and right sides. A few people (myself included) found this out the hard way. Thank goodness my girl only stayed in there for 30 seconds! I stuffed some cardboard up there until I got my playpen, now I use that.
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Dec 31, 2011 14:12:57 GMT -5
Oooh, good tip!! Mine is not open, so I didn't have that problem. But I only use the bathroom for intros and quaratines anyway.
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Post by laura331 on Jan 1, 2012 11:11:38 GMT -5
thank you so much this was all verry helpful!!! i really like the play pen. i will probably use that.
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Post by Tara on Jan 1, 2012 11:35:45 GMT -5
Definitely use the playpens or cardboard. I learned the hard way that chins LOVE to chew door frames and baseboards.
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Jan 1, 2012 11:36:53 GMT -5
Yep, spackle is your best friend until you get the gates, lol.
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astryea
Chinnie Companion
Posts: 125
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Post by astryea on Jan 20, 2012 16:15:57 GMT -5
I have a whole room for the chins, so I bought two sets of the playpen gates and I ran them all around the edges of the whole room, with all their supplies and such on the outside, and just their toys on the inside, and I hook the edges of the gate to the bottoms of the cages to contain them. Here's a pic. Woosh! Blast from the past! Kara, what is that purple gate at the bottom of the cage??? I need one of those so badly!
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Jan 20, 2012 19:31:00 GMT -5
Hey, Jess!! Long time no see!! Those are just three 14x14 storage grids, zip tied together. (the kind you can use to make a C&C cage) I use them to keep the girls from getting UNDER the cage while out, since they like to hide under there and pee on my carpet. I have oodles of those leftover from when I had that huge guinea pig cage. We lost a piggy last year, so we downsized Scooter to a regular cage for his retirement home.
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karijo8
Chinnie Companion
Karijo
Posts: 313
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Post by karijo8 on Jan 21, 2012 17:31:16 GMT -5
I let my girls run around in the kitchen. One day my big girl crawled under the refrigerator and I almost cried, but I got her out. She wanted to be where it was warm. Now I make sure ALL covers are in place before I let out the squirrels. lol. Also my kitchen is long like a hallway so they get crazy and run real fast in there.
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Post by ellen on Jan 21, 2012 23:13:46 GMT -5
Just another idea, and personally I LOVE this thing, especially because I can have playtime, and clean cages and no fears of my chins escaping! www.amazon.com/Ware-Manufacturing-Deluxe-Playpen-Large/dp/B001ATBR5C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327205196&sr=8-1and it's currently marked way down from $125 to $77+ free shipping I love it because it's completely enclosed and opens on the top and side, I can fit in there with them, or I can fit a mini maze haven or the cottontail cottage in there with them, along with some other toys and a dusting station. And since the floor is covered, I just vac out the pen It's pretty light and can fold completely flat for storage which is another nice perk! I used to do a cardboard pen, and have it around my couch in their area..but the stinkers used to get on the top of the couch, leap and land on the top edge of the cardboard wall, then dive (if I didn't catch them) and then I'd spend the next hour freaking out as I chased them around the basement. Needless to say, an enclosed pen was definitely the solution I needed, haha. Now I can give playtime while I clean their cages and know that they cannot get out Just another idea for you, not exactly chin-proofing, but it's a great safe play-area idea (Thanks to Sandi for inspiring it!)
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Jan 22, 2012 11:34:03 GMT -5
I have some of the nylon popup tunnels and things like that for them to play in, but my stinkers chew it. I think they'd chew their way out of something like that. They can get their tiny teeth into the netting part of it, and it's like scissors.
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Post by ellen on Jan 22, 2012 21:24:07 GMT -5
Kara- I've had mine for a year now, and they have yet to chew anything, I have lots of things for them to explore in there and they prefer chewing the cardboard maze/cottontail cottage instead. I guess it depends on the chin. But I believe Sandi has used one for a few years now with success.
I still would not leave the room with them in there, but as long as you're nearby and monitoring to an extent, it should not be an issue.
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Jan 23, 2012 10:18:45 GMT -5
It's Amy, she is "El Destructo" and must chew everything.
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Post by suzi1780 on Jan 23, 2012 10:28:04 GMT -5
It's Amy, she is "El Destructo" and must chew everything. I had chewing issues as well with one of those pop-up playpens. It was mainly Mitzie, but I think everyone did a few chews here and there. I have gone through many trail and errors with playpens. I did the cardboard thing, and Mitize would chew the tape. I learned afterwards that I should have only tapped one side, oops! Now with the wire one, everyone does well but Emma. She will climb/jump out. So I have to use the cardboard playpen to circle the wire one so Emma can't get out. My girls are lucky they are so cute, because they are making my hair go grey!!
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Post by mistywaterwoman on Jan 23, 2012 10:49:57 GMT -5
Maybe it's just females, because that is pretty much the same exact process that happened with me!! LOL!!.
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Post by saras on Jan 23, 2012 12:26:34 GMT -5
I just can't get over how they can chew drywall?!!?!!! I mean who would've thought that they would be able to, or even interested in chewing up the walls! And my walls are smooth in the chin room, no texture at all! So now I have lined the whole room with old hay boxes!
When we built our house I thought of the baseboard thing, so I had their room tiled and bullnose edging put around the wall instead of baseboard, but I never in a million years wouldve thought that they would chew my drywall off!
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Post by saras on Jan 23, 2012 12:28:07 GMT -5
Maybe it's just females, because that is pretty much the same exact process that happened with me!! LOL!!. Nope, not just girls... But it might be the mosaics! Boo is my super destructo chin!!
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astryea
Chinnie Companion
Posts: 125
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Post by astryea on Jan 23, 2012 18:07:00 GMT -5
Now with the wire one, everyone does well but Emma. She will climb/jump out. So I have to use the cardboard playpen to circle the wire one so Emma can't get out. My girls are lucky they are so cute, because they are making my hair go grey!! I had this problem with Blitz a year or so ago. One day he realized he can jump higher than the wire pen and started hopping out non-stop. I reinforced the pen by attaching pieces of cardboard to the top of the pen using butterfly clamps. After a few unsuccessful attempts to cling to the cardboard and hop over, Blitz gave up on hopping over the pen. Eventually the cardboard would fall off and I never needed to replace it. To this day he still hasn't tried to hop out of his pen (unless he's on his critter castle ).
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