Furnishing a Chinchilla Cage

[deejay]

I am going to be getting a pair of chinchillas males in 2 months (they were born last friday). I have never owned chinchillas before so I am trying to make sure to learn as much as I can before they arrive. I am going to be ordering the 2 door chinchilla mansion starter package from qualitycage.com and am thinking of flushing out the furnishings with accessories and toys from simply chintastic and forchinate chins. My questions is, what types of things do you all recommend? And how many things should I get to full out the accomodations, and keep my chins happily entertained?

I'm guessing i'll need a couple of houses, one for each of them. From what i've read so far i'll probably need two separate feeding "stations" and a couple of hay boxes too. But what about hammocks, tunnels, bridges, perches, shelves, and play items? I've noticed alot of the pictures show a fleece liner at the bottom rather than wood chips or carefresh, do you keep a litter pan tucked away somewhere? Do I need to get some of those too?

[Inked Up Tara]

Here is the link to all the things members make here, may I suggest Linda (simply chintastic for shelves)
chinsnfriends.proboards60.com/ind....lay&thread=7327

Here are OUR cages and how we have all done them for some wicked cool ideas
chinsnfriends.proboards60.com/ind....ead=4237&page=1

The rest is up to you and personal preferance. Whether you like hammocks or fleece things.

As for liners, I do not use litter pans, but a lot of us do. If you just take a look through the threads, you will see a lot of this has very recently been discussed and will be easy to look thru, you just have to let your fingers, (and Mouse) do the searching

[puddlesandchubbs]

Welcome!! Glad to have you here! As far as "furnishings" definitely get a fleece tube as almost all chins love them! Anything from Lindan (simply chintastic) will last forever and be money well spent!! When I had two chins, I still only had one food dish and one hay "station." I'm not sure if I'm the norm or not as far as that goes.

Oh, a chin spin or flying saucer would be great too! You will need wooden ledges and shelves too depending on how you space them. Make sure if your chins miss one, they don't fall too far! Placing shelves is an art!

Puddles loves her rock ledges from birdontherocks.com!! I have a pullout pan so I use pine pellets but everyone is big on fleece liners!!

A hidey house will also be a good idea. Somewhere they can go to "tuck away" and feel safe.

[kaykay]

Welcome to the world of Chins!!!!! Tara and Deena gave you great options! Fleece, wood, shelves, Chin Spin, hanging toys......there's so much fun stuff for chins!

[Carol~Anne]

Hello and welcome! You've come to the right place if you want to learn all about pet chinchillas, cages, toys, diet and health etc. Check out the Accessories section as well as the Resource section b/c there's loads of great ideas and pics too.

[*ANGEL*]

I agree about checking out everyone else's cages, you will get some great ideas. And you can keep an eye out on the classified section here, there are usually some pretty cool things that the members sell.

[mistywaterwoman]

Sounds like you already have a handle on what you need. Welcome to the forum, by the way!!

My advice is to take your time and not go broke right away, get the basics first and then you can have the cage set up, and time to decide on accessories.
You will find yourself looking at the cage and thinking things like "ooh, I can put a fleece tube here, and a hammock here..."
And before you know it, the cage will be jammed with every conceivable luxury for chins.

A hutch, a wheel, a couple of hanging toys and a hammock are all you really need to get started.

[bethany]

You will want to buy a new food bowl, the one in the package is plastic. I like glass bottles, there is a gaurd for the plastic bottle, but I'd be willing to bet it drips a lot. I've never had a edstrom bottle, but they are recommended. I use the 12 oz super pet glass bottles. People (myself included) have had problems with the 16 oz.

On a side note, I have a couple used fleece packages I'd sell half price if you want to see what they like. I also have a couple new ones, just pm me if you are interested.

[Inked Up Tara]

I know I have bought a ton of things that Fuzzy never seemed into, like his hidey house, he much prefers his hammock and his tubes so I ended up taking it out.

I agree don't go broke, because you will find as time goes by what the chin likes and what they just won't use.

[tinam]

You need to spend hours and hours on CNF looking at pics! LOL. I am making all my own stuff now out of wood but it took me 3 yrs to get to that point. It's just a continuous learning curve. You'll do fine!