Chins Need a chinchilla cage.

Never buy any cage with plastic shelves/floors or a plastic base for chinchills. They eat is. Cages hae to be all metal with wood shelves

Furkidsmommy said:

I have considered buying the superper ferret mansion as seen here (broken link removed) but after reading the reviews I am worried about the ease of cleaning.

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This cage is not really suitable for chins because of the plastic shelves. They will chew those right up. It's much more suited to ferrets than chins.

Furkidsmommy said:

I like the look of this (broken link removed) however there is no room for litter.

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This cage is a no-no without lots of modification. First you need to get rid of any wire ramps which are a HUGE hazard to chins (broken legs). Also like you said, there is no litter tray and you would need to add some pine shelves to prevent long falls. Also it's way overpriced.

I would suggest looking at these sites if you want to buy a good cage at a decent price:

https://www.qualitycage.com/chinchilla.html
(broken link removed)

Or build your own, like I did for $50 per cage (see pic). There are 8 cages in this picture. All materials were purchased at Home Depot.

I have looked at the quality cages I was just trying to find something with a bigger floor area. the biggest they do is 30 x 24. I guess I am always thinking in terms of guinea pigs and keep thinking that is too small. I have heard good things about the quality cage cages. I have thier 15" wheel which arrived last week which is fantastic.

There are 8 cages in this picture.

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Damn! How many chins do you have? Those are great cages. They remind me of mine.

Susan9608 said:

Damn! How many chins do you have? Those are great cages. They remind me of mine.

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I run a chinchilla rescue... at the moment, I have 11 chinnies. All boys.

Chinchillas HAVE to be on wire floors, so not all of those are particularly suitable

Chinchillas HAVE to be on wire floors

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I don't think so. Wire floors are a hazard to chinchillas, just like they are to most small animals. They can get their feet and/or tails caught and end up with broken bones.

Why would you think a chinchilla needs to be on a wire floor?

I have heard bad things about wire floors and chinchillas so I did not want a wire floor.

I don't think it is fair to say the ferret nation cage is expensive. It may be considered expensive compared to "do it yourself" cages, but compared to pre-made ferret cages it is among the best and one of the top models on the market.
As far as the wire bottoms and grids to most pre-made cages, I can't speak for other animals but I do know that they are bad for ferrets. One way we get around this is to use pre-glued vinyl floor tiles. I stick them on top of the wire grids. Ferrets don't chew on them, but I'm sure each animal is different so make sure you check before thinking it's ok. I hope that helps. For the record the cages all of you make are amazing!!

sandcastle1997 said:

I don't think it is fair to say the ferret nation cage is expensive. It may be considered expensive compared to "do it yourself" cages, but compared to pre-made ferret cages it is among the best and one of the top models on the market.

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I'll agree that it is a very nice looking cage, and the fact that Ferret Store sells it with some accessories is a nice touch, but given the measurements, I could go to a couple of different stores and buy the materials to build something almost identical for half the price. I'd call that expensive.

For the record, I think the cages that people have created and put together on here are pretty darned amazing too.

Susan9608 said:

I don't think so. Wire floors are a hazard to chinchillas, just like they are to most small animals. They can get their feet and/or tails caught and end up with broken bones.

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I had a bad experiance with my gebril and a wire cage:guilty: They are a big no no. Jasper got his foot stuck in the wire floor and was like that untill the next morning-he had got it caught sometimes duing the night. His foot swelled up and he rubbed it raw trying to escape and he was really freaked out. I felt so so bad. I still have the wire cage but it is empty and is an emerceny emerceny cage it will only ever be used it my hospital tank is in use.
It is not worth getting a wire floored cage.

Never put your pet on a wire floor. We preach that all the time here on Cavy Cages.
Also the set in stone rule about plastic is not true. My chin Buddy has a plastic bottom and shelves and hasn't destroyed them at all. His cage is a year old now. Some people's guineas pigs eat their pigloos more than Buddy has eaten on his cage. All chins are different. Personally Buddy loves being up high. I would not ever go any lower in levels but one day will move his cage out longer.

Furkidsmommy, they don't spend much time on the floor so worrying about shavings is not an issue. They don't do laps and such like the pigs do. Chins leap from one level to another.

Susan has an excellent cage that you can tweak to your own needs.

Some chins won't chew plastic, I've got a few in cages with plastic pans they can reach, but don't. OTher chins, in the same cage, lasted a day before they chewed a hole big enough to get out of.
Wire floors, as an only floor, are bad because they are too harsh on their feet.
Some wire floors/shelves are ok if the mesh is small enough, for older chins. I have some cages from link edited that have some dividing floors in them that are 1/2"x1/2". Many chins do spend a great deal of time on the floor, so you definitely need shavings. They don't do horizontal laps, but may do horizonal/vertical laps.