You have two options when it comes to cages for chinchillas. You can build your own or you can buy one ready-made. We've actually done both.
Our first cage was typical of pet store cages. Its dimensions measured 3 feet x 1.5 feet x 2 feet and it had two levels. It seemed to be a decent size for one chinchilla, but it didn't take long before we started to think about coming up with our own design. The main advantage of a store bought cage is immediate availability. Pre-built cages can also be reasonably priced given the economies of scale inherent in mass produced products.
Our second cage was one we designed and built. We wanted to build something as large as possible, but still be small enough to move around our house as needed. This meant the cage had to be no wider than 2 feet so that it could fit through a doorway. The length was determined by figuring out what we could maneuver around the hallways of our home. This turned out to be 4 feet. And the height was also 4' mostly because of the size of the materials that we selected (more about that below).
The custom chinchilla cage we built has a 5-sided base (i.e. 4 walls and a bottom) made out of melamine. Melamine is particle board covered with white plastic that is easy to clean with Windex and a paper towel. To make moving the cage easy, we attached strong caster wheels to the bottom of each of the 4 corners.
The sides and top of the cage are made out of white Elfa shelving you can buy from the Container Store. Holding the whole thing together are 1-inch square pieces of wood that run length-wise or width-wise throughout the cage. These pieces of wood also provide support for wooden shelves (4 levels) that the chinchillas can jump onto. The Elfa walls and ceiling form another 5-sided box that sits within the melamine base. Both the melamine bottom and Elfa have a door to allow for entry to and exit from the cage.
To make the cage easier to clean, we put together a 5-sided wooden box which we filled with bedding as a cue to our chinchillas. The wooden box also has a melamine bottom, but it has pine sides since they're exposed and may be chewed.
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October 9th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Really impressed with the chinchilla cage…would you be able to tell me where did you get the actual cage/mesh from or what is it made from? Thank you
September 28th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Jennifer,
Sorry, we don't have the blueprints for the cage. We just had rough sketches which we tossed once the cage was completed.
September 27th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I am TOTALLY in love with your cage! We currently have 9 chinchillas, 7 boys and 2 girls. Ultimately we want to put 6 of the boys together (one is still too aggressive, four are in bonded pairs) and one of the girls (who is sterile) in a large cage like that. If I could I'd put them all together but, like I said, one is still too mean and the other girl (who we bought thinking she was a he) is likely pregnant and rather than have MORE chins after this round, we'll have to keep her separate too.
I've bought (and been given) a lot of cages for the chinchillas, most with plastic parts, and by and large, they'll chew them to bits. Even the non-plastic chewers have nibbled on the shelves, and the cages just seem too flimsy. I may built a cage using the caging itself, but not the same shelves, tubes, and ramps that came with it (all cheap plastic).
Do you have a blue print of how you put all this together?
September 4th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Sharon,
You are correct that there are some safe woods and some unsafe ones. We used pine for the cage shelves. It wasn't kiln-dried, but we limited the number of edges that could be chewed on. We also provided as many alternative chewing toys as possible. I think part of the problem with non-kiln-dried pine are the "fumes" that come from it when it is in the form of bedding. I would assume solid wood would be less problematic.
We changed the bedding every week or so. To keep from wasting too much bedding, we used a wooden tray to hold it. The tray was about a third of the size of the cage bottom. We could take the tray out as needed. The bottom of the cage would be cleaned every other week. The wooden shelves would be cleaned as needed with vinegar.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Jennifer,
Building a cage seems to be more expensive. The advantage is you get to build it to suit your needs. For example, we wanted a big cage, but we needed it to fit through a doorway.
We don't know if there's a particular amount of space that will keep male chinchillas from fighting. It's probably best to devise some sort of system to divide the cage and maybe let them run around together outside of the cage.