We've gathered various poll results from around the web (mostly from the Chins & Quills forum) and consolidated them here. These are the ones we found interesting and hope you do too.
Our vote for each question appears bolded.
1. Do your chinchillas have a hammock?
Yes and they hate it: 7%
Yes and they love it: 66%
I don't have one: 27%
Total votes: 62
2. What is your chinchilla's favorite treat?
Fresh Apple: 2.25%
Plain Cheerios (1 or 2): 3.44%
Dried Cranberries: 8.74%
Plain Shredded Wheat (1 tiny square): 5.17%
Raisins: 52.32%
Organic Cranberry Juice: 0%
Prunes: 0.66%
Fresh Grapes: 0.93%
Bran Flakes Cereal: 0.79%
Dried Apples: 2.78%
Frozen Grapes: 0.13%
Banana: 3.05%
Uncooked Elbow Noodle: 0.66%
Wheat Germ: 0.40%
Peanut (unsalted in the shell): 1.06%
Other: 17.62%
Total votes: 755
3. What type of pellet food do you use?
Briskys: 0.33%
Alice Kline: 6.06%
Kaytee: 8.49%
L & M: 2.76%
Mazuri: 57.33%
Other: 25.03%
Total votes: 907
4. What type of water do you use?
Always tap water: 38.31%
Only bottled water: 23.38%
A Britta filter (or similar): 34.42%
Both tap & bottled water: 3.90%
Total votes: 154
5. How long did your chin take to start using its wheel?
Less than a week: 78.38%
2 - 3 weeks: 12.16%
3 - 4 weeks: 2.70%
More than a month: 6.76%
Total votes: 74
6. What is the worst aspect of owning a chinchilla?
The mess they make: 15.13%
When they have health problems: 14.42%
Cleaning the cage: 9.69%
The noise they make especially at night: 1.18%
The expense of taking care of them: 2.36%
Behavioral problems e.g. biting, spraying: 3.31%
Their daily care needs and time commitment: 1.18%
They chew on everything: 11.35%
You can't leave them alone for days: 2.84%
Having them die on you: 18.68%
Birthing problems (for breeders): 0.71%
Always worrying about them: 6.38%
They don't like being touched and/or held: 8.98%
Other: 3.78%
Total votes: 423
7. What kind of bedding do you use?
Carefresh: 25.83%
Aspen: 21.19%
Pine: 41.72%
Cell-Sorb: 1.32%
Other: 9.93%
Total votes: 151
Entries (RSS)
I have had many chins over the years and to tell you the truth the best thing for them is pellet food such as mazuri timothy hay and a rasin and some oats everynow and then..anything else is not nessesary and they do not require a big diet and it can make them sick. Give them lots of attention and make sure they have a nice sizw cage and they do love to be in pairs.Always have fresh water for them and clean their cage at lest once a week. The only beeding you should really use is aspen ir kiln dried pine...NEVER us cedar it will kill your chin in the end.Make sure you give them a dust bath at least once a week and let them have an hr or so of out of the cage play time. They are pretty simple pets to have but alot of research is good to have when owing one of these amazing pets..Have fun with your chin and give him lots of love, and remember there are no 2 chins that are the same, they all have very different personalities.
I have had many chins over the years and to tell you the truth the best thing for them is pellet food such as mazuri timothy hay and a rasin and some oats everynow and then..anything else is not nessesary and they do not require a big diet and it can make them sick.
>your actually quite wrong. It isn't nessesary for humans to eat meat, but alot of us do. And in the same way that it isnt nessecary for chins to have dried apple, or dried apricot, or whole unshelled un salted peanuts, ...... but ours is loving it and he's over 6.5yrs old now so while excess can kill them, moderation doesnt.
Give them lots of attention and make sure they have a nice sizw cage and they do love to be in pairs.
> ours loves attention, on his terms. agree with the huge cage, but in pairs, ... he hates other chins, some people just like to be alone, chins are the same.
Always have fresh water for them and clean their cage at lest once a week.
> er, . water sure. but atleast once a week, well that depends on the size of the cage, remember chins need minerals from a certain kind of poo they make so if your cleaning all those out, they miss out on that, we clean our cage around once a month but then again it's 2mtrs tall, 750mm deep, has 6 levels, and is 1.8mtrs tall, it has one chin in it, and from what we can tell is the right size.
The only beeding you should really use is aspen ir kiln dried pine...NEVER us cedar it will kill your chin in the end.
> ok, now your just being a know-it-all. hay is fine too. so are pine shavings, and a range of other things,
Make sure you give them a dust bath at least once a week
> our chin has dust bath in the bottom of his cage at all times, once A week would be far too long for him, would you shower once a week ? seriously stop reading websites and stupid books and think for yourself.
and let them have an hr or so of out of the cage play time.
> the larger the cage, the less the need, ours gets out about once every 2-3 days for around 30mins, but again we have a huge cage he can run around in and build up speed.
They are pretty simple pets to have but alot of research is good to have when owing one of these amazing pets.
> well I dont agree with that at all, they arent simple, the dietary requirements are complex and do require knowledge,
.Have fun with your chin and give him lots of love, and remember there are no 2 chins that are the same, they all have very different personalities.
>
No offence, but it's people like that you that cause more problems than they solve, you dont know as much as you think you do, your half right, and half wrong and frankly thats dangerous.
Nigel I am a new owner to Chins and been research them to get balanced overview for care and you seem to be knowledgeable through experience, am I correct? I just had to rebuke `Amanda for saying all chins are diabetic but its a sort not to worry about?! I tried to find corroboration and couldn't so I pulled her on it. Diabetes they can develop apparently and someone advised me not to feed raisins for this reason. I(s this correct? And is that why some dried fruits are better? Have you any publishings concerning chins as you seem to exude a very re-assuring confidence and that rare on the NET. Please contact me paulharding2009@gmail.com
I have a boy chinchilla named Wisdom who is about 6 months old and who goes crazy over penuts. I want to know what is the right amount of peanuts per day where its not bad for him . Also I had his wheel in his cage with him and after two months he didn't take to it so I took it out , do you have any suggestions of any toy or exercise thing that maybe he would take too.
O yea my chin doesn't bit to harm he may nibble a little bit but clearly not to be mean I think that they are neat animals and I am a proud owner.
get a really big cage, makes a huge difference, eg 2 meters high, 2.3 wide, 750mm deep, many levels, made of untreated pine so he can chew on it an mark his domain. with places to hide in.
2-4 peanuts per day at that age (salt will kill him, so unsalted only)
put hay in his cage, that will keep him busy for a while.
My girl chin had a litter of SIX, however, two were stillborn, and one didnt make it (it was the runt). One baby, affectionately named Meatwad, is a total lover. he sits contentedly on my collarbone snuggled with his butt to my chin and watches tv. if he gets distracted and starts to get up and go, i put my hand in front of him, and he is reminded to stay put for another two to ten minutes. neither of his remaining brothers are so docile, nor his parents. i am convinced that his good behavior comes from his personality, i cant think of any other explanation.
yeah, it will be a combination of his personality, your gentle nature, which has resulted in him trusting you. Neat bond. it must be very rewarding.
i feed my chinchilla tap water with special vitamins meant for chinchilla water mixed in, is that okay?
it's not really needed (the vitamins), but sure, I cant see a problem with that. As a side note, ours loves pineapple juice, we leave it in a bowl for him to drink from when he feels like it, I think it's very important they have a choice between water and the juice if you chose to give them that. I guess apple juice would be fine too, orange wouldnt be, neither would mango, or anything else you can think off, just those two
further more on the pineapple juice, later learned he was leaving it to ferment (produce alcohol naturally) and then drinking it all in the space of a day or so. So we put a stop to that. Didn't realize for about a week or two, so he must have gotten himself a wee bit drunk a few times out that .... opps.
7mths is very young, he's just scared. Think of it from his point of view, a HUGE GIANT TOOK HIM FROM HIS SAFE PLACE OUT INTO THE WORLD OF MOUNTAINS !!!.
Chins are pretty timid, our one his about 5 years old, there's a number of great storys about how our one is arrogant or aggressive (even mean & cruel!), and yet the first thing he does every night we let him out is he runs straight under the couch. (without fail). Sure 2-3mins later he's running from his hiding places at rocket speed, and after about 10-20mins of run time he's just out in the open.
NEVER feed chins sugar coated anything, it will probably cause diabetes (sp?), no b/s, peanuts skin on are good, eg plain ones. (no salt that WILL KILL THEM, they have no gal-bladder to process salt so it's like drying out from the inside, it causes seizures 100% sure of that, so that means no drift wood in the cage), died apple, fresh apple(very wet so small amounts), died apricots (watch for sugar they can be hard to find without the sugar), NO ALMONDS EVER. dried raisins the dryer the better (eg hard as). no cashee nuts either.
Hay is a big one, they love that, its also part of being healthy for them too.
They also love clover and a bit of fresh grass,
Typically speaking the bigger the cage the better, ideally 2-3 mtrs squared is about right (yep thats huge),
oh um .... they live for about 12-20 years, ... I hope you know that.
First i have to say that this website is great i've learned so much......thanks everybody.
I bring my chin. out every night with me on the couch he's only 7 months i know now that they don't like being held....but when i bring him out all he want's to do is hide and runs back and forward till he find a place...All I'm wondering is if that could be a behavior problem, his age or is that just the way they are. also is it ok if i feed him sugar coated dried fruit and plain popcorn????
P.S---I don't have any toy for him what do you think is the best also I heard they can't eat nuts is that true?????
Thanks so much
Shay
the oils in the nuts aren't good for their digestive
peanuts, unsalted, with the skin (not the husk) don't any issues what-so-ever.
Kristy I'm not sure where you learned that, it might be true for some types of nuts but not all the information out there for chins is actually true or accurate, even in books and from so-called-experts, .. it's like most things people are just wrong sometimes.
id buy a wheel/flying saucer, a nesting box, and let him run around in a chinchilla proof room often.
ours has runs each night, he has a huge cage, it's 6ft high, and 750 deep, by two meters wide, but still each night, he wants out lol, .. I think he's checking his other domain