Did you know that a healthy chinchilla can live up to 20 years! Well, the best way to keep your chinchilla living happily and more importantly healthy is to simply keep the cage clean! By keeping the cage clean, you’re combating bacterial growth that can really pose a big threat to your adorable little chin. Having a clean cage all starts by checking it daily and giving it a thorough cleaning at least once a month. In this article, you will find all the information right from food to cages that you need to know about a Chinchilla.
Of course, you can all ways do certain things to keep cleaning relatively easy. The first thing that you should do is watch your chinchilla. After a while, you’ll begin to notice that it usually urinates in the same corner of the cage. You won’t have to clean the bedding every time it goes but it is a good idea to throw away all the soiled bedding every single day. Feces, on the other hand, will usually be scattered throughout the entire cage and around the floor adjacent to the cage. You should vacuum around the cage every day and try to make sure that you check the food dish for any feces that could have gotten in there.
You should get into the habit of changing out the chinchilla bedding every four or five days. To change the bedding, all you have to do is throw away the old bedding and replace it with new bedding. Chinchillas are relatively oder-less but after a week of getting soiled, it can get pretty disgusting. This is why I all ways suggest that you change it before it really becomes a problem. Again, every three or four days you should consider changing out the bedding.
As for the food and water, you’ll want to clean the water bottle and food dish about once a week. You need to use hot water and soap. If you buy a dishwasher-safe water bottle, then you can just throw it in there and it’ll be ok.
The Big Clean-
Like I said before, you’ll need to completely disinfect the cage once a month. Now there are tons of different disinfecting solutions that you can buy but the best solution is bleach and water. The ASPCA says that a 5% solution of bleach to water is deemed safe and completely not toxic. You need to scrub every square inch of the cage with this bleach and water mixture. Then rinse all of that off really good with water and allow it to dry. While you’re cleaning the cage, you can all ways let your chinchilla run around the house or hallway.
If you do all of this, you probably won’t ever have to worry about getting a new cage. And even better, you’ll have a happy and incredibly healthy chin! So either way, keeping your chinchilla cage clean is all ways a win-win!
