Do-it-yourself showcase and house for a chinchilla

Before acquiring a fluffy and very mobile animal, it is necessary to equip him with a place to live. Like all rodents, chinchillas are very fond of trying everything on the tooth. An animal running freely around the house is gnawed furniture, baseboards, walls and electrical wires. This not only angers the owners, but also poses a danger to the chinchilla itself.

For chinchillas, there are industrial-made cages, but not all pet stores can buy them. In addition, a purchased cage provides only the minimum needs of the animal, and the owner usually wants his pet to be happy. You can make a custom cage for a chinchilla yourself.

Do-it-yourself showcase and house for a chinchilla

Cages for chinchillas can be divided into two large groups: for fur farms and for home keeping.

For a home, you can make a cage 80 cm high. But most chinchilla breeders prefer to make a showcase cage. Feature showcase: height significantly exceeds the width and length. The side walls can be tightened with a metal wall or be completely wooden. Often, an old cabinet is remade into a showcase for a chinchilla. For the same reason, sometimes a showcase looks like a nightstand.

How to make a showcase from an old cabinet

The main requirement for a cage for chinchillas is floor space. One animal should account for 0,4 square meters. m, that is, 1 m x 0,4 m. The length and width of the cage in this case are not a dogma – the dimensions can be proportionally changed. For more animals, the cell area is increased accordingly.

An old wardrobe is convenient because it requires a minimum of labor when converting it into a chinchilla house. But it is also dangerous, since cabinets are usually made from chipboard. If an animal tries chipboard on a tooth, it can get poisoned.

1. The doors are removed from the cabinet and it is converted from the inside for animals.
2. If there are shelves, they are partially cut out so that the chinchillas can move freely from bottom to top and back.
3. If shelves were not provided in the closet, there is freedom of creativity. Shelves for chinchillas can be placed to your liking.

    

   Important! Shelves should be made of natural wood. If the smooth side walls are inconvenient to gnaw, then the horizontally located chinchilla will definitely try on the tooth.
4. A hole is cut in the top of the cabinet for air circulation. The hole is covered with a metal mesh.

   

5. Instead of cabinet doors, wooden frames are made, covered with a metal mesh. You can simplify your work and make frames from “native” doors by cutting holes in them along the entire length. Leave only stripes around the perimeter of the door about 10 cm wide.
6. Ideally, if the cabinet was with lower drawers. Then, in the main part of the showcase, the floor is removed and replaced with a grid. Under the net place a tray for litter, feed and debris. In this case, you do not have to open the entire window to clean out the chinchilla cage.

   

7. If desired, the side walls of the showcase can also be made mesh.

Showcase from scratch

When making a showcase from scratch, you will need a solid backboard made of wood and bars for the frame. Everything else can be tightened with a metal mesh. In addition, you will also need:

• screwdriver;
• self-tapping screws;
• a jigsaw;
• door hinges;
• drill;
• drill;
• PVC tape.

Since the showcase is made individually, taking into account the size of the room in which the chinchillas will live, and the location of other furniture in the room, drawings are usually not made. On the spot, the length, width and height of the future showcase are measured and the required amount of materials is calculated. An approximate drawing of a future showcase looks like this:

The vertical supports of the frame also serve as legs in the event that the floor in the showcase is mesh and there is a waste tray under it.

The photo shows a showcase for several chinchillas with the expectation of raising young animals. In this case, the showcase was made from scratch and the specified dimensions were used.

Sometimes the showcase is placed in the corner of the room. But a corner showcase for chinchillas is more difficult to manufacture and requires at least minimal woodworking skills.

For such a showcase, as in the photo, you will need two solid shields knocked down at right angles. It will not be difficult for a carpenter to make such a corner showcase, and the rest of the owners of chinchillas can make their work easier by redoing an old corner cabinet for the needs of chinchillas.

If the animals are kept for a short time, repairs will have to be done after them.

A simpler version of the corner showcase can be made by using walls to enclose the space.

1. A pair of vertical bars of the required height are stuffed onto the walls. They should cover the habitable part of the display case.
2. Two horizontal ones are nailed on top of these bars.
3. It is best if the metal mesh is located inside the cage. That is, first a mesh is attached to the upper bars, then the bars are nailed to the wall.
4. From below, a similar operation is carried out.
5. To protect the wall from attempts to sharpen teeth on it, the sides can also be closed with a metal mesh.

    

   Note! The bottom of the cage should not reach the floor of the room if it is made of mesh.
6. If there is a fear that the chinchilla will injure the paws on the mesh, the bottom is made of a solid wooden or plastic shield. The same applies to “regular” shop windows. In this case, a suitably sized excrement tray is placed at the bottom of the display case or the tree is covered with a waterproof dense material.
7. Mesh doors are attached to vertical side bars. You can make two doors, you can make one wide. Also, for ease of cleaning, you can divide the doors vertically, making them open autonomously. Then, to clean the showcase, it will be enough to open only the lower half.
8. Inside the showcases at various levels, shelves are screwed on which chinchillas will run.
9. After the main part of the future home is ready, the heads of all bolts and screws are closed with plugs, as chinchillas often try to sharpen their teeth about them. To prevent the animal from chewing on wooden bars, they are glued with PVC tape.

If you put a drinking bowl and a feeder in the cage, then the dwelling will already be ready to receive the inhabitants. But for a comfortable life of chinchillas in the window, additional equipment will be required.

How to equip a cage for a chinchilla

With shelves alone, the animal will feel uncomfortable. Chinchillas are good jumpers, but they are far from squirrels. Therefore, transitions will need to be made between the shelves. In addition, as nocturnal animals, chinchillas need shelter where they can sleep during the daytime. First of all, animals need a house.

Making a house

The appearance of the house depends solely on the imagination and skill of the owner of the chinchilla. The main requirement is that it must fit in size. In too spacious shelter the animal will feel discomfort, and in too small it will be cramped. The simplest version of the house in the photo below. This is a wooden box with a sawn-out entrance.

A more complex version of a large house for a large chinchilla also provides for the possibility of attaching a wooden hemp treat to the house.

Otherwise, the owner’s imagination is not limited. You can make houses with several floors, with several entrances, or decorate them with carvings.

bathing suit

Chinchillas are very fond of bathing in the sand, so a bathing suit is also one of the essentials for animals, as is a feeder with a drinking bowl. Bathing suits can be bought at the pet store, but they are also easy to make with your own hands.

Manger for hay

The feeder is used for feeding grain concentrates and various dried fruits to animals. There should be a separate place for hay. You can make a miniature nursery of a classical form.

You can make them from wire or wooden sticks.

Although the animals are often equal in size, the rabbit is not adapted to get into very narrow gaps. What is safe for rabbits may pose a threat to the life of a chinchilla. In the photo below, the chinchilla has just climbed into the hay ball for rabbits and cannot get out of it on its own.

A feeder, a drinker, a nursery, a house, a tray and a bathing bowl – the window now has everything a chinchilla needs, except for a town for physical activity.

Town

Chinchillas are obese animals, and they need active movement just like food and water. You can make chinchillas move by building routes convenient for climbing in the “town”.

The town includes:

• running wheel for chinchillas;
• shelves fixed at different levels;
• transitions between shelves.

The variety of transitions is limited only by the imagination and skill of the chinchilla owner.

It can be:

• suspension bridges;
• tunnels;
• stairs;
• swing.

The only requirement for all these products is natural wood without paint and varnish. You can make transitions from unskinned branches of edible tree species. And change periodically.

The role of a transition, a toy and a place to rest is simultaneously performed by a chinchilla hammock suspended in the window. It is made from thick, non-stretch fabric. Well suited denim. They fix it so that the chinchilla could jump into the hammock, but could not shake it much.

In addition to shelves and transitions, a running wheel and a treadmill must be present in the town. Wheels are sold in pet stores and are designed for all active small animals. You need to buy a wooden or plastic wheel, as a metal wheel can be dangerous for a chinchilla. But you can do it yourself.

DIY chinchilla wheel

To make a wheel you will need:

• 2 sheets of plywood with a side of at least 40 cm and a thickness of at least 1 cm;
• up to 10 curly meter rails;
• tension automobile bearing;
• drill;
• drill 12 mm;
• self-tapping screws;
• 2 bolts with a diameter of 12 mm: long and short;
• screwdriver;
• washers for bolts;
• nuts for bolts;
• jigsaw.

Manufacturing technology:

1. In pieces of plywood, they find the middle and drill holes. With an electric jigsaw cut out 2 circles of 30 cm in diameter.
2. One is left, another circle with a diameter of 25–27 cm is cut out of the other. Only a large circle will be needed from this circle.
3. The slats are cut into pieces about 15 cm long. The size of the slats depends on the chinchilla. The animal must fit freely in the wheel.
4. The cut slats are closely attached to the ends of the circle and the cut circle.
5. A washer is put on a long bolt, the bolt is inserted from the inside into the wheel, another washer is put on and the structure is screwed with a nut.
6. A bolt hole is drilled in the wall of the display case.
7. The center of the bearing is aligned with the hole in the wall and the bearing is screwed with self-tapping screws.
8. The wheel with a bolt is inserted into the bearing and tightened with a nut from the outside of the showcase.

The video shows in sufficient detail how to make a running wheel for chinchillas.

Treadmill

For chinchillas, this is an additional device, and it is easier to buy it in a store. There it can be sold as a treadmill for decorative hedgehogs. She looks like this.

Now the showcase contains everything necessary for a happy life of chinchillas. It remains only to figure out what a walking ball is.

Ball for chinchilla

This is a device that a chinchilla should not have. The plastic ball transmits infrared rays very well and heats up from the inside. Chinchillas do not tolerate heat well. Half an hour in such a ball is enough for the animal to die.

In such a ball, some negligent owners of small animals let them “walk” in the fresh air and eat green grass falling into the cracks of the ball. Juicy chinchilla food is contraindicated. And the stress of walking is much more harmful than being in a spacious shop window.

farm cage

A chinchilla cage on a fur farm is almost indistinguishable from a rabbit cage. Of the differences, there is only an additional shelf above the floor of the cage and a passage for the male, who mates with 4–8 females at once on the farm. You can also make a cage for a fur chinchilla with your own hands.

This will require:

• galvanized mesh;
• scissors for cutting metal;
• clamps;
• pliers.

Manufacturing process:

1. The grid is marked and cut into pieces.
2. An additional shelf is tightly attached to one of the side parts.
3. Then fasten all sides with clamps.
4. In the front part of the cage, a door is cut out and hung on the mounts.

   

5. In the side walls they make a passage for the male chinchilla and cover it with a small tunnel. The tunnel is needed so that the male can rest.
6. A feeder, a drinking bowl, a nursery and a house are placed in the cage and chinchillas are launched.

In case of need, houses are independently made in the same way as for rabbits.

Conclusion

A chinchilla will bring a lot of joy and live a long time if she has the opportunity not only to eat right, but also to move a lot. A lot of space is needed for active movement, and industrial store cages are too small for this. Therefore, most chinchilla owners prefer to make showcases for their animals with their own hands.