Chinchilla pet / care information

Alfalfa hay is high in calcium and protein and for this reason it should not be given to rabbits. The high protein can cause urinary problems and the high calcium and cause liver damage. The alfalfa is ideal for pets that require high amounts of these nutrients such as guinea pigs, degu, flying squirrels, and chinchillas.

Water is better for your pet if it is filtered but make sure that the filter is not over used since this too can cause illness in your pet. Change your filter according to the manufactures direction.

Pine bedding is safe if it is kiln dried (this removes the oils and kills insects in the wood chips).

Cedar (red chips) are great for storage closets because the bugs stay away because they know it will kill them SO do NOT use cedar for your pets this is poisonous. Hair loss, eye irritation and upper respiratory problems are common with use of cedar. When cedar oils are mixed with urine the gases are very toxic.

Never suddenly change your pets food. Always make an effort to use the regular brand mixed with the new food , adding a little more new food to the mix every day or two until the whole serving of food consists of the new feed. This sure take a one or two week period of time to wean your pet over to a new food. This is true even for hamsters, mice and other rodent pets and especially so for exotics-chinchillas, sugargliders and bunnies etc.

Litter training-bunnies, chinchillas, hamsters and small squirrels are all capable of being easily trained. To train a bunny or rabbit place two fistfuls of kiln dried pine (not clay or chemical litter the clay can stick to the urethra and cause infection and the chemicals can cause respiratory distress)

in a small litter pan, place some droppings in this pan and give the bunny access to it and leave it in the same area all the time. Do the same for a chinchilla but you need to use something heavy since chins are comedians and will dump out their litter. I recommend a large dog ceramic crock. Leave this in a corner and your pet chinchilla will urinate in this (easy to clean every day or two). As for dwarf hamsters place a handful of chinchilla dust or play sand in a bowl, set it in the cage-watch your little dwarfs roll in the dust and with in an hour they will be using it as their potty. Clean 2-3x weekly, wash well and dry then add more fresh dust or sand watch them bathe and then use it for a potty.