Most of your know I retired from chinchillas awhile back. Well, I am now once again the proud owner of a chinchilla.
His name is Sam and he belonged to my nephew. Unfortunately they moved recently and couldn't keep him so I took him in. This way they wouldn't lose him completely and can come visit whenever they want. I can't tell you what a joy it has been to have a chinchilla in the house again. We had to get creative with his cage since I now have 2 indoor cats.
Fortunately we had a very small closet area in our den. It was really too small and shallow to be useful so I got an idea. My husband and I added a shelf midway down the closet and then lined the inside with smooth tile board. We added untreated pine boards as ledges and as a front to the shavings area. We built the cage front out of untreated wood and 1/2 x 1/2 inch wire. The bottom of the closet has more shelves and a solid door for storing all of his supplies. We stained the front of the doors (where he couldn't reach) so they would match the kitchen cabinets and now it looks like the house was built that way! We love it and he seems to also. Since the cage starts so high the cats can't stress him. (not that they did anyway. He is one of those bossy chinchillas). They do sit on the furniture across from him and watch him for hours though.
Just to let you know, there are 3 cage locks on this cage for added protection and the cats are locked in the bathroom each day during feeding, dusting, and cage cleaning. We want to sure we keep out little buddy very safe from the house cats.
I just thought I would share this idea in case someone else had a useless closet area. A word of caution about our design: Since there is no cage pan I have to clean the shavings every other day. I have found this is an acceptable amount of time to where all urine has been absorbed by the shavings and isn't able to soak into the wood or seep down in-between the cracks. Some chinchillas can be messier and might require daily cleaning for this sort of cage bottom.
