Custom Homemade Chinchilla Cage
The pictures below are from Erica Vojnich. She did an awesome job making her own chinchilla cage. Her chin, Sophie, is a lucky lady. Her homemade cage cost around $100. This is one of the great examples of a chinchilla cage that people create themselves. See below for more ideas.
For those of us that are not as crafty, there are some nice cages available. The Marshall Folding Mansion from Amazon is a large cage. With a few minor adjustments, like putting wood on the levels to give your chin solid places to stand, this cage can work great.
Here are a few notes she had about chinchilla cages, and some precautions for those who want to try to make their own.
1) If the cage is constructed with melamine, make sure your chinchilla won’t be exposed to any of the edges. Melamine is toxic if it is ingested and your chin will most likely chew the exposed edges. The edges can be covered using metal edging. Our cage doesn’t have that issue because we used wood for the shelves and ramps.
2) If wood is used, it has to be Untreated Pine. Since the chin will probably chew the shelves, it has to be something they can digest and it can’t be painted. These chemicals will harm your chinchilla.
Her chin is sitting on granite stones like the ones below:
CLICK HERE TO SEE CURRENT PRICING AT AMAZON
3) Please do not put wire or plastic shelves in your custom homemade cages. Plastic is very harmful for them to be digesting. Wire shouldn’t be used because your chinchilla needs something solid to stand, walk, jump and sit on. It is very possible for your chinchilla to injure their feet on wire surfaces. Chinchilla can slip their foot/toe through holes. This could result in spraining, breaking, or cutting a part of the toe off.
You can add a Leap and Ledge to get an extra flat surface to stand and to chew on.
CLICK HERE TO SEE CURRENT PRICING AT AMAZON
4) Try to arrange the shelves so there is no possibility of your chin falling all the way from the top of the cage to the very bottom. We used a series of “L” shapes in our cage divided by a middle shelf. You’ll be surprised how quickly they will learn to jump all the way from the top to the bottom. Still, you want to take precautions. If they loose their footing, the fall won’t be from such a great height.
metal chinchilla cage is easy to find and cheap. With some adjustments, they can be made safer.
Customizing a store bought cage is another option. You’ll need some chinchilla supplies. Add some shelves to get the “L” shapes Erica talked about in order to keep your chin safe from injury. Covering the sides and floors with untreated, chinchilla safe wood may be an easier way to get a unique cage. This goes for chinchilla bedding, as well. Putting up walls on the sides is a good idea because chins have the amazing ability of shooting their poo out of the cage in every direction. I swear that my chins had a poo slingshot hidden in their chinchilla cage somewhere because there is no other way droppings could fly that far across the room. Sometimes I imagined that they would have competitions to see who could get their poop the farthest. I always hoped to walk in and see Pedro DePacas shot putting a dropping.
There are a bunch of great homemade cages out there, and I will be featuring some more soon. Thanks for letting me show off your chinchilla cage, Erica.
Related posts:
this is courtney mulholland I am getting a chinchilla around christmas as a gift the person that is getting it for me wants me to get the cage ready for the chinchilla i just wanted to know if i could get a smaller cage with multi-levels and a hammok all for around $25.00
November 5th, 2009 at 5:14 pmoh yeah i almost forgot somethi dont want it to small but i want it to be about 24”x36” just wanted to let you know if its not exact it’s okay.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:21 pmAre you asking if I can make a cage? Sorry, I don’t make custom cages for sale. If you are looking to build a cage, I would expect to pay closer to $125. You could probably find a cheap used cage. If you end up finding a wire cage, just make sure to put down wood so the chinchilla has enough solid places to stand.
November 5th, 2009 at 9:45 pmwhat kind of material did she use? the basic outer parts and inner walls etc… or did she remodel a cabinet sorta thing? please email me
June 1st, 2010 at 12:42 pmDo you have to use untreated pine for the shell of the cage or just for the shelves?
June 11th, 2010 at 9:05 amEssentially, anywhere the chinchilla can chew should be untreated pine. Many people will use melamine for the the walls, but you have to be sure to cover any area that can be chewed.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:55 amMelamine for the outer parts. Everything inside is untreated pine.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:56 amLOVE this cage! Great job! I want to try to build one for my Olver so I can get him a brother…I love how it looks like furniture. I was wondering what the approximate dimensions are and if you have suggestions for anything to improve on or issues you had. My only concern is that it looks so heavy.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:50 pmI’m actually not the one that made this. I know that she spent time looking for any area that could cause potential harm to her chins.
July 21st, 2010 at 5:11 pmoh i see so it wasnt made from scratch
my dads a carpenter so i was thinking we could whip it up together
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:43 pmWhat do you use to fasten the melamine sides together? What is the bottom, bedding area like and how is it cleaned out?
February 4th, 2011 at 8:44 pmYou can use glue and/or nails. For the bottom, I would suggest making a drop pan that can be lifted out. Using a separate box in the bottom allows you to replace it if it gets soiled, and it is easier to clean outside of the cage. If you are building a big cage, you can make two smaller drop pans to make it easier to get in and out.
February 5th, 2011 at 9:58 amI want to know if this cage is for sale ……..i really like it
June 29th, 2011 at 10:47 pmSorry, it is not for sale.
June 30th, 2011 at 3:59 amI was wondering where she got the cabinet or what kind of cabinet it is because im looking for one exactly like this to make a cage as well.
Thank you.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:21 amThis one is made from scratch. Be careful if you are going to buy a cabinet and turn it into a cage. Some of the material may be harmful to the chins.
July 27th, 2011 at 11:03 amOh really? What is the white cabinet part made of?
July 27th, 2011 at 11:08 amAnd just painted it white?
July 27th, 2011 at 11:32 amOk, so I shouldn’t have gone from memory. I edited some of my comments. The outside is melamine. This is not good for chins, so the lady who made it was careful not to have any exposed edges. The wood inside is untreated pine. The top portion was made from scratch. The bottom part is a small IKEA table made from the same stuff. Sorry about the confusion. I hope this helps.
July 27th, 2011 at 11:52 amThank you for all the information, it really helps. Do you happen to know what the dimensions of the first big main part of the cage are?
July 27th, 2011 at 1:18 pmIt seems like a nice cage, but how do you clean up from the wood becoming soiled? My chinchilla likes to pee in the corner of his cage, it seems like the mess would just build up in the corners and soak into the wood.
November 6th, 2011 at 9:59 pmIf the bedding is not protecting the wood, then you would have to replace the wood. There is really no way around that. If I knew my chin always peed in one corner, I’d probably put up a sacrificial piece of wood there.
November 7th, 2011 at 4:39 amis it hard to make
January 22nd, 2012 at 3:53 pmIt really depends on how good you are at woodworking. It is not very hard if you have the right tools. Everything can be purchased at the local hardware store.
January 23rd, 2012 at 7:09 am