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.

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.

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.

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.

I completely agree with avoiding wire in your cage, but a 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:

1. Choose a Large Chinchilla Cage
2. Things to Put in Your Chinchilla Cage
3. 2 Chinchillas, 1 Chinchilla Cage