Chinchillas will only survive if they are given the correct environment. Chinchillas come from the Andes mountain range and they are used to a fairly dry climate with cool conditions. Not only must you be able to supply the chinchilla with as near to these conditions as possible, you must also purchase a decent chinchilla cage. The chinchilla cage is going to serve a variety of different purposes. Firstly it must stop the chinchilla from obviously escaping and either damaging itself in an unknown environment or from getting attacked by other pets in your household. Also, not damage the chinchilla and it must allow the chinchilla the freedom to move around as it likes.
Chinchillas are very active animals. Anyone who has ever owned a chinchilla as the pet will tell you that they move around quite a lot and can jump fairly high. They also like climbing the bars of the cage, so your pet’s home that you purchase must take this into account. The ideal type of home is a metal chinchilla cage but more about that later. The size of the cage is what we are really concerned about here; the size must have a decent height and a decent width. In terms of measurements, the perfect chinchilla cage should be no less than 6′ x 6′ x 3′. This will allow the chinchilla to move around as much as it wants, climb up and down the sides of the cage as much as it wants, and be able to jump around to its heart’s content. Many of these large cages for chinchillas consist of multiple levels. The levels are then connected with ramps so that the chinchilla can move between the different levels.
There are only really a couple of different materials than you can possibly make your chinchilla cage from. The choice of chinchilla cage for most owners of chinchillas is wire mesh. The wire mesh must actually be of a certain size otherwise the chinchillas are unlikely to squeeze through the gaps, or if they are breeding, their babies will be able to squeeze through. Wooden chinchilla cages are not a good idea because the chinchilla can chew through the wooden bars. Glass or plastic chinchilla cages are also not ideal because the chinchilla needs to have a good movement of air around the cage. Glass or plastic cages can actually increase the temperature of the interior of the cage to such an extent that the animal may get heatstroke become very sick. Chinchilla bedding is another area that you must be careful with.
