Chinchilla Care Guide

Quick answer

Chinchillas need a tall, chew-proof cage kept somewhere cool, unlimited grass hay with a small amount of chinchilla pellets, a short dust bath daily or a few times a week and calm, gentle handling. Heat is the biggest danger: above about 27°C (80°F) they can get heatstroke. Treat them as a 10 to 15 year commitment, and often longer.

Is a chinchilla right for you?

Chinchillas are soft, quick and curious, and they can be very entertaining. They are also not cuddly lap pets. Most dislike being held for long, they are most active around dawn and dusk and into the night, and they can live as long as a dog. They suit adults or older children who are happy to watch, offer a hand and let the animal come to them.

They also need a room that stays cool all year. If your home regularly gets hot in summer and you have no reliable way to cool one room, think hard before buying.

Housing

A chinchilla jumps and climbs, so height matters more than with most small pets. Choose a tall, multi-level wire cage with platforms and shelves at different heights, and as much floor space as you can fit. Bigger is always better, and a pair needs more room than a single animal.

A few points make a big difference:

• Solid floors and shelves. Wire floors and ledges can trap and break legs and hurt feet. If the base is mesh, cover most of it with solid boards or tiles.
• Chew-proof materials. Chinchillas gnaw everything. Avoid plastic shelves and toys, which get chewed and swallowed. Untreated wood, metal and ceramic are safer.
• A hiding place. A wooden house or a wide tube gives them somewhere to retreat.
• Bedding. Dust-extracted wood shavings (not cedar) or paper bedding on the cage floor, spot-cleaned daily.
• Location. A quiet, cool room away from direct sun, radiators, heaters and draughts, and away from dogs and cats that will stress them.

Give supervised exercise time out of the cage in a chinchilla-proofed room every day if you can. Cover or remove cables, houseplants and anything small enough to chew or swallow, and block gaps behind furniture. A solid exercise wheel of a large diameter (no rungs or mesh) is a good extra, but it is not a replacement for time out.

Heat: the main danger

Chinchillas come from the cold, dry Andes and have extremely thick fur. Veterinary references describe a comfortable range of roughly 18 to 27°C (65 to 80°F), and many experienced keepers aim for the cooler end of that. Hot weather, especially when it is also humid, can cause heatstroke quickly.

Keep the room cool with air conditioning if you live somewhere hot. A fan alone is not enough, because it moves warm air around without cooling a furry animal much. A ceramic or granite tile in the cage gives them a cool surface to lie on.

Signs of overheating include lying stretched out, rapid breathing, red ears, weakness and drooling. Move the animal somewhere cooler straight away, dampen its ears with cool (not cold) water and call a vet. Read Keeping Pets Safe in a Heatwave before your first summer.

Diet

The chinchilla gut is built for a lot of fibre, and a hay-based diet also wears down their teeth, which never stop growing.

• Grass hay, unlimited. Timothy or another good-quality grass hay should make up most of what they eat. Keep it fresh, dry and free of mould.
• Chinchilla pellets, measured. A small daily amount of plain chinchilla pellets, not a mix with seeds, dried fruit or coloured pieces. Many chinchillas eat about 1 to 2 tablespoons a day; follow the pack and your vet's advice.
• Water, always. Fresh water in a bottle or heavy bowl, changed daily.
• Treats, rarely. Their gut does not handle sugar or fat well. Skip raisins, nuts, seeds and fruit as regular treats. A plain dried herb or a piece of hay cube is a safer reward.

Change food gradually over a week or two. Sudden changes can upset digestion, and chinchillas cannot vomit.

Dust baths

Chinchillas keep their coats clean by rolling in fine dust, which soaks up oil and moisture. Offer a dust bath in a heavy bowl or enclosed bath house with 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) of proper chinchilla dust, daily or at least a few times a week, for about 10 minutes, then take it away. Leaving it in permanently means it gets soiled, and long sessions can dry the skin and irritate the eyes.

Use dust sold specifically for chinchillas. Play sand and ordinary sand are too coarse. Never bathe a chinchilla in water: their fur is so dense it can stay damp for a long time.

Handling

Let a new chinchilla settle for several days before you try to handle it. Sit near the cage, talk quietly and offer your hand. Over time most will climb onto you.

When you do need to lift one, scoop it up with one hand under the body and the other gently holding the base of the tail for security. Never grab it by the fur. Rough handling can cause fur slip, where the chinchilla releases a patch of fur as a defence. The fur grows back but can take months, sometimes in a slightly different shade.

Company

Chinchillas are social animals. Many do well in same-sex pairs or small groups, ideally littermates or animals introduced slowly by someone experienced. Others live contentedly alone if they get daily time with their owner. Unneutered males and females kept together will breed. If you are buying, ask the seller how the animal has been kept so far.

Health checks

Teeth are the most common problem in pet chinchillas. Watch for:

• eating less, dropping food or choosing only soft foods;
• drooling or a wet chin, or wet fur on the front paws;
• weight loss (weigh your chinchilla weekly on kitchen scales);
• fewer or smaller droppings;
• runny eyes;
• overgrown front teeth (healthy ones are orange-yellow, not white).

A chinchilla that stops eating or passing droppings needs a vet the same day. Other warning signs include a swollen belly, diarrhoea, breathing problems, hair loss and lethargy. Find a vet who sees exotic pets before you need one, and book a check-up soon after you bring your chinchilla home.

A simple routine

Every day, top up hay, measure out pellets, change the water, spot-clean the cage and check that your chinchilla is eating, active and passing plenty of droppings. A few times a week, offer the dust bath. Once a week, weigh them, clean the cage properly and check teeth and coat.

If you decide a chinchilla suits your home, ask sellers about age, diet and housing so far, and you can find small-pet listings on Paalo.