Letting Your Chinchilla Out of Its Cage

In this section we look at letting your Chinchilla out of its cage. Many new Chinchilla owners are naturally concerned about this topic and so we answer your most common frequently asked questions about Chinchilla care when letting it play outside its cage.

Chinchilla

Should I Allow My Chinchilla Out of the Cage?

Many new Chinchilla owners are concerned about letting their Chinchilla out of its cage for the first time. Some Chinchilla owners do not even know that this is good for the Chinchilla and they keep their Chinchilla in the Chinchillas cage permanently.

Sure, if you have bought a large Chinchilla cage then yes a Chinchilla will not be harmed or will not suffer because of this but it is helpful towards your Chinchilla to let it roam outside of its cage every once in a while. This gives it stimulation and reduces boredom so give it some time outside of the cage; here are our tips and advice for letting your Chinchilla out of its Chinchilla cage.

How Often?

Good Chinchilla owners will allow their pet Chinchilla an hour once a day of play outside of the Chinchilla cage.

Because Chinchillas are from the rodent family they will likely chew on things such as your furniture. Make sure you let your Chinchilla out in a room that is Chinchilla friendly just as if you have kids you make your house child friendly with objects you treasure and care for out of the reach of your pet. Remember that Chinchillas are great at climbing so they can reach up high.

Chinchilla out of cage

Chinchilla Health and Safety

Be careful with your room in terms of electrical cables such as lamps. It is best to supervise your Chinchillas play time out of its cage so that it does not chew through cables or wires which are live and plugged in to electricity sockets.

It is basic common sense but make sure that when you let your Chinchilla out that the room is enclosed make sure all windows are closed and the door to the room is closed with nobody likely to come in the middle of your play session, thereby allowing your pet Chinchilla to make a dash for the gap and escape!

Keep the play room simple and uncluttered; you don’t want your Chinchilla to get behind hidden corners and urinate (or worse!). Make sure there are no hidden dangers such as places they could get their legs trapped or sharp objects or dangerous and poisonous chemicals such as cleaning products.

How to Handle a Chinchilla

Your Chinchilla has a personality of its own, you may find your Chinchilla is naughty or you might find him mean. Generally however they are shy, sensitive creatures so you need to approach them in a quiet way so you don’t frighten them when taking them out of their cage.

Over time if you handle them correctly, with love, care and attention you will find they trust you more and they become more affectionate. Use two hands to cup them in case they try jump away from you.

Support the Chinchillas back legs in one hand and the front feet slightly higher than the back legs with your other hand. Holding them against your body will make them feel more secure at first. 

Now let them have a good play before cupping them in your hands again to put them back in the cage for your Chinchilla – and a note of caution – they will probably be quite hard to catch – after all would you want to go back in your cage after you have been having so much fun!

Handling Chinchillas

Here is a video showing you how to handle your Chinchilla when letting it out of the cage: