Chinchilla Play Time Outside of Cage

Kathy · 08-01-2005, 10:36 PM

Hello,

I was curious as to the amount of play time other chin owners give to their furballs outside of their cages? As well, do you encourage outdoor play or is your chin strickly an indoor chin?

Our chins do not play outside and we normally give them between 1 and 2 hours a day of playtime outside their cage.

Thanks for your time!

SIChins · 08-01-2005, 10:44 PM

You might want to ask a moderator to move this to the chinchilla section so that you get a better response.
Now, to answer your question - I have a lot of chins, and each one is different. My older chins only want to play outside their cages for about 15 mins. a day, whereas my younger chins are out for 1 hour a day, but if they are really hyper, I don't let them stay out that long, for fear of them overheating. They don't get out every day, it depends on many factors, but they do come out as often as possible.

willamettevalleychins · 08-02-2005, 08:47 AM

I let my chins out for 30 min. to an hour every other day, like SI chins I do not want them to get over heated. I switch each day one day I let my males out the next day I will let my females out.

SunShine05 · 08-06-2005, 03:55 PM

so mine will be a bout 8 weeks old when i get them how long should i let them out?

Solarsis · 08-06-2005, 03:58 PM

you should probably start off by getting the chins accustomed to you and not let them out at all. Taming a chin can take time sometimes so go slowly and only go as fast as the chins will let you. Once they are used to being handled by you, you can start giving them so play time in a chin proof area. I would start off with about 15 minutes per day then increase as you go along.

It's a good thing to get them comfortable with you first because then it's less of a trauma or challenge for you to get your chin back in its cage after playtime.

SunShine05 · 08-06-2005, 04:19 PM

k thanks a lot

McCaille · 08-06-2005, 07:09 PM

Welcome to POTN Maggie! Sophie just about covered it already.

We usually start letting babies have a short very well supervised play time at around 6 weeks. This usually consists of keeping them in a smaller area of the chin room, with generally less than 15 minutes of time out.

As for our other chins, Our adults get anywhere from 30 minutes to an Hour. I've got it pretty down pat which chins prefer the shorter time and which like a long run. Our younger chins gradually build up in length, but usually start around 10-15 minutes, and by the time their 5 months old are just about worked up to a half an hour.