Chinchillas are very clean animals and dislike getting soiled in any way. Chinchilla dust bath helps chinchilla to stay clean, happy and maintain its coat naturally. In its native environment, the chinchilla would roll in fine volcanic ash to stay clean. Please if it is possible, make sure you get dust bath, not sand. Sand baths are recommended for most small animals, but a chinchilla’s fur is too fine for sand, and will be damaged by the sand. In addition, sand bath may irritate their skin and very important sand may cause serious irritations to their eyes because is not so thin as dust. If you notice some proof of irritation to their eye like the chin’s eye is closed, redness around eye at the skin and also tearing or white liquid in their eye stop the sand or dust bath immediately. They need the volcanic ash or dust made especially for them and know that may be difficult to find chinchilla dust bath because many pet shops not even know that exists!
To use the chinchilla dust and serve it to your chinchilla you must find a small container and fill it with a thin layer of dust. A wide variety of containers for this purpose is biscuit tins, washing-up bowls, goldfish bowls. They must be big enough for a chinchilla to roll around in freely. Dust baths should be given every other day for 15 minutes or at least twice a week. You can use the same dust bath until the color has become darker, or becomes grainy looking, which means that chinchilla has urinated in there so it needs to be replaced with new. You can sieve the dust through and remove any droppings or other debris. You must change at least once a week the dust otherwise dead skin cells accumulate within the dust and will start to cause skin and fur disorders.
Common Health Problems in Chinchillas
Some chinchillas have a sensitivity to dust, and they may make the nose-clearing sound, wipe their nose or get watery eyes. Chins are also sneezing cause of the dust. If your chin seems particularly sensitive to the chinchilla dust bath you are using, try another brand. If a chinchilla kept away of a dust bath for any length of time, they can get quite depressed and uncomfortable.
