Caring for a chinchilla means taking care for the pet itself and cleaning up the cage, etc. Chinchillas are very cleanly which like tidiness in there cage very much. * Cleaning plan Daily duties Before feeding you should remove leftovers of hay which are lying in the wood-shavings. It can quite happen that the chinchilla eats the leftovers from the ground. But these leftovers can be soiled with urine and droppings so that the chinchilla can get diarrhoe. Next is cleaning up the feeding bowl. If there are pellets left you should throw them away and fill up the bowl with fresh pellets. Absolutely necessary is to give them fresh water every day, because you don´t like staled water, too!!! If the dustbath is in the cage permanent you should weed out it every day weekly duties Weekly you should change the wood-shavings in the cage and clean up the cage with hot water. You should also clean up the boards to free them from dirt (droppings, hair, etc.) and clean up the drinking bottle to avoid algas which can cause the chinchilla´s death. Also the dustbath should be weed and filled up out or - if necessary - been changed. monthly duties Once a month you should clean up the boards and climbing-branches, which are soiled with urine, etc. with hot water. The hair that was thrown away from the chins and is hanging in the grating should be removed with a shawl. The golden rule for the chinchilla care should be: "Clean up the chinchilla cage just as you would clean up your house". * Pet care If your chinchilla has a nice home you should also watch its physical condition. dustbath For keeping their fur soft and dainty chins need their daily dustbath. You have to use special chinchilla-sand, because e.g. bird´s sand is much to rough and could damage the chinchilla´s fur. The best thing is to give the chins the dustbath during exercise or to put the dustbath into the cage for some time. I advise you not to let the dustbath in the cage the whole day because chins often urinate into the sand and then you can´t use it anymore. dental care As the chinchilla is a rodent its teeth are permanent growing again. For keeping them right in form you should offer your chin branches or rodent-stones from the pet shop. Control of droppings Very important is daily control of the droppings. There you can see its status of health. Very important is the form and condition of the droppings. A healthy chin has droppings which are about 1 cm long, oval or longish with a smooth surface. If you break up the droppings inside there are no cavities and you can not see rests of hay. The colour of the droppings varies in a dry condition between oliv-green to dark brown. When the droppings are weak so that the chinchilla can pull them on the boards or if there are scribbles on the boards the chin has diarrhoe and has to be right treated (see "diseases"). If the droppings are very small and hard normally that´s a sign for constipation. Also in this case the chin has to be treated rigth (see "diseases").