The "Chin-Room"
Our chinchilla room is in the basement because of the lower temperatures and the ease of clean-up.
Below is how the rescue looked the last time we took a picture. We have since moved into a new home, but the cages and set-up are basically the same... just picture these cages all against a dark background, as we now have dark brown panel walls behind all of the cages.
Want to see how we evolved? Visit our "History of the Chin-Room" page.
Above are pictures are most of
our set-up. We have switched over to mostly Ferret Nation and Critter
Nation cages, with the additional cages kept being mostly Quality Cages
and Martins Cages.
For the most part, the cages are lined up against the wall, with supplies on the shelves under the FNs/CN. We have more supplies in a shelf-unit off to the right (pictured to the left). This is only a small sampling of our supplies! We have an entire canning room (we call it the "storage closet" filled with chinchilla supplies! We also have extra chinchilla food out in the garage, and supplies stacked in several other places as well! It takes a lot of storage space to house the supplies needed to care for this many chinchillas!
We also have a pop-up playpen that we use for letting some of the rescue chinchillas out for playtime, as time allows.
Below are pictures of our individual cages and breeding runs.
Starting with the Ferret Nations & Critter Nation. For all of these cages, we have gone to the effort to get our Bass Pans powdercoated, to extend the life of these pans, and, as an added bonus, to help add some additional color to the cages.
The first FN in the row is our "Safari" FN. The cage accessories feature both leopard print and zebra print fleece, and the liners are made from both types of fleece as well. We have both a cut-out pan and a rectangular pan for the top level for ease of transitioning this FN from one cage to two cages. This is one of our rescue cages.
Here we have our blue FN. This FN is the only
one of these cages that was not done up in any particular pattern or
theme. The only connecting factor between all of the fleece in this
cage is that all of it has the color blue somewhere in the pattern. We
have both a cut-out pan and a rectangular pan for the top level for
ease of transitioning this FN from one cage to two cages. This is one
of our rescue cages.
Then we have our green FN. This FN was done up in tan, green, and blue striped fleece. This is a rescue cage.
Next is our "pink zebra" FN. This FN was done up
in a pink zebra design fleece. This cage can be split in two, to house
rescues in the bottom half. It currently houses Toby, one of our pet
chinchillas, in the top half.
When I went to Brookfield Zoo a few years back with friends, we saw (of all things!), a pink zebra stuffed animal. It matched the cage, so of course we had to get it, and it now sits on top of this cage.
When I went to Brookfield Zoo a few years back with friends, we saw (of all things!), a pink zebra stuffed animal. It matched the cage, so of course we had to get it, and it now sits on top of this cage.
Our last FN is actually a Critter Nation among
the sea of FN's. It is done in a dark pink fleece. This FN was done up
in a pink zebra design fleece. This is one of the cages we use for rescue chinchillas.
This is our prairie dog colony cage! It is a Martins Cage which was custom sized to fit a smaller pan, but it is still huge! It's bigger than my fridge! This cage used to house Shiloh, our original rescue prairie dog. Now that he has passed (January 2015), this cage houses Shani, Summer, and Sunny, the current prairie dogs that reside at the rescue.
This is what we call the "rat stack." The rat stack is a
stack of three bird cages that have been converted for use by rats.
These cages can each hold 1-2 rats comfortably.
Occasionally, we also use these cages to house single chinchillas, if we are pressed for space.
Occasionally, we also use these cages to house single chinchillas, if we are pressed for space.
This is one of our stacks of runs. These runs are used for our breeding show chinchillas.
We do have a lot more cages than just what's shown here! These are just some of the more fancy ones. Want to our full current set up? Set up a time to come by and meet the critters!
