For people not familiar with their native habitat, the chinchilla dust bath can seem a bit weird.
In their indigenous terrain, such as the mountains of Peru, chillis take their own version of a chinchilla dust bath by wallowing in volcanic ash to clean themselves up.
In the wile, this is the only way they have to clean up, and they seem to really like it.
As a by-product, the chinchilla dust bath serves to keep your chillis fur coat silky smooth and shiny, not to mention healthy.
So, as you can now appreciate, the chinchilla dust bath concept is really just designed to pattern in catptivity what they would be doing on their own in the wild.
In fact, one of the biggest errors caregivers make is to get their chilli wet.
What happens is that the water bath will wash away the natural oils that are intended to protect their skin and also help them regulate their temperature, which is important for longevity.
So, rather than use harmful water, we can use the store-bought product for our chinchilla dust bath and make them feel right at home, no matter how far away you are from South America! Any decent size pet store should sell a version of product so you can conduct your own chinchilla dust bath.
It's just real important to make sure you are buying something that it intended for chinchillas.
There are a number of different products for sale in a pet store that can look and feel similar, such as sand and powder, but these products will probably not be able to get down deep in the dense fur coat like the dust product will.
If you buy the right stuff, the chinchilla will be able to roll around in the dust and can get an even application down to their skin.
Plus, it the dust will soak up extra oil and dirt and remove it from their coat.
Imitation products will surely not work quite as well.
It's a piece of cake to buy the right product, but you may find that administering your first chinchilla dust bath is not all that straightforward.
One recommendation is that you use a heavy bowl so you decrease the odds of it tipping over.
Just make sure it is bigger than your chilli.
Actually, something with a narrower opening, sort of like a goldfish bowl, is nice because it can contain the dust and not have it get all over the place.
Fill it with about an inch or two of the dust product.
After that, place the bowl in side the cage so it will be there when he is active at night.
If you're concerned that you've used a lot of the product, just bear in mind that you can use it again.
If it begins looking rather dirty, just toss it out and replace it however.
There's another recommendation or two I would make regarding the chinchilla dust bath, and I'll call these the excess access issues.
On the one hand, you don't want to get too carried away and leave it in the cage for too long.
If your chilli gets carried away, they can actually over bathe and dry out their skin.
Worse yet, they could start using the chinchilla dust bath as the chinchilla litter box.
I would just let them have at it about two times per week, and for only about 15 minutes or so.
On the other hand, even without dry skin or litter box problems, excess access to the dust can impact their breathing and irritate their eyes.
In their indigenous terrain, such as the mountains of Peru, chillis take their own version of a chinchilla dust bath by wallowing in volcanic ash to clean themselves up.
In the wile, this is the only way they have to clean up, and they seem to really like it.
As a by-product, the chinchilla dust bath serves to keep your chillis fur coat silky smooth and shiny, not to mention healthy.
So, as you can now appreciate, the chinchilla dust bath concept is really just designed to pattern in catptivity what they would be doing on their own in the wild.
In fact, one of the biggest errors caregivers make is to get their chilli wet.
What happens is that the water bath will wash away the natural oils that are intended to protect their skin and also help them regulate their temperature, which is important for longevity.
So, rather than use harmful water, we can use the store-bought product for our chinchilla dust bath and make them feel right at home, no matter how far away you are from South America! Any decent size pet store should sell a version of product so you can conduct your own chinchilla dust bath.
It's just real important to make sure you are buying something that it intended for chinchillas.
There are a number of different products for sale in a pet store that can look and feel similar, such as sand and powder, but these products will probably not be able to get down deep in the dense fur coat like the dust product will.
If you buy the right stuff, the chinchilla will be able to roll around in the dust and can get an even application down to their skin.
Plus, it the dust will soak up extra oil and dirt and remove it from their coat.
Imitation products will surely not work quite as well.
It's a piece of cake to buy the right product, but you may find that administering your first chinchilla dust bath is not all that straightforward.
One recommendation is that you use a heavy bowl so you decrease the odds of it tipping over.
Just make sure it is bigger than your chilli.
Actually, something with a narrower opening, sort of like a goldfish bowl, is nice because it can contain the dust and not have it get all over the place.
Fill it with about an inch or two of the dust product.
After that, place the bowl in side the cage so it will be there when he is active at night.
If you're concerned that you've used a lot of the product, just bear in mind that you can use it again.
If it begins looking rather dirty, just toss it out and replace it however.
There's another recommendation or two I would make regarding the chinchilla dust bath, and I'll call these the excess access issues.
On the one hand, you don't want to get too carried away and leave it in the cage for too long.
If your chilli gets carried away, they can actually over bathe and dry out their skin.
Worse yet, they could start using the chinchilla dust bath as the chinchilla litter box.
I would just let them have at it about two times per week, and for only about 15 minutes or so.
On the other hand, even without dry skin or litter box problems, excess access to the dust can impact their breathing and irritate their eyes.
Source...