Chinchilla Water Bottle Help

Shibagirl · September 2010

Alright so I got a chinchilla back in.. Let's see... Fourth grade I believe. It's been six years, He's doing great. He's middle aged/in late adulthood Only problem is recently he's decided to chew a hole in any plastic water bottle we get him. I've gotten glass ones, they worked great, they're harder to find. But the plastic screw on top he chews through. I really don't know what to do.. He's been getting worse with this. He's gone through three bottles in the past week. One of which was a rather thick one.. I can't go buy bottles on my own, I don't drive yet and my mom is always gone. I get my mom to pick them up but she always goes to Petco, even though I tell her not to. Our local co-op has the best ones in my opinion, they even have glass ones. I don't think I was too clear on the problem so I'll clear it up: Problem: Chinchilla chewing through all plastic bottles, and plastic screw on tops on glass bottles. Searching for a soloution or reason he's doing this. I've been plugging the holes on one with my fingers and holding them to give him water every few hours.. Any ideas to get him to stop? Or reasons why he's doing this?

CallyKats Dachshunds · September 2010

I have no clue why he would do this...but my suggestion? Get him a glass bottle (or a plastic one if you can attach it to the outside of his cage...this depends on the type of cage you have though) and getting a.."nozzle/head" that's metal/aluminum. A lot of the people (family and friends) use either of these methods. One friend uses both, plastic bottle hooked to the cage with the metal head for her Mini Rex (I may get a baby from her.

lmao), and my cousins use a plastic bottle with a metal head for their guinea pig, he chews on everything in his cage but the plastic parts. I'm sure they also have some kind of sprays you could spray on every few days to stop him from doing this..I'm not sure how expensive they'd be, but I'm sure they would cost less a week than 3-5 different bottles, atleast I would hope so. o.o;

Alabama · September 2010

I'm by no means an expert, but Chinchillas are rodents, which mean their teeth are constantly growing, so they are programmed to chew almost constantly to keep them worn down. Many animals whose teeth continuously grow, from horses to mice, sometimes have increased tooth growth in later life, meaning for rodents, the instinct to chew is greater. Kinda like someone who bites their fingernails, there's just a point at which they feel too long, so they bite them back down. So make sure he has something appropriate to chew on first of all. And perhaps a trip to the vet to make sure he doesn't need some dental work to cut down the teeth to an appropriate size. Then I would look at ways to keep the plastic parts of the bottles out of the cage. For instance, mount them on the outside of the cage with just the metal straw portion inside the cage. If necessary, use something that won't be dangerous for him to chew on between the bottle and the cage to protect the bottle.

Shibagirl · September 2010

He has some stone things that he loves to chew, and they grind his teeth down, and the bottles are always outside the cage, but he manages to get to them, that's the part that confuses me XD He's a funny fellow. I'll try to get him more things to chew on, maybe he likes variety?

RoyalRaccoon · September 2010

They make chew proof water bottles that are all glass and metal. Sounds like that's what you need if he's still getting at it while it's mounted outside. I've seen others, but here is one on petsmart's website. <a href="http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753343&lmdn=Product+Type"; target="_blank" class="bb-url">http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753343&lmdn=Product+Type</a>;

Shibagirl · September 2010

PrinceSushi wrote:

They make chew proof water bottles that are all glass and metal. Sounds like that's what you need if he's still getting at it while it's mounted outside. I've seen others, but here is one on petsmart's website. <a href="http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753343&lmdn=Product+Type"; target="_blank" class="bb-url">http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753343&lmdn=Product+Type</a>;

I'll look for them, I have never actually seen a metal one.. I live in a pretty small town so it's tough to find them. I'm going grocery shopping in a bit with my grandma I'll check then =] We don't have a petsmart, but we have a petco which doesn't have those so I'll look at one of the locally ran pet supply places aroung

The one in the picture I actually had for a while, then it somehow started leaking out the nozzle and didn't work anymore

danae11 · September 2010

Would he drink from a bowl or something rather than a bottle? If it's ceramic even a chinchilla won't be able to chew through it

Shibagirl · September 2010

danae11 wrote:

Would he drink from a bowl or something rather than a bottle? If it's ceramic even a chinchilla won't be able to chew through it

His fur would get all disgusting, chinchilla fur is odd. He'd probably play in it, making it worse. They bathe in dust, and if they're covered in water while bathing in dust.. Well you get what I'm saying.

UnknownDreamland · September 2010

About the bowls.. If you're able to fill it up more often, there's bowls you can get that can't be tipped over and are harder to chew on, and don't hold a lot of water. So if he got a little messy it'd be better than a huge mess, you know? It's a cat bowl, really and they have glass and plastic ones. I get them at PetSmart and use them for my rabbit who chews a lot. (:

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Chinchilla Water Bottle Help

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