How Do You Keep Chinchilla Poop In The Cage? (7 Actionable Tips)

Poop is everywhere!

When I first got my chinchilla, I could not believe how much she pooped.

And somehow, that poop always escaped from the cage and ended up on my clean floor.

That meant daily sweeping. I hate sweeping.

So I asked the same question you’re asking now: “How do you keep chinchilla poop in the cage?”

It can seem that no matter what you try, the poop gets out.

But I found some great solutions that work for me.

Keep reading to learn how you can keep your pet’s poop inside the cage where it belongs.

 

How Do You Keep Chinchilla Poop In The Cage?

To keep chinchilla poop in the cage, you need to clean the cage frequently.

You can also use cage scatter guards, in addition to setting a small trash can on the side of the cage to catch the poop as it falls.

As promised in the title of this post, I have a few other tips and tricks you can use to ensure you are keeping as much chinchilla poop in the cage as possible.

Trust me, this is way better than having them rolling out onto the floor and causing an additional mess for you to clean up.

The goal is to make you a total expert at keeping not only your chinchillas hygiene in top-notch shape but also help you keep your home clean.

I also have a short video that covers this topic in-depth a few paragraphs down.

If you own a chinchilla now, I know that you have been frustrated at least once with the frequency of the poop and how often it can fall out of the cage.

Especially depending on the room where you keep your chinchilla.

In my situation, I have my chinchilla cage right next to the office desk that I work from frequently, so the poop falling onto the floor can be severely annoying for me at times.

Of course, that was before making some easy changes that made it much easier to keep the poop in the cage and reduce cleanup.

Chinchillas can be creative little rodents that may decide to throw some of their poop from time to time. That’s correct, chinchillas will throw poop (more on this later).

For now, here is the promised video.

Chinchillas poop all the time.

All the time.

Rain or shine.

If you need to know exact numbers, you can read my post about chinchillas pooping a lot.

There’s nothing you can do to stop this, and it’s a healthy chinchilla behavior.

What we need to do instead is find the best way to keep the chinchilla’s cage clean and keep the poop on the inside of the cage bars.

While I certainly can’t promise any specific results from reading this blog post, I can at least ensure you that implementing my tips will help dramatically with reducing the amount of poop that is capable of falling out of the cage.

Before diving into my 7 tips for keeping poop inside the cage, I want to touch on chinchillas throwing poop and the reasoning behind it.

 

Why Chinchillas Throw Poop

I mentioned that chinchillas will throw poop and it’s 100% true. When I first adopted my chinchilla, I never actually caught her in the act of throwing poop.

But it has now been 5 years and it is an entirely different story.

Sometimes, it seems that just as a cry for attention or to show dissatisfaction, she will throw her poop.

Perhaps it is just an act of boredom.

Not much you can do about it and I don’t think they will ever run out of poop to throw out of the cage.

Plus, you also have the natural act of running around inside of their cage, which naturally throws poop around and makes it fall out of the cage.

All you can do is to continue implementing my tips and do your best. And that brings us to my 7 specific tips to keep that poop off your floor.

 

7 Tips For Keeping Chinchilla Poop Inside The Cage

As we dive into the 7 tips for keeping the chinchilla droppings inside the cage, I wanted to be 100% transparent.

It’s challenging to always make this happen. Part of my tips is not only keeping chinchilla poop in the cage, but to also keep the poop that does fall out contained.

Part of the struggle can be solved simply by purchasing one of the best chinchilla cages.

The reason is simple.

The better chinchilla cages allow for custom fleece liners, which makes keeping the poop in the cage much easier.

I currently use the Piggy Bed Spread Fleece Liners.

These help dramatically to keep the cage clean, the poop more contained, and are overall just more appealing in general.

Plus, you never have to worry about purchasing chinchilla bedding again.

My fleece liners are custom fit for the Critter Nation 2 Cage which is the cage I use and recommend for any chinchilla owners.

You can read my full review of the Critter Nation 2 Cage here.

I will also include pictures of my set up that I use that helps dramatically so that you can see exactly what I’m referring too.

The video above also helps detail some of this information for you.

 

Tip 1: Buy Scatter Guards For Your Chinchilla Cage

Following my recommendations for the Critter Nation Cage, you have 1 of the best options possible for keeping chinchilla poop inside of the cage.

That is to purchase the poop/urine scatter guards for your cage, like this one:

The problem is that these scatter guards are not currently offered for all chinchilla cages, but they are offered for the Critter Nation cage and a few others.

These scatter guards are specifically designed to outline and surround the main levels of the chinchilla cage, it nearly impossible for poop to escape. You’ll need to buy a guard for each level.

For the luxury this provides and the cost involved, I cannot see a reason not to purchase them.

Especially if chinchilla poop falling out of the cage is something currently bothering you.

Trust me, they will work and keep 99% of that poop mess inside of the cage.

 

Tip 2: Trash Cans Can Limit The Mess Dramatically

The next tip I have for you is placing small trash cans strategically next to your chinchilla cage.

For me personally, I like to have a small trash can placed right under the hay feeders as well on the left side of my cage.

My chinchilla not only lets her poop fall out of her cage, but will frequently toss the hay she doesn’t want right out the side of the cage.

Placing the small trash can beneath the hay feeders allows it to catch about 98% of the hay and keeps it off my floor.

Additionally, place a small trash can, or even 2, on the other side of the cage. Whatever the reasoning may be, my chinchilla doesn’t ever have poop fall out of the front of the Critter Nation 2 cage.

Only the left and right sides.

The poop also never falls out of the back of the cage, since it’s placed up against a wall.

If you set these garbage cans next to the left and right sides of the cage, they can do a great job catching some of the poop nuggets that naturally fall out of the cage in between cage cleanings.

Give it a shot and be sure to drop a comment below letting us know if this tip works for you.

 

Tip 3: Fleece Liners Are A Dream Come True

I’m a huge fan of the fleece liners inside of the Critter Nation cages for a few reasons. First, they are extremely easy to clean compared to swapping out bedding or shavings every 3 to 4 days.

They are also safe for your chinchilla and so far into using them, I like how easy they are to shop vacuum that poop right off the fleece.

It only takes a few minutes each day to keep your chinchilla cage clean using this method. Try using fleece liners on your trays to help keep your cage overall cleaner, and shop vacuum it daily.

 

Tip 4: Clean The Cage Frequently

This is probably the number #1 way you can reduce the amount of poop falling out of your chinchilla’s cage on the floor.

You simply need to clean the cage more often. I like to vacuum or “shop vacuum” my chinchilla’s cage every day.

Especially the wooden shelves on the sides of the cage.

When your chinchilla poops on these shelves, it tends to fly on to the floor much more often than the poop on the fleece liners.

The more you clean your chinchilla’s cage, the less poop, hay, and other discarded items you will ultimately have to deal with making it onto your floors or causing other messes.

 

Tip 5: Interact With Your Chinchilla

I honestly don’t know how true this is, but have read others mentioning how their chinchillas will display some rather odd behavior when they are upset at lack of interaction and communication.

One of those behaviors is throwing their poop. I’ve personally never seen this, and I’m not aware of my chinchilla doing this. She does throw poop, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her being upset about a lack of interaction.

However, I can tell you that the more interaction my chinchilla gets out of her cage bonding with me, the less crazy and wild she acts in the cage.

 

Tip 6: Buy A Shop Vac And Use It Every Day

I already touched on this in tip number 4, but if you don’t own a shop vacuum, you need to get one. They make life so much easier when owning a chinchilla.

All I do every morning is take 5 minutes to vacuum her fleece liners and all her wooden shelves. It only takes about 3 to 5 minutes, and the cage remains clean and poop-free.

Doing this clearly removes the potential of the poop nuggets ending up all over my floor.

I use just a regular shop vacuum like the one above. I vacuum the cage each day, and I just leave the vacuum plugged in and stored right next to it.

It’s always ready for use and only takes just a second to put into action.

This is a sure-fire way to remove poop debris from the floors outside of your chinchilla cage and to help keep the inside of the cage clean and tidy.

 

Tip 7: Get Used To It

I know, I know, not the tip you were looking for, but it’s true. Chinchillas poop all the time and an abundance of poop is simply a part of owning one.

You can’t avoid this.

And sometimes, the poop is going to make it outside of the cage onto the floor.

Chinchillas are not like other rodents that can have a glass, or other type of fully enclosed, cage.

Their fur is too dense.

They have to stay cool to avoid overheating and potential death, which means an open style cage is your only option.

It is the only way to avoid major issues such as heat stroke.

Additionally, it’s one of the reasons that chinchillas are not hard to care for at all.

Just get used to the poop, because it’s going to happen.

 

More Advice On Keeping Chinchilla Poop In The Cage

When you have a rodent that can, and will, poop more than 200 times per day, it’s likely that some of the poop will exit the cage from time to time.

Especially when you factor in that they are constantly jumping and climbing all over the cage.

When they have small poop nuggets all over the cage and they are jumping and climbing quickly all over the place, it’s just extremely easy for them to kick some of the poop out of the cage from time to time.

Get used to it.

Chinchillas have a unique benefit that they do not smell, and they stay clean on their own, using a dust bath. Plus, 99.9% of the time their poop is hard and causes no odor or residue.

A few poop nuggets from time to time is not the end of the world.

This is about as dirty as it gets with chinchillas and one of the reasons chinchillas make such great pets to own.

You may also notice your chinchilla eat some of its feces. If so, don’t panic. This is normal. Why do chinchillas eat their poop? That article will tell you everything you need to know.

 

Keep Chinchilla Poop In The Cage: Final Thoughts

So, let’s recap for a moment. How do you keep chinchilla poop inside of the cage?

Clean the cage frequently and use small trash cans around the cage to catch the poop as it falls. Find other creative ways to keep your chinchillas’ environment as clean as possible.

Chinchillas make wonderful, friendly pets that the entire family can own for the next 15 to 20 years.

A little hard nugget of poop on the floor from time to time is nothing to fret over.

Keep up with your routines and interact with your chinchilla and over the course of time, you will develop your own methods and techniques to keep chinchilla poop in the cage as well.

Chili and I wish you the best of luck with your new chinchilla and the journey you have ahead of you. I’d also love your feedback on this topic.

How do you keep your chinchilla poop in the cage and what do you do to limit the amount of poop and mess your chinchilla creates around the cage?

Be sure to share those thoughts, stories, and concerns by dropping a comment below.

As always, Chili and I appreciate you stopping by and showing support to Planet Chinchilla. See you next time.