All about Chinchilla Dust Bath

If you are an owner of a chinchilla, you should know that your primary responsibility would be to take proper care of your pet. Your first and foremost duty in this regard would be to bathe your chinchilla regularly. Taking dust bath is a natural habit for chinchillas and when in their natural habitat, the chinchillas use volcanic ash to refresh themselves. Dust bath helps to keep their coat shiny and dust free. Dust bath is something which chinchillas thoroughly enjoy doing. Therefore dust bath for your chinchilla is must if you want to see it in the pink of health.

Many chinchilla owners make their chinchilla bathe in water which can prove to be detrimental to your pet’s health. This is because they not only have a natural aversion towards water but water can also remove the natural oils from their fur coat. This is why many local pet shops sell dust used for dust baths. These are made to mimic the Andes volcanic ash that chinchillas use to bathe in their natural habitat. This dust helps to keep the chinchillas healthy and clean.

Bathing a chinchilla can be very different from bathing other pets as the former cannot be bathed in water. Dust bath for your chinchilla is not an easy job. Once you get the dust needed for bathing the chinchilla you can keep it in a bowl, preferably a glass fish bowl of a slightly bigger size than that of the chinchilla itself. Often plastic containers are used but glass containers are greatly recommended as they are durable and unlike plastic do not have the tendency to develop scratches. You can leave your chinchilla in the container for bathing and the dust can be used till the time it becomes dirty.

Since dust bath for your chinchilla is extremely important, try to provide it with dust bathing for at least twice a week for 20 to 30 minutes. It is most preferable to make them bath in the evening when they are most active. Generally dust bathing twice a week is quite enough: you can increase the frequency if the fur of the chinchilla looks rough or dry. There are many factors depending on which you should provide dust bath to your chinchilla.

In humid climate chinchillas require more dust baths than in dry climate when the frequency of dust bath should be reduced. Dust bath for your chinchilla is very important but it should be carried out only after assessing these factors. Chinchillas love dust bathing and it also gives their owners huge satisfaction to see these lovely creatures roll in dust. To enjoy watching your chinchilla bathe, go for glass containers for this would not impair your vision. But again excessive exposure to dust can prove to be detrimental to the creature’s health. To avoid such unpleasant situations regulate its dusting bathing in accordance to the changing climate.