Three legged chinchilla and a flying saucer

[jennyjoy]

Hi. I'm donating a flying saucer to the SPCA. They have two chinchillas that share a cage but one of the chinchillas has three legs (missing a back leg). Is it safe for a three legged chinchilla to use a flying saucer especially if it's never used one before? I know it takes time for chinchillas to get used to the flying saucer but I really want to make sure it's safe for the three legged chin. I already have two chinchillas at home (a boy and a girl), they live separately for obvious reasons and if I had more room I would adopt the SPCA chinchillas. I just want to echance their environment by giving them a flying saucer of which I hope will be safe for the three legged chinchilla.

[Lrak]

Really not sure on this but i would guess it would be ok, aslong as it didnt have anyway to trap its leg and put it off balance, animals are normally good at adaptin to a loss of a limb (not sure how chins are with this but there is a cat at my yard with 3 legs and it still hunts and gets rabbits)

But i am just guessing, i'm sure someone else will be able to tell you for sure.

[ntg]

Animals do tend to adapt well with three legs, if it can run on a normal wheel okay, I'd imagine that, with a bit of practice, it could learn on a flying saucer. It would probably only be comfortable running in the one direction, but my main concern would be the other chin pushing it to get a go.. Luckily any fall wouldn't be too high because they aren't far off the floor.

[jennyjoy]

Thanks for the replies! So this chinchilla-Hop- has had at least two years to adapt to three legs so I think he'll be fine. The flying saucer is only going to go as fast as he can, hopefully his cage mate won't try to push him off of it. I'll have to get the SPCA to give me updates on their progress with the saucer!

[Lrak]

Yea thats a great idea then you can give us updates hope it all goes well