Katsu!

[kaliska]

Nothing is cuter than Katsu.  His breeder said he would not make a good pet but would be a good start for breeding stock.  He's one of our favorite chinchillas.  2nd only to his daughter we kept.  Katsu is not something you hold but he is so active and interactive.  Plus cute.  He's even cuter when he's getting in trouble because his little tail will spin when he knows he's about to do something that will bother another chinchilla or result in destruction of an item.









That is not how you use sleeping cubes


The stick just won't go in the house


previous cage


Then we played legos with the critter nation units and combined 4 sections together.  Any zipties that go in the cage are backed by metal brackets.  The brackets just didn't hold it as tight as we wanted by themselves.


Sakura, Katsu's first daughter

[natnat899]

Aww, they are adorable, I love the wooden house! Sakura looks well behaved, I couldent let my chinchillas within reach of my headphones or they would be shredded, lol!

[kaliska]

Sakura is my husband's shoulder chinchilla. He used goji berries for much bribery to get her to stay on and around people better than average and manage to teach her not to chew on things other than treats and sticks somewhat. It only lasts so long before she starts wandering and causing trouble when out but it's pretty good for a chinchilla. Her mother is one of our most laid back and tame chinchillas which counters Katsu's spastic personality. They made some good chinchillas. Aime is retiring with her latest offspring and Katsu is paired up with a new female now. We'll see how they do.

[moletteuk]

Oooh it's great to see some chinchilla pics! Katsu looks like a real character, I love his preference for sitting on top of the cube Sakura looks really sweet too

I love the side by side linking of the Critter Nations, it gives a really good space. Have you thought about putting in bigger shelves at the midheight of the units, would this work for chins? Or some biggish branches on the diagonal would be cool.

[kaliska]

There are some shelves added to the right since that pic.  The critter nations have weak bars so we are having some shelf attaching issues.  That metal strip above the top left shelf is covering a broken bar. We are going to have to make angled braces for under the shelves or everything will have to be size restricted and placed at the corners to get support from 2 sides. I have several shelves cut and waiting for hardware or braces. I also collected some big logs and branches when we trimmed a tree of safe wood. I need to sterilize them and get the new band saw setup so I can cut them exactly how I want. 

[moletteuk]

Yes, the cantilevered wingnut shelves can put a lot of load on a couple of bars. I think that bracing below or even hanging a support from above would do the trick.