Chinchillas are an excellent pet to have, and many children love them, but finding a suitable cage to create a home for your new pet can be quite challenging. There are many brands and styles of cage available. While some cages are explicitly for chinchillas, most companies lump them into a small animal category that includes several animals like mice, rats, ferrets, squirrels, and rabbits, but chinchillas have some special needs.
We’ve chosen 10 of the most popular small animal cages to review for you so you can see all of the pros and cons associated with each one. We’ve also included a short buyer’s guide where we take a look at the unique needs of a chinchilla to help you choose the best model possible to create a home for your pet.
Join us while we take a close look at these chinchilla cages and discuss size, platforms, durability, safety, and more to help you make an educated purchase.
The MidWest Wabbitat Deluxe Rabbit Home is our pick for the best overall chinchilla cage. This brand features an elevated eating space so your pets can dine in a separate area, which helps keep food and water contamination free. A hay feeder, water bottle, and food dish come with the cage, so it’s ready to become an instant home. You won’t need any tools to assemble this cage, and it’s extendable, so if you need more space, you can purchase two extra sections later. There is a door on top as well as a door on the side. These extra doors make managing your pet, and cleaning the cage is much easier.
The only problem we had while using the MidWest Wabbitat Deluxe Rabbit Home was with the set-up. It was tough to get the pieces lined up to snap together.
Pros
Elevated eating space
Includes hay feeder, water bottle, and food bowl
Extendable
Two doors
No-tool assembly
Cons
Challenging assembly
2. Kaytee My First Home Multi-Level Ferret Cage – Best Value
The Kaytee My First Home Multi-Level Ferret Cage is our pick for the best chinchilla cage for the money. This is a multilevel home that provides plenty of space to explore. It comes with three shelves and three ramps to access them. One shelf has a spot for the included dinner bowl, and the deep dish basin makes sure that none of the contents of the cage spill out.
The downside to the Kaytee My First Home Multi-Level Ferret Cage is that the ramps are flimsy and buckle under the weight of our pet. If one of the chinchillas fell off, they could be injured
The MidWest Critter Nation Deluxe Small Animal Cage is our premium choice chinchilla cage. This cage is spacious and provides plenty of room for your pet to get exercise and explore. Full-width double doors allow access to the cage for easy cleaning while critter-proof latches prevent your chinchilla from escaping.
We found the MidWest Critter Nation Deluxe Small Animal Cage to be very challenging to assemble. It does not require tools, but it’s hard to get the pieces in place without hitting them with a hammer or mallet. Once finished, we found it heavy and struggled to move it around.
The Prevue Chinchilla Cage is a large multi-level cage that features unique metal ramps and platforms for unprecedented durability. A handy tray catches all debris and pulls out for easy cleaning. This tray then locks in place with a stable wind-bell lock. A large front access door allows easy access for cleaning and managing your chinchilla cage. It rolls easily on smooth-rolling caster wheels, and the powder-coated steel construction is non-toxic and reduces rust and other corrosion.
While we were using the Prevue 495 Chinchilla Cage, we found it to be quite noisy, and our chinchillas would wake us up regularly while they played at night. Another problem we experienced was the steel wires were very flimsy, and while our chinchillas couldn’t escape, any extras that we tried to hang from the cage would warp and bend the wires out of shape.
The Living World Deluxe Habitat Is huge and markets itself as a complete habitat for your pet. It provides almost four feet of running space for your pet to get plenty of excessive. There is a raised platform for eating, and a dinner bowl comes with the cage. There’s a hiding space beneath the raised eating platform where your pet can get some privacy, and there is even a balcony your pet can enjoy. The bottom of the cage is a removable, deep plastic tray, which is easier on your chinchilla’s feet and is also easier to clean and disinfect.
The rounded top on the Living World 61859A1 Deluxe Habitat cage is very striking and is one of its attractions, however, if you place your cage up against the wall, the rounded top makes it impossible to open fully or to keep open while you clean. You will need to leave about 1.5 feet of space between the cage and the wall. When combined with the massive cage, this extra space leaves quite a large footprint in any room. The feeding tray is flimsy plastic and not very stable, and the front door slides open sideways instead of dropping down to form a platform your pets can use as a ramp to get in and out of the cage.
The Yaheetech Metal Chinchilla Cage is The total case that includes three ramps and three platforms. These ramps and platforms provide plenty of vertical space for your chinchilla to explore. The cage uses powder-coated steel wires and square pipes, which are highly resistant to rust and corrosion. Two large arching doors make it easy to clean the cage and manage your pets wherever they are.
What we didn’t like about the was that it has a wire bottom floor, which can be harmful to a chinchilla’s feet. We filled ours with extra bedding while we were reviewing this cage, and if you purchased this cage, we recommend doing the same. We also felt that this cage was too small for chinchilla and is better suited as a travel cage or secondary cage. It provides plenty of height, but there’s very little side to side running room.
The Homey Pet Wire Chinchilla Cage is a large multilevel cage that moves easily on its 360-degree caster wheels. Movement is made even easier with the addition of a sturdy handle you can use to pull it around. A pull out plastic tray is easy to clean, and it includes two platforms and two ramps. It even comes with a hammock.
Unfortunately, we found a few big flaws with the Homey Pet Wire Chinchilla Cage, the biggest of which is the wire ramps and platforms. These can be dangerous to your chinchilla’s feet and can even break bones. We recommend using a covering of fleece or felt over the wires is you use a cage like this. Another problem we had with this cage was that we felt the spacing of the bars is a little too wide, and we were always worried our chinchilla might escape, even though it never did.
The PawHut Indoor Chinchilla Cage is a multilevel home that features top and front openings for easy access to the inside. There are three platforms connected by three ramps to allow your chinchilla plenty of room to explore. The lower part of the cage has a plastic guard that helps keep bedding and other materials inside the cage, and a removable plastic tray is easy to clean. The front door opens to form a ramp, that while slightly steep, allows your pet to enter and exit the cage themselves and is a great addition if you allow your pet a lot of time outside the home.
The PawHut Indoor Chinchilla Cage isn’t without faults, however. We found the ramps and platforms flimsy and thin. The ramps would often buckle under the weight of our pets, and the platforms were hard to hook to the side of the cage and make stable.
The Dreamhome Heavy Duty Chinchilla Cage is a multilevel cage that features two arched front doors and a pull out plastic tray for easy cleaning. Caster wheels allow for smooth movement anywhere, and the powder-coated steel wires are durable and non-toxic.
What we didn’t like about the Dreamhome Heavy Duty Chinchilla Cage was that it doesn’t allow for too much sides to side running and is primarily a vertical cage with a very steep ramp between the platforms. This steep ramp made us nervous and could lead to injury. The metal grate floor is a little better than a wire floor, but we still prefer a solid ground for our chinchillas. The doors are too small to reach all areas of the cage, which made cleaning a bigger chore. Dirt also gets trapped between the urine guard and the wire and becomes very difficult to remove.
Pros
Multilevel
Caster wheels
Two arched front doors
Pull out tray
Cons
Small
Metal grate floor
Difficult instructions
Small doors
Dirt gets trapped between urine guard and the wires
The SONGMICS Chinchilla Cage is the final chinchilla cage on our list to review for you. This cage arrives mostly assemble and only requires installing the wheel and some other minor adjustments. You don’t need any tools to complete the assembly. This model features a slide-out tray that collects urine and other contaminants for easy cleaning. Three platforms allow for plenty of exploration, and the cage rolls easily on caster wheels.
The primary downside to the SONGMICS Chinchilla Cage is that the stairs don’t snap into position, and there’s a chance your chinchilla can knock them loose. We had to use twisty ties to keep them in place while we were reviewing it. Urine can build up around the perimeter of the cage and become hard to clean. The tray is also quite shallow and collects the urine but allows bedding and other materials to spill out onto the floor. One final problem we experienced while we were using it was that our chinchilla chewed through it and made a sizable hole.
Pros
No-tool assembly
Slide-out plastic tray
Three platforms and ramps
Three doors caster wheels
Cons
Stairs are loose
Shallow tray
Urine builds up around the perimeter
Not chew-proof
Buyer’s Guide: Choosing the Best Chinchilla Cages
Here are some of the things to consider when purchasing a new chinchilla cage.
Cage Size
The first thing most of us consider when we are choosing our chinchilla cage is the size. Chinchillas are active animals that enjoy running, jumping, and playing, which means they need as much space as possible to remain healthy and happy. The smallest recommended cage size is 16″L x 18″W x 16″H, but we recommend purchasing the largest cage you can afford.
Flooring
Once you have found a suitably sized cage, the next important thing to do is check the flooring. You do not want a cage that uses wire flooring because wires can hurt your chinchilla’s feet, leading to a condition called pododermatitis, or sore hocks.
Metal Wires
When purchasing a metal cage, make sure that the metal does not contain zinc, which is harmful to chinchillas and other small animals. It’s also very common to coat the metal bars in some type of powder coating to protect them from rust and corrosion, but some types of powder coatings are harmful to pets and should be avoided, especially with pets that like to chew as the chinchilla does.
We recommend looking for a brand that states explicitly that the powder coating is non-toxic to avoid any confusion and worry.
Levels
Since chinchillas enjoy climbing and jumping, we recommend a multilevel cage for your pet. More levels are better, but you need to make sure the levels are secure, so your pet doesn’t fall and get injured. A chinchilla can jump up to six feet, so the platforms must be secured. Baby chinchillas are especially susceptible to injury and should be kept in a separate single level cage until they are older.
Placement
Chinchillas are sensitive animals and require protection from drafts and temperature extremes. You should place your cage in an area free of drafts where the temperature will remain between 50 to 80-degrees continuously, as anything more extreme can kill them.
Extras
Many cages include extras that can be helpful. A feeding dish and a water bottle are always helpful. Running wheels and other exercise toys can also help improve the happiness of your pet, but you need to be careful not to take away too much of the free-running space.
Conclusion
When choosing a cage for your chinchilla, we recommend getting as much space as possible to allow your pet plenty of room to move around. Since your chinchilla likes to jump, stable platforms that won’t fall are a critical part of the cage. The MidWest Wabbitat Deluxe Rabbit Home is our pick for the best overall, and it has these features and more. You can also extend it to make it larger later. The Kaytee My First Home Multi-Level Ferret Cage is our pick for the best value and has many of the same features as our top choice at a lower cost. This model also has a deep dish plastic bottom that’s easy to clean.
We hope that you have enjoyed reading over these reviews and buyer’s guide and have learned some new things about chinchillas and what type of environment they require. If we have helped you get closer to making a purchase, please share this guide to the best chinchilla cages on Facebook and Twitter.
Nicole is the proud mom of 3 rescue fur babies, Baby, a Burmese cat; Rosa, a New Zealand Huntaway; and Mac, a Lab/Mastiff. A Canadian expat, Nicole now lives on a lush forest property with her Kiwi husband and new baby daughter in New Zealand. She has a strong love for all animals of all shapes and sizes (and particularly loves a good interspecies friendship) and wants to share her animal knowledge and other experts' knowledge with pet lovers across the globe....Read more
