Movies Chinchillas Degus Persian Jirds Baby Jirds Gerbils Cages Guinea Pigs Search
eRodent > Cages and Toys > Environment Enrichment.

Environment Enrichment.

General Chinchillas Degus Persian Jirds Guinea Pigs

Please Note: if you are looking for ideas for cooling down overheated animals I have now moved them to their own Keeping Cool page.

Welcome to the environment enrichment page for pet rodents. This is something that I would really like lots of ideas and feedback on. It is designed to be a resource of ideas for keeping your pets happy and healthy. Please click here to send me your ideas. I've put a general section in for toys that are suitable for all rodents and then a section for some toys for specific groups - Guinea Pigs in particular like a different sort of toy and have their own section.

I'm going to try to avoid putting online pet shop links on this page as it will take a lot of keeping up to date. I will try to put that information on my Pet Shopping page.



The images used on this page come from the Chinimations web site in aid of Chinchillas 2 Home - a group of dedicated chinchilla lovers who rescue and take in homeless chinchillas in the UK.

General

 Fort Worth Zoo has a searchable Environment Enrichment database, which seems to have lots of ideas for rodents. I have to admit that I haven't had time to go through this yet but I'm sure it's worth a look.

Cage

 All of your animals should have the largest cage that you can get them. They spend the vast majority of their lives in their cages so an extra few inches (or preferable feet) makes all the difference. But not everyone has the room or the money for an enormous cage so the rest of this article is about other things that you can do.

Wheels

 Everyone (with probably the exception of Guinea Pigs although I've never tried them) likes a wheel. Some animals use them more than others but they all get valuable exercise and entertainment from them. I have created a wheels page with information on where to get wheels in the UK. Any additional sources are always welcome.

Cardboard Boxes

 Cardboard boxes are a firm favourite of small animals. I always use boxes that have had food for human consumption on them in the belief that they would not use toxic dye on food boxes. Gerbils and Jirds love to destroy them. Degus rip them into small pieces and make a pile out of them (I believe the degu with the largest pile wins). With small boxes one of my degus walks around the cage with them proudly held in the air like a leaf cutter ant before dumping them whole on her cardboard pile. Chinchillas and Guinea Pigs hide in them, jump on them and generally destroy them. If you have several animals it can be difficult to keep up with the demand but I find that friends, family and even work mates have kindly donated their used cereal packets (they all now think I'm mad but what's new?). A note of warning - always make sure that you tear open any holes that are small enough for them to get their heads stuck in (see tubes below).

Cardboard Tubes

 We all know about toilet roll inners for gerbils but you also get cardboard rolls in wrapping paper and in the centre of carpet and many other places. None of my animals ever seems to have come to any harm with any rolls I have been given but make sure that they are clean and if you are ever in any doubt about what they are made from don't use them.

Warning: Small animals love to stick their heads in things that are too small for them to get into properly. Then they get stuck and the best way to get bitten is freeing a scared rodent from a tube. The size of tube used for tin foil and cling film should never be given to gerbils and be careful of gerbil size tubes for Jirds and Degus. Over the years I've had animals get stuck in the most unlikely of things - gerbils are particularly prone to this as they burrow and tend to but things hard with their heads. If you are unsure about a tube you can always cut it down the side to allow room for expansion.

It is possible to buy cardboard rolls in a variety of sizes called Chubes that are completely safe for small animals. A lot of pet shops stock these now but you can also find them in several online pet shops.

Other Tubes

 There are also a range of wood and willow tubes available in various places on the web. You can also get ceramic tubes for fish tanks that are large enough for Gerbils and Persian Jirds - again watch the size of the holes in the side of them for larger rodents. These are great for making more permanent tunnels in the bedding material. In addition you can get terracotta drainage pipes which are great for rabbits and guinea pigs particularly outside.



Rabbit Toys

 A large range of willow and wood toys are made for rabbits. These are great for chinchillas, degus and jirds. Guinea Pigs tend to be less interested but it's always worth trying. Chinchillas love destroying these toys and they are also suitable for Jirds and Degus. Guinea pigs are less interested but the plastic rabbit toys are more suitable for them.

Hiding and Nesting Places

 Most animals like somewhere to hide particularly when they are sleeping. Boxes and tubes are often used but most animals like a dedicated nest box. I'm not overly fond of the plywood sleeping boxes that they sell for chinchillas as they tend to be a bit small. I use large tubes and hammocks. We have used bread bins with holes cut in them in the past but now we have found these wooden houses that are very good. There are now a wide variety of nesting boxes available from pet shops and the sites on the Pet Shopping page. Make sure that whoever you buy it for they cant get stuck in any of the holes - some of the window in the box shown below are the right size for a guinea pig to get stuck in and I have heard of one suffocating this way. I have fixed a strip of wood over it and modern ones don't seem to have this problem any more.

Sam emailed me to say that chinchillas like to play with terracotta flower pots. They love jumping on them and hiding in them.

Hammocks

 There are a number of ready made hanging homes and hammocks that you can buy, generally designed for ferrets but suitable for degus and chinchillas. However if they start to destroy them you may need to remove them as the stuffing and thread may not be safe. You can make your own hammock from the leg of an old pair of jeans wired on to the cage. Try to make sure that your pet can't get to too much of the wire. Here's the degu's hammock - great for storing your cardboard collection in!



Also I must make a quick plug for Hammocky Hammocks, all funds from which are going to chinchilla rescues. The lady is also a member of Chinchillas Unlimited and if the site isn't up (she's had some technical problems) do a search on Hammocky Hammocks or try this post. These are just wonderful, the chinchillas adore sleeping in them, they haven't managed to chew them even after several months and they wash well.
Two in Hammock. Fluff in Hammock.

Parrot Toys

 There are loads of wooden and rope toys available in the shops for parrots that are very suitable for Degus and Chins in particular. Our Jirds also have a couple to destroy. Rope perches are great for climbing animals to climb on and we use them to help them get up floors rather than ladders which aren't always all that safe. I also use the rough stone perches that you can buy to keep bird's claws worn down for the degus and jirds to wear down their claws. We also had a fantastic wooden parrot climbing frame at one point which the degus loved until it mysteriously changed into sawdust over time. Some chinchilla toy supplier are also starting to produce this sort of wooden toy aimed specifically at chinchillas and degus.

Wooden Toys

 There are a range of wooden small animal toys available in the pet shops that the chewy animals all love them. You can also give them branches of fruit woods (I use apple and pear - I believe that there are others that are safe but I don't feel confident enough about it to list them - other sites will have lists). You can also create your own toys from pine but make sure that there aren't any nails that can be exposed when they are chewed. The chins both like short, pencil sized, pieces of apple wood which they will come and take and then run off with and destroy. Lindsey emailed me to say her degus enjoy destroying wooden "dolly" style clothes pegs attached to the side of the cage - but don't use spring pegs as they may injure themselves on the spring whilst destroying them.



Chews

 There are a vast array of chews available for small rodents and they are popular with most of them although Guinea Pigs chew less enthusiastically than the others. Lava chews seem to get destroyed quite quickly in our household but cholla is also popular and I find I can hide small bits of food inside the smaller pieces for added interest. I'm not a great fan of the ready made chew treats as I feel that they contain too much sugar. Cuttlefish bones can also be given and are a good source of calcium. I got hold of a packet of small pumice pieces which my male degu loves - he carries them all upstairs and makes a lovely pile of them in his hammock.

Food Hiding

 Instead of making feed times easy why not hide some of their favourite food. When I have time I hide all of the Jirds food inside their boxes and toys around the cage so they have to find it to gather it up. This is less suitable for Chinchillas and Guinea Pigs who like to graze continually although you can get feed balls that have to be rolled around to get the food out which are quite good for Guinea Pigs (they are plastic so not so good for chins). Liz emailed me to say that she uses the plastic insides for kinder eggs with holes cut in to hide treats in for her gerbils - I would think that a lot of gerbils would chew the plastic but apparently hers loose interest when they've got the treats out.

Small willow balls sometimes have holes in them just large enough to get a raisin into (or at least one chopped in half). So instead of a raisin lasting between 1 (Spike) and 10 (Fluff) seconds they now take much longer to dismantle the ball and get the raisin out.I've also done a similar thing by taking a small piece of cardboard and rolling it up with the raisin in the middle.

Why not try hanging bits of vegetable on a string so that they have to chase it. You can buy toys with bells designed for this as well (Bunny Kabobs). Or I ram monkey nuts securely into the roof of the jirds cage so they have to hang upside down and chew them out (now I write it this seems a bit mean really!).



Always make sure that the grazing rodents (Chins, Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and Degus) have a constant supply of good quality fresh hay and water but apart from that making the food a little more difficult to find or get makes life more interesting.

Hay holding cubes are good for two reasons. The first is it makes it a little bit harder to get the hay out and the second is that it keeps the hay off of the cage floor and clean. I have them with my guinea pigs and they love to carry them into their hiding boxes so they can eat in peace using them to block the doorway so another piggie can't get in and turf them out. You can now also get a similar product that is a spherical hay holder on a chain, but make sure that it isn't somewhere that they can get caught up in it.

Dust Bath

 Everyone, with maybe the exception of guinea pigs, loves a dust bath with chinchilla dust. Chinchillas and Degus should have them but Jirds and Gerbils love them as well and it helps keep their coats nice. Our Persian Jirds are actually litter trained and only use an old steel chin dust bath as a toilet - I just make sure it's changed regularly. I am also starting to use this method with the degus as well to stop them peeing from the top mesh shelf. I believe that rabbits will also use one. If anyone has a Guinea Pig that likes a dust bath I'd love to hear from you - I tried Truff with one but he just ignored it.

Sunlight

 Not so much a toy as environment enrichment. The daylight animals (rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils, Shaw's jirds and degus) should have some natural sunlight. It is very bad for them to be stuck in the back of a dark room all day and can lead to health problems. Obviously hot sunlight in summer can kill them so it is important to be careful but if you can get them as much as possible in winter and some early morning light in summer they will appreciate it. My elderly gerbils used to love a sunbathe and the degus cage is in a position that they get the morning sun (see below). Guinea Pigs and Rabbits should, of course, spend as much time as possible out in a run on dry grass in the summer, with shelter from the sun. Guinea pigs prefer to keep out of the sun though and I tend to put an old sheet over the cage to make them feel secure. Chinchillas should get natural daylight during the day but are naturally nocturnal obviously they really will not appreciate sunlight at all. Persian Jirds are also nocturnal and I have never seen them sunbathe in the way that gerbils do.

Being allowed out

 How much your pets need to come out for exercise depends upon the size of their cage and whether they have a wheel, but they will all benefit from time out. Chinchillas particularly need to be let out and entertained (and watched like a hawk to stop them getting themselves into trouble, see the chewing page). When you first have an animal it will take them a while to be happy out of their cage. The best sort of exercise is to allow them to come out of their cage themselves and be able to get back in at any time. In this way they will naturally explore their environment and will not become stressed.

Guinea Pigs benefit from coming out sitting on your lap and being brushed with a soft brush - give them something to munch on and they will soon get used to it. Once they get tamer they also love to go for a good run either in a run outside or around the room inside. Smaller animals that are more difficult to catch such as gerbils and jirds can be allowed to come out of the cage and run around your arms and shoulders. We also used to exercise our gerbils by letting them run up and down the stairs with one of us at the top and one at the bottom. This is also a good opportunity to check your pet over to make sure that he/she is healthy. Remember ears, eyes, mouth, skin, bottom, feet!!

Company

 Most small rodents, with the notable exception of hamsters and female Shaw's jirds, like company. The best way to provide this is to get two animals that have always lived together to start off with. Introducing adult animals can be difficult but there is advice available on these pages and elsewhere on the web. Guinea pigs, Degus and Chinchillas are best introduced to a neutered member of the opposite sex. Male gerbils will accept a baby but female gerbils can be a problem to introduce. Persian Jirds just don't seem to care and usually seem to accept a friend very easily. My advice is not to get a pet to introduce unless you are happy to have two cages and keep them separately if things don't work out. If your pet is kept on its own it will rely on you for company and so you must pay him more attention.

Socks

 Clare emailed me about one of her favourite resources. She normally uses them for her rescue degus but I'm sure that some of the other small and furries would enjoy them. I would think natural fibre socks such as cotton or wool would work best for animals such as gerbils that will end up using them for nesting material, and it may be advisable to cut out any elastic.

Socks are a brilliant resource. I always have loads of odd, old and holey socks that i would other wise chuck away. You can put treats in the end of the sock, sew it up and wait to see how long it takes the animal to get to the treats. You can also hang them up from the side or top of the cage so the animal has to reach for the sock to chew it to get the treats out. You can sew several socks together in a line to make a rope bridge. Or you can use several sewed 'sock strings' that i use for rope bridges to plait them together and make a stronger longer lasting rope. Sock tunnels also work. Use a cardboard tube to open up one end of the sock with the other end of the sock chopped off. You can cut up old socks or other fabric and make a dig box. Scatter a few treats in amongst the fabric and watch as the animal spends ages digging around to find every last treat.

Chinchillas

 Make sure that you have read the General section before reading these chinchilla specific ideas.

Towel

 I have a towel in with my chinchillas that is folded in two and wired to the sides of the cage (so they can't remove it) on a high shelf. It is changed and washed regularly (Note: you really, really do not want to put a chin towel in the washing machine with your clothes!). My two love hiding and sleeping in it but I sometimes worry about whether it is really healthy for them. Spike in particular likes to sleep under it in all but the warmest weather. I think he likes the sense of being well hidden from everyone.

Cat Toys

 Chinchillas will often play with cat toys although they have a very short attention span. I bought a cat teaser and both of mine like to grab it and try to run off with it. They also have one of those cat pyramids that they hide in and sit on. You can get some amazing cat towers that I think would make good out of cage toys but aren't really suitable to go into the cage as they may not be safe when destroyed.

Perches

 Chinchillas like to jump between perches and there are a number available. There are both rope and wooden perches available for parrots, plus cholla which is hollow and made out of a dried cactus (no spines of course). You can also get chew toys made out of cholla. There is also a product called Leap 'n' Ledges and Sleep 'n' Ledges that are wooden ledges with a bolt on the back for easy attachment to the side of your cage. We have some in the Degu cage shown below and you could make your own from some pine and bolts from a DIY store if you are even vaguely practical.

Degus

Degu Cage.

All of the toys mentioned in the General section are suitable for degus. Degus are great because they always play with a new toy and rarely turn their noses up at them. The only degu-specific thing that we do is to suspend and old leather belt at the top of the cage which they love to sit on and destroy.

In the picture of the Degu's cage we have a Chube suspended from the ceiling and a stone parrot perch situated so that they have to use it to get up levels wearing their claws down as they do. They are also particularly fond of destroying small cardboard boxes.

Persian Jirds

 Make sure that you have read the General section before reading these Persian Jird specific ideas.

Persian Jirds love to climb things and destroy things and so many of the toys in the general section suit them. One of the main differences from the other animals on this page is that they are omnivorous and they store their food. This means that if you can face it they do like to have the occasional live food in the form of meal or wax worms. Because they store so much food we have also instituted what we call "starve night" - one night a week they are not fed. This encourages natural foraging behaviour - i.e. they have to actually dig up some of the food they have buried. Obviously we only do this once they have started to build a food store after they have been cleaned out. Persian Jirds are also particularly suitable for food hiding as they forage in the wild and it is more natural for them to have to find their food.

Guinea Pigs

 Make sure that you have read the General section before reading these Guinea Pig specific ideas.

Guinea pigs generally aren't very interested in the chew toys mentioned on this page. They do, however, love tubes and hiding places. Guinea pigs should always have at least one hiding place each and probably a spare one or two. In addition to cardboard and wooden boxes you can use the tubes and balls sold for ferrets as toys.

Guinea pigs need a lot more ground space to run around in than you get in the average hutch. They often will run around at great speed doing little jumps into the air (pop corning).

Once you have your guinea pig tame they will enjoy a run around the house and of course they will love an outside run in the summer. The best environment for guineas is of course in a run with a hutch attached in the summer so that they can let themselves out at will but you much be very careful that they cannot be got to by cats or foxes. In the winter they are happier and healthier indoors. See the guinea pig cages page for details of making a cheap indoor run.

A good guinea pig pen has enough space for them to run around plus boxes and tubes, something to chew on and unlimited hay (best kept clean in a hay rack or cube). We have removed the dividers in our hutch and replaced them with wooden boxes that they can run around the back of, so providing the maximum running room.

As mentioned above plastic rollaround toys (Boredom Busters or Treat Tumblers are two types) are sold for rabbits and these are great for putting your guinea pig's food in. Our guys have mostly pelleted food but I give them a small amount of fancy mixed food in a plastic ball that they have to push around to get it out. But you could put all of their pellets in one to make life more interesting.

Some guinea pigs will also indulge in rooting behaviour where they dig in their bedding to find food. I noticed that mine do it for bits of food that have fallen out of the food ball and dropped down into the bedding - there's quite large spaces in the Ecobed chopped cardboard that I am using these days. It's not necessarily something you'd want to encourage in shavings but with something like Ecobed it's possible to hide small amounts the fancy mixed food for them to find and dig out.

Truffle and Food Ball.
Truffle is easily amused pushing the treat ball around to get the nice food out.

Hanging their vegetables on Bunny Kabobs or just a piece of string will keep them amused for longer than just being put in their bowl. Check out some of the rabbit toy sites on the Pet Shopping page for more suitable toys.

Toys don't need to be expensive. I have heard of people stuffing toilet roll inners with hay for them to pull out and also Sarah emailed me to say that she wraps hay or food up in twists of paper for them to find.

Most importantly guinea pigs need company. Females live together happily and it is pretty straight-forwards to have a male neutered so he can have a girlfriend or even a harem. Since the sad death of Truffle, Charm now has a small harem of two piggies - they aren't the best of friends and a small amount of aggro breaks out now and again - usually just a bit of shoving and irritated grumbling. When two of them are grumbling at each other the other one always comes flying out to see what is going on!! If he hasn't had the company of one of his brothers from birth a male guinea pig is unlikely to get on with another male. Never keep a guinea pig on his own in a hutch in the garden - they should always at least be in the house where you can pay attention to him.



Back to Main Page