Question:
I was just reading the "chinnie routine" thread, and I noticed that there are a lot of differences in how frequently everyones' chinchillas get dustbaths. I also noticed that no one gives them as often as I do because I have been giving Buddy one for a few minutes everyday. How often does everyone provide dustbaths? Is daily too often? Will it dry out a chinnies skin?


Answer:
I bathe them daily. They love it and it's the way they clean. I love my daily shower, lol. I don't have any problem with dry skin and my humidity is pretty low too.


Answer:
I know it depends on where you live. Since I live in the south, the humidity is horrible, and in warmer weather, I have to give baths with a little bit of powdered Tinactin in it everyday for about 5 minutes. During the winter I do it 2 times a week. I know it can dry out a chin's skin though.


Answer:
I do it every couple of days or so. It's really dry in my appart. during them winter. You should be fine as long as you keep an eye on them. It can dry their skin out in excess.


Answer:
How would I tell if he had dry skin? Could I just watch to make sure that he isn't scratching a lot?


Answer:
yup, I also tend to see it on the ears ( dry & flakey)


Answer:
mine was getting them briefly every night until recently, when my boyfriend banned nightly baths outside of his cage. Seems he doesn't appreciate the dust covered chinnie running from the bath over to him to perch on his lap. Some people just don't appreciate a good dust trail made by a hyper chin! So it's been cut down to every 3-4 days. Pocky's never had a problem with dry skin, and he does dearly miss his baths, but I think for now we're going to keep him going with this. At least until summer, I hear it can get pretty humid here in the summer.


Answer:
Ours get a dust bath anytime they have run time. Which generally is every night...very rarely but occassionally every other night. Of course unless someone has dry skin...Daisy has a tendency to get dry skin if she bathes to much, but I think that had a bit to do with her wanting to dust constantly when we first brought her home, now she's pretty good about limiting herself.


Answer:
In the winter I provide dustbaths once a week. In the summer 2 to 3 times a week depending how humid it is. Some of my chinnies fur gets more oily than the other chinnies so I provide more dustbaths for them. Because I dust with Blue Cloud their fur stays cleaner, longer.
Too many dustbaths can sometimes irritate the eyes as well.


Answer:
my house gets so dry in the winter time.. so I dont give them their bath as often as I would in the summer time.