You can adopt a chinchilla around nine months old, but if you have younger chinchillas from a litter you can begin the potty-training process around six months old. [2] X Research source
While you wait, use the same bedding on the floor of her cage that you plan to use in the litter box. [3] X Research source You cannot use cat litter for a chinchilla, but there are several options for bedding that are safe, including kiln-dried pine shavings, newspaper, or clean straw (oat, rice, or wheat). [4] X Research source
You will need a litter pan, a litter scoop, and rodent litter. You can use a cat litter pan, but do not use cat litter, which rodents will ingest.
Very young babies pee everywhere, but chinchillas around six months of age or older will develop a habit of using a particular place in their cage or enclosure as the “toilet” in order to keep all of their waste in one place and not contaminate the rest of the living quarters. Avoid cleaning her cage for a week in order to observe where she typically pees. A very young chinchilla who pees all over the cage is not likely to be ready to potty train. However, if you find that she typically pees in one spot or a particular corner, you can begin potty training her. [5] X Research source
The goal for this step is to get her to begin associating the bedding itself with a toilet area. This step might take a week or two to gradually reduce the amount of bedding you put down in the floor of the cage.
The goal for this step is to help her understand that not only is the bedding the appropriate place to pee, but the pan itself is the toilet. Although you might prefer to change the litter every day, try to go a few days between changing it so that you don’t confuse her. As she gets more comfortable using her litter box, you can gradually begin to clean her box more frequently.
When and if you do decide to change it, do so gradually. For example, do not suddenly go from putting the pan on the far right to the far left. Slowly move it a bit each day until it is in the position you prefer. Likewise, if you want to change the type of bedding, do it gradually by increasing the amount of the new type of bedding you want to use and slowly decreasing the amount of the old type until you’ve replaced it entirely.
Set the litter box on the very bottom level of her cage, next to the place where she typically urinates.
Be sure to get all of the wet bedding. It carries a strong smell that will clue her in that you’ve moved her toilet.
When you need to change her litter box, be sure to keep back one scoop’s worth of urine-saturated bedding. Replace it on the top of the clean litter. This serves as a little signpost to your chinchilla to remind her that this area is the new toilet.
Gradually, she should figure out that you want her to pee in the box and not on the ground.
