Mary Allen
Since chipmunks are loners, they are kept alone. So that they don’t get bored, you should employ them appropriately. You can find out how to proceed here.
Employing Chipmunks Sensibly
By their nature, chipmunks are very active animals who love to move around. They love to climb and explore the area. They mostly sleep at night and wake up during the day, which gives the owner many opportunities to contact and engage with and for the animal. The cute rodents love to discover new things and to be challenged. Therefore, there should also be some items in their enclosure that they can occupy themselves with. This is important if you cannot take care of your croissant all the time. Because they only like the company of conspecifics during the mating season, otherwise chipmunks tend to be loners.
Important: a Species-Appropriate Enclosure
The be-all and end-all for meaningful activity are first of all a species-appropriate dimensioned and furnished enclosure in which your chipmunk can really feel at home. Since the lively croissants like to climb, the enclosure or aviary should be a good two meters high and at least one square meter in area. Bigger is of course more beautiful! The height is ideal to equip the enclosure with many branches, branches, and floor seating boards that invite you to relax and climb. Bridges and tubes made of wood or cork, which are also hung at different heights, always offer the croissant variety. This is also ensured by a cozy hammock that can be hung under the aviary roof, for example.
Earth Baths are Used for Grooming and Promote Balance
Since wild chipmunks live predominantly in the forest, our housemates love to dig in the forest floor and wallow in the fresh soil – as part of their grooming. Now you cannot create aground in the crescent enclosure, but you can offer your rodent an alternative that will be great fun. What is meant is a digging box or an earth bath. To do this, take a shallow, larger bowl, for example, a litter box, and fill it with peat suitable for small animals from specialist shops. Look for the animal symbol on the packaging. The peat is filled into the bowl and the bathing fun begins.
Coconut Fiber or Chinchilla Bath Sand as an Alternative
As an alternative to peat, you can also use a coconut fiber bar from the terrarium area. The earth bar is crumbled in the shell and floated up with plenty of water until a beautiful natural soil is created that is irresistible to the forest floor for chipmunks and invites them to take a dip in the earth. Make sure to turn the soil regularly to prevent mold from forming. If it is very dry, you should moisten it with water so that it does not get dusty. If it is heavily contaminated with urine or feces, it is better to replace the soil. If your chipmunk doesn’t like peat or coconut soil, you can alternatively try dry chinchilla bathing sand from specialist shops. Each croissant is different and may prefer a different grooming material.
Toys and Other Opportunities
Chipmunks are very cute and have soft fur, but they are not cuddly toys. Nevertheless, you can deal with the animal together. If the enclosure is not too small, you can visit your Streifi and play with him. Perhaps it is also allowed to run a safe room without cables or plants that it can gnaw at and in which you can make friends. For example, some croissants like to run after a small ball that they can catch, push or roll. The toy should be about the size of a tennis ball but come from a pet store. Some croissants also find it exciting to run after people when they are slowly moving through the enclosure.
You can also hide chunks of food or nuts for the chipmunk to look for in the enclosure or outdoors. This even corresponds to their natural behavior, because animals living in the wild do not have a well-filled food bowl, but have to look for their food. To play, you can sit on the floor and hide some nuts in your pockets or in folds of fabric. The croissant’s fine nose will quickly sniff out the delicacies and climb around on you to get at the food.
Hide Food in the Toy
Of course, hiding chunks of food can keep your chipmunk entertained when you’re not home. The more difficult it is to access the delicacies, the longer the rodent will be looking for. You can also hide treats in toys. Refillable items are available from specialist retailers, such as a feed ball with openings from which the chunks fall out when rolled across the floor. With other toys, your croissant will have to open covers or drawers to get to the delicacies.
Cardboard Tubes or Egg Cartons Put the Chipmunk to the Test
Of course, you can also make toys yourself. The empty cardboard rolls of toilet paper or kitchen paper can also be filled with food or nuts. So that your chipmunk doesn’t have it too easy and also has to work for its feed, the cardboard tube is then stuffed with hay or strips of paper. You may be able to fold the ends of the roll inwards. In order to get the coveted contents, the chipmunk first has to get the stuffing material out of the tube and has a lot to do with it, depending on how much filling there is or how firmly it was pressed in.
Don’t worry, your chipmunk won’t leave you a mess afterward. It also takes away hay or paper after it has found the feed and brought it to safety. With it, it cushions its sleeping cave to be cuddly and soft. You may just have to dispose of the empty cardboard tube.
Other homemade toys are also suitable for chipmunks. Empty egg cartons that can’t be left with egg residue are also ideal for challenging your chipmunk. Various delicacies can be deposited in the depressions. Close the lid and put two to three circular holes in it and just put it on the floor. Since chipmunks are very curious, it usually doesn’t take long to explore the strange object that smells so seductive. Some croissants try to get the delicacies through the holes, others even manage to open the box. You can make the action more difficult for your rodent by adding unprinted, torn kitchen paper.
Conclusion
Keeping chipmunks busy is not that difficult. Because on the one hand they are very curious and on the other hand they are very patient when looking for food. With little effort, you can make great toys or keep your croissant busy with species-appropriate items from specialist shops. Then there is neither boredom nor stereotypical behavior.