Chinchilla dust
 

I am so angry, I went into pets at home a few weeks ago and asked for the sand stuff you get for chinchillas, as I wanted to see if my hamsters would use it, I said twice that it was for hamsters. Well I was just reading a post on this forum and the stuff they have sold me is apparently dangerous, they have sold me chinchilla dusting powder instead of chinchilla sand. I understand that they are probably very similar but they are selling a product and they should know whether or not its safe. The hammies don't appear to have breathing problems but it could have been very different, sorry for the rant I just don't like the idea of putting my fur babies in danger.

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

Yes i know what you mean... I want to buy some for my winter white Sheldon, but im afraid i would open it up at home and see that its dust (can u actually see if its sand or dust???)... so maybe if i run into some that says SAND on it..huh really hard to decide and everyone is writing how their hamsters enjoy the sand, im confused:D

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

I had exactly the same problem the other day, I needed some more for my little fellas sand bath so decided to go to Pets@Home and we couldn't seem to find any so asked one of the workers where the Chinchilla bathing sand was that I could use for my hamsters and the woman looked at me in a rather confused way and asked us if we meant potty litter.
After explaining what we needed it for she lead us over to quite a big bag of what she said was Chinchilla sand but upon reading the description it was dust, not sand. I told her this was not suitable for hamsters and she said it was pretty much exactly the same, I was furious.

In the end we ended up going to a local pet store and picked up some 'Charlie Chinchilla Bathing Sand' it comes in a milk carton and is very good & inexpensive. I will be buying this from now on as I know it's safe to use.

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

I asked in store a while back, and they said they weren't sure. I said well isn't this what you use with your chinchillas? They use a different product they don't sell :roll: In the end I spoke to someone who confirmed that yes, the stuff they sell is dust not sand (so is not suitable for hammies).

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

I think I've seen that stuff in our local garden centre (they sell pets as well), I'll go and have a look tomorrow but they definately had some chinchilla stuff in a plastic bottle. I would rather pet shops say they aren't sure if its safe instead of guessing and putting animals at risk.

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

The sand actually feels like sand, very fine beach sand texture. The only one we have found that is suitable is the Charlie Chinchilla bathing sand and it comes in like a 2l milk bottle style plastic carrier.
You can also use silver sand (for lawns) but you need to bake this for a little while in the oven to dry and sterilise it. It works out a lot cheaper than Chinchilla sand if you do this though.

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

Ooh, I didn't know about this.
I guess i'll give it a go.
Thanks for the tip Souffle.

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

Where do you get it from? all I can find is dust :\ unless im not looking very hard, lol!

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

We get ours from the local pet shop but they may have it in the garden centre near you. You can also get it on line. It clarly says bathing sand on the bottle.

Re: Chinchilla dust
 

My local pet shop, Pampurred Pets (part of a chain in the South/South West), sells 1kg bags of Vitakraft Chinchilla Sandy, which is sand not dust. Its pretty reasonably priced too (sorry, cannot remember cost). Haven't found the Charlie Chinchilla stuff but may get some off internet to try.