Updated
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This is the Second Paul Spooner Chinchilla cage I have bought and the Big question is…."How can this improve on the first cage". I have therefore included the old Review below, so you can compare the benefit in paying the extra for the new cage.

We have 2 Chinchillas and after 6 years of living happily together have now developed the habit of fighting during the night, so we need to invest in a new cage that could suit them better. It seemed a shame to let them live in 2 separate cages after living together for so long. The main requirement was a cage that could be quickly split into two seperate living areas.

Delivery
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This was a little bit of a problem for us last time, but I am glad to say this time delivery was perfect. The Chinchilla cage is still delivered on a Wooden pallet, but this time is covered in strong cardboard. I feel this method greatly improves protection for the cage during transit. We even managed to get the delivery driver to take the old wooden pallet away with him!

The price of delivery was £35.00 which includes insurance, in case its lost or damaged in transit.

What's New?
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The Chillavilla cage prices now start at £115 (Plus postage) for the standard cage including the following spec

Cage specification; Size approx. 36" x 18" x 48" high, Two Levels, Two Doors, Ramp, Four Wood Shelves,
Built in Hayrack, Water Bottle Holder/protector, Slide in Galvanised Steel Droppings Tray.

They have now added optional extras to the Chillavilla cage range

The main addition is a chillavilla cage that can be easily converted into two separate living areas, by a moveable centre ramp that locks shut into a door (Photo Below) . I found opening and closing the central ramp to start with difficult, but I have soon got the hang of it. The Central ramp and doors are locked into place by a fastener shown in the photos below

The Cage now comes with an optional extra of a centre droppings tray . Our advice is to pay the extra £20 for it, as its worth is a hundred times this! Before this, our Chinchillas could pee on each other from the top of the cage to the bottom.

The result was that droppings and urine would fall into their food bowl, and would also stain their nesting box which was situated at the bottom of the old cage. The new cage does not suffer at all from this problem and now requires far less cleaning.

With the help of splash guards we end up with next to no mess on the floor. Any little Chinchilla droppings that the chins knock over the side are now redirected into the cage.

The guards can be removed for cleaning in a couple of seconds and are very easy to fit.

Since we have had these the mess on the floor has been reduced to nearly zero. As we have recently had a baby, this is very important for us.

The Guards which are fitted behind the shelves are £15 for a set of 4. Two long ones for the length of the cage and two short ones for the width of the cage.

Conclusion
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We were delighted with our old Chillavilla and when our Chins decided to fall out we were upset that we had to part with it, as it was everything that our Chins had needed. However, once we found out that we could invest in a new Chillavilla that could be seperated into two cages if necessary, and the added extras such as the splash guards, we were more than happy to pay £200.

I am very impressed with the new cage. The additional centre dropping tray and splash guards really do make a difference hence the whole cage now has a much cleaner and fresher atmosphere, which is sure to be healthier for our chinchillas, and our young child.

My overall opinion is that the £200 has been money well spent.

Old review for reference.

I have now kept Chinchillas for seven years, and during this time have had four cages. This is a review for the various people who I have made friends with via Chinchilla Forums over the years and for people I dont know, but who are looking for a new home for there fluffy friends.

I hunted high and low for cages in my local pet shops without success. Nothing was big enough even on special order that would be an improvement on our present cage. I hate buying on the internet as things never go right for me, but this time I had no option but to go looking via the Internet.

Choosing my cage.
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I came across a few good websites that looked promising

http://www.johnhopewell.co.uk/c_cages.html - The reason I did not order is that the cages were not tall enough for us.

http://www.chillaquip.freeuk.com - This is the site I ordered from

We ordered the Chillavilla Cage which is expensive at £120.00 plus £35.00 delivery . But is it worth it??

I hope this review will answer this.

The Cage Specification: 36"long x 18" wide x 48"high. Two Levels, ramp, four wood shelves, built-in hayrack, water bottle holder/protector, slide-in galvanised steel droppings tray, two doors. A picture of the cage can be found at http://www.chillaquip.freeuk.com/chillavilla.htm

There were other sites that I was put off buying from for various reason, but the most serious was unsafe cages. One of the big things to look for is the highest distance the Chinchilla can fall before he hits the bottom. Some were as much as three foot and therefore they could cause serious injury or worse death. The biggest distance is 18 inches with this cage, but normally no more than 10 inches drop depending on where the Chinchilla is.

One thing to watch for is that the Chinchilla has easy access into the cage when they come out for a run around the house? We had a cage that the Chinchilla had to jump about two foot to access the cage. Easy when they had learnt how to do it, but a pain to get them in again. The Chillavilla is very accessiable with the door opening downwards to touch the floor, therefore it makes a handy ramp for the Chins to run up and down.

Another safety point is the size of the mesh the cages are made from. Too Big a gap and the animal could hurt itself by catching it legs and perhaps break its limbs. Two small a gap would spoil the fun for the

chins as they like to climb. The mesh used on our cage is perfect.

The doors on the cage are big enough to get nesting boxes and sand baths in and out without any problems.

He answered my questions sent by email within 24 hours and was always very helpful. I ordered by telephone as he does not have a secure web ordering site, but he does mention this on his site and asks for no Credit card numbers to be send via email.

Delivery
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It costs a lot for the delivery, but you will see why when its deliveried. When you order he rings you back with a date for delivery and a telephone number of the branch that will deliver it. They will give you an approximate time The normally delivery is 2 days but we recieved ours the next day. Weekend deliveries are not possible.

The cage comes an a wooden pallet which is about 1 metre square. The cage sits on top and is wrapped in plastic cling film which does not offer great protection. On the top of the cage is a cardboard box which should protect aginst top impacts. Our cage was damaged as pressure had been applied to the top of the cage and therefore it bent the sides where the tray sits. Easy to fix with a block of wood and a hammer!. Perhaps some wood jammed in the sides during transit would protect this soft spot.

It is bulky when its deliveried so dont expect it to go through the front door!. The delivery men left ours in the garage.

Whats the Chins say!.
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They love the cage. They have never been so happy. They have so much space to either be together or be apart when they fight. The space is unclutted so they can dart about the cage without running into things. If fact for the first week they did not want to come out and play at night, they prefered to stay in their new home.

What the cleaner said!
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Jill loves cleaning it as its far simpler than our past cages as its a case of pulling out a sliding tray rather than pulling the bottom off and hoping the chins would not escape.
This cage is far cleaner and therefore heathly for our Chins than past cages.

One problem that we have come across is the Chins wee from great heights now. They have never done this before and we are temporarily putting cardboard underheath the shelves to try and get them to forget about doing it. Nothing to do with the cage, but they now prefer the higher levels to see whats going on.

Verdict
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The cage is well built, strong and becomes stable when saw dust is added in the bottom of the cage. The price is expensive but the cages are handmade to order. On his website he says " You may find cheaper chinchilla cages than ours from supplies who use inferior materials or dont understand the correct requirements of the Chinchilla. In 100% of cases where our cages are compared with others, our cages are chosen". I am in total agreement as this product is far superior than anyone elses. Other than the slight problem on delivery when I managed to sort myself without returning the cage I cannot see any problems or downsides to this cage. The cages are send with insurance built into the postage charge against damage on during delivery.

Paul Spooner is a well respected Chinchilla breeder with over 200 Chinchillas. I found him great to deal with and will be more than happy to deal with him again.