Home chipmunk

Homemade chipmunk - very clean-cut animal, which can not but rejoice. He always goes to the toilet in the same corner. You can not be afraid of the specific odor inherent in many rodents if you regularly clean the cage. But this does not mean that the contents of a house chipmunk should be treated negligently.

Home chipmunk is a moving animal, so he needs a large metal cage. Optimum cell sizes - no less than a meter inlength and height and 50 cm wide. Inside the cage there must be branches and driftwood, along which the chipmunk will climb up, the running wheel, and also a sleeping house with a size not less than 15x15x15 cm. You can use sawdust, hay or peat as a litter.

Home chipmunk, unlike many other animals, is active during the day and sleeps at night. It can not but rejoice: you can watch him during the day, and at night he will not make noise. In the cold season, your chipmunk will be less active: in nature, they at this time lie dormant. When kept at home, he,probably, and will not sleep all the time, but its activity will significantly decrease. During the hibernation, the chipmunk can not be disturbed, otherwise it can become restless and even aggressive.

Home chipmunk quickly gets used to people. It's easy to tame it, becausechipmunks tend to make stocks. He will beg your dainties, even if he is well fed, so you will quickly get used to taking food from your hands. If you do not frighten the animal with noise and sharp movements and will regularly feed it from your hands, it will quickly become tame.

The first couple of weeks is better not to let chipmunkFrom the cell, until he was used to it. And then you can let him take a walk around the room. But allow him to walk uncontrollably impossible: the excessive curiosity of a chipmunk can bring to disaster. If your house chipmunk is crawling up and down the cage, be sure to let him take a walk: this behavior means that he lacks living space.

With proper care and feeding, the house chipmunk can live about 10 years, although in nature because of diseases and predators the life expectancy of chipmunks does not exceed two to three years. But average life expectancy in captivity of course, is not 10 years, but about five (which is still more than in the wild).

To make your pet feel good, remember that chipmunks do not tolerate heat. Direct sunlight and temperature above 25 ° Care fraught with death from overheating. Therefore, it is important to make sure that in the cage of the animal there are always shaded places. But in the spring, while it's still not too hot, do not deprive the chipmunk of the opportunity to bask in the sun.

What to feed your pet? Home chipmunk eat virtually any cereal. But most of all he likes sunflower and apple seeds, nuts and cereals in the stage of milky wax ripeness. But it's strictly forbidden to give almonds to the chipmunk, this nut is poisonous for him! And the amount of peanuts and sunflower seeds in the diet should be dosed, because. they are very fatty. You can buy a ready-made dry mix for chipmunks.

It is also necessary from time to time to give a chipmunk to insects (grasshoppers, larvae of flour flour mushrooms). In small quantities you can feed the chipmunk with fruits, vegetables, herbs. Too much plant food can cause diarrhea, so do not overdo it.. Vegetables and fruits should be thoroughly washed or peeled.

Generally, a full-fledged chipmunk diet consists of a dry and juicy feed with small additions of insects or other sources of animal protein (raw meat, eggs). The solid food in the chipmunk's diet should be compulsory: if you give him only soft food, the incisors will not be worn and eventually grow so that the chipmunk can not eat and die from exhaustion.

The cell should always have clean water. It is best to use to feed waterfor birds: a saucer or a bowl chipmunk can overturn or enter there. Also put in a cage a piece of chalk, which the house chipmunk from time to time will gnaw.

Home chipmunk - funny, moving, trusting animal. If you comply with all the rules of the content, your pet will be healthy and live a long (of course, according to the chipmunk standards) life.