Chinchilla — life stage (owner-practical care, Merck Veterinary Manual pet-owner)
Source: first-hand Merck Veterinary Manual pet-owner text, saved to source_file; every claim below is a C1 byte-substring of it.
Claims
If the cage has wire mesh, the openings should be small enough that a chinchilla won’t get its legs stuck.These openings should be no wider than 1 by 2 inches (25 by 50 millimeters) on the sides of the cage and ½ by ½ inch (15 by 15 millimeters) on the bottom.Make sure any wood in the cage is safe and not toxic (see the table below).Don’t leave the dust in the cage too long or it will get dirty with droppings and food.Keep your chinchilla's cage in a quiet place during the day so that it can rest.Wire bottoms help keep the cage clean by letting droppings fall through, but chinchillas also need a solid area to rest on so that the bottoms of their feet don’t get sores from standing on wire all the time.Let your chinchilla out of the cage every day for supervised playtime in a safe, chinchilla-proof room.Pregnant females should be handled only when necessary, to minimize stress and the risk that they will have a miscarriage.
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Source: pdf-raw/owner-care/merck_chinchilla.txt · https://www.merckvetmanual.com/all-other-pets