Toys and aviary furniture for chipmunks
Because chipmunks are intelligent they need things to keep them stimulated whilst in their aviary. The more different routes you can make for them to move around their home the better. I also recommend that every few months you change things around to keep them interested and happy. If you have more than one chipmunk in the same aviary, you will find the more hideaways and tunnels, ropes and ledges you can put in the aviary the better, it can dramatically reduce serious fights. This is also another reason you need to provide the largest aviary you can. If you can't stand up in their aviary it's probably too small.
Aviary furniture
I use the word furniture to describe objects such as tree branches, shelving and tubes. Branches can be hard to find as it's recommended you use branches from fruit trees, because other types of trees could be toxic for chipmunks. They like and need to chew, although they are not mad chewers so they will not destroy an aviary made from wood. Once or twice a year I buy a small fruit tree from a garden center to amuse my chipmunks. They will quickly strip the leaves from the tree, so afterwards I use the main stem/trunk in their aviary I also know someone with three fruit trees in their garden, so have been able to get larger branches from there. All tree branches should be washed as best you can, to avoid bringing in any diseases to your chipmunks. Other safe woods you could use are willow and oak. Years ago when I couldn't find suitable branches I was in a reptile shop and noticed they sold the bark from cork trees. The chipmunks seem to like cork bark, Acorn likes to sit on a piece, gnawing away at it for half an hour or so. Cork bark is quite expensive, but lasts a long time, and often comes in a tunnel shape if you find a big enough piece.
Cardboard tubes like the ones I mention on the nest box page are popular when used as routes to run through or hide in. These can be left on the floor of the aviary, suspended or fixed to the sides. Incidentally I often use plastic cable ties of different lengths to fix branches and tubes to the aviary wire mesh. Cable ties can be obtained from most hardware stores, often in drums of mixed lengths. You can connect several cable ties together if you need them to fit around a larger tube or tunnel.
My chipmunks like these plastic flexi tubes, shown on the left which are about three meters long and come in all sorts of colours. Mine have lasted several years, and are easy to wash in warm soapy water. You might also be able to use them in an outside aviary. I find them best used zigzagging them up the aviary secured by cable ties. I use about a 45 degree angle on the slopes. When you first get them they can smell a bit new, so I hang them up in another room to wait for the plastic smell to evaporate before putting in the chipmunks home. Although the chipmunks could easily bite through them, mine tend not to. I've always ordered mine from Petutopia over the years, never had a problem with a single order.
Giving your chipmunk places to take shelter in may mean you cannot always see them but they will be happier in their home' If you have more than one providing lots of hide aways and different routes around their home can cut down on fighting as they can get away from each other easily.
Some rocks, again from a garden center, can be good to place in a small pile at the bottom of the aviary Make sure the rocks can't tumble and trap a chipmunk. They enjoy sitting on them, exploring around them, and they help keep their claws nice and short.
Chipmunks like shelves a lot, they can be placed at different levels in the aviary. Mine occupy the higher ones mostly, and often like to watch the world from high up. I use ones cut from untreated pine and use melamine shelves for the ones I put their food bowls on. The shelves are not screwed down as I find they need to be removed often to be washed. I wash their shelves with hot water with a small amount of antibacterial washing up liquid.
Pet shops may sell leaping perches, these are small wooden platforms which are fixed to the aviary mesh by means of a single wing nut and two large washers. If arranged in two steps about 30cm apart,one higher than the other, you may find your chipmunk fascinated by them. Tyke used to spend hours leaping from one to the other. Because they are fixed to the mesh it makes them a bit bouncy. He was not short of stimulation in his life, so I'm sure this was not the madness described as stereotypical behavior.
See the yellow furry thing on the right, I came across these in a pet shop intended for birds to roost in. I've found my chipmunks use these a lot. I hang them either from the top of the aviary or from branches half way up the aviary Quite often a chipmunk likes to take a knapp during the day, and will often use one of these to kipp in, nice life isn't it!
When needed, I just bung them in the washing machine to clean (not the chipmunk, they clean themselves). I do have one chipmunk (Acorn) who will always spend ages chewing through the two bits of rope that secure them, but he's the only one of mine that does this. The ones he's chewed the tie ropes off of I just put on top of the radiators, they get just as much use there from chipmunks out on free range.
The photo is of Chloe who I unfortunately woke up to take the photo. It's Pickles behind looking sagely on whilst resting on a thing I made out of wood, which I call the Chip O Matic.
There's very little on the market which is specifically made for chipmunks, but fortunately chipmunks are just as happy with a bit of cardboard tube than a long flexi tube intended for a ferret. It depends how much time you have to think up and build things.
Each of my aviary's has a soft pet blanket scrunched up and put on a shelf high up. Chipmunks will often take a rest around midday, and appreciate snoozing on something soft and warm. They will also dive between the folds to shove as many nuts in the blanket as they can.
Most chipmunks like to run in wheels, but I have a few that will never go near them. When I first bought a wheel is wasn't touched for nearly a year. Younger chipmunks seem to use wheels more than the adults. I've had chipmunks that can seem quite obsessive, even spending most of the morning running on their wheel. To begin with I did wonder if perhaps the chipmunk was bored. But I've now found out that some chipmunks can stay using a wheel just as much as if the wheel is inside the cage or outside. If the chipmunk was bored it must be unlikely that it would still keep running in the wheel when on free range.
There are quite few types of wheel, in various sizes with some clipping on to the aviary mesh with others needing a shelf. I chose not to use the ones made of wire, as I notice they have the potential to trap the chipmunks tail or feet in their design. I now only order Wodent wheels, measuring 28cm in diameter. These are very safe for the chipmunks, last a long time and are easy to clean. I have tried ones with a smaller diameter, but they were thrown out, the chipmunks never liked the small wheels. The Wodent wheel must go on a shelf, and I find I need to secure them with a small piece of tape to stop them vibrating off the shelf. The wheels can be quite noisy, so you could place them on a small rubber car matt which makes them run much quieter. Or, you could ration there use by removing them from the aviary if the noise gets to you. After each time I wash their wheels, I squirt a tiny amount of 3 in 1 oil at the back of the wheel on the spindle. I then need to wipe any trace of oil which has spread with plenty of kitchen roll. The oil makes them run a lot smoother and quieter for a while afterwards.
I have also tried one other type of wheel which is promoted as being quieter. It does have more roller bearing's than the Wodent wheels and so is a little quieter. But I have tried different sizes of wheels and put both the types shown here next to each other and found the chipmunks prefer the Wodent wheels much more. I have to order the Wodent wheels on-line, and so far I have got mine from here http://www.petplanet.co.uk . The two Wodent wheels in the photo above have been in use a couple of years, with only very slight gnawing around some of the entrance holes. If you don't have many chipmunks you might want to try just one for now to see if yours will like them. With some chipmunks I've had to put a couple of wheels in the same aviary when they are really in demand. One chipmunk can often try to start using the same wheel which another is already running in, they have no concept of forming an orderly queue.
Inspired by something I saw in a pet shop, I had a load of branches or twigs from prunning an apple tree, so I cut them in to roughly equal lengths. Then drilled two small holes in each twig. When I had loads of these I threaded some green covered garden wire through the holes to make a rustic looking flexible bridge about a meter and a half long. Cheap but quite time consuming to make
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