she's the smartest rodent i ever knowed

we keep a ceramic bowl in the bottom level of chi-chi's cage for hay. she pulls all of the hay out and piles it next to the bowl. why? she poops in the bowl.

okay, so she poops in other places, too. that can't really be helped with a chinchilla. but the bulk of her poops are in the ceramic bowl. i guess that's what we get for giving her a potty dish (with carefresh in it) in her play room (our walk-in closet).

she's also the cleanest rodent i've ever known. she always kept things tidy. she'd put things in dishes or inside her house when she wasn't playing with/chewing on them. got a stick to chew on? keep it in a food dish!

what i recently noticed, though, is that she puts out her dirty laundry.

what?

she has one of matt's old get connected shirts (the gray ones that nobody wants) in her cage, on the second level. it's there so she has something soft to rest on. sometimes, she sleeps on it.

she's pretty good about not peeing on it (she pees on soft things... called carefresh). but she kinda failed at that earlier this week. her solution? she dragged the shirt down to the first level (on the carefresh). i put it back on the second level. she dragged it back to the first.

apparently, she doesn't want a peed-on shirt in the non-peeing area.

***

lola, on the other hand, pees in her (dust) bath, and continues bathing. and then smells like chinchilla pee. and that's why lola's not allowed to take baths unsupervised.