Although a chinchilla may be categorised along with a hamster or guinea pig, as a pet that lives in a cage, they are very different in many respects.
Mainly they need more space because they are great at jumping and leaping and need the room in their cage to be able to properly exercise.
But a big cage alone is not sufficient.
For a start it is rather boring for your pet and they love variety to play and explore (although it is a good idea to keep their food and water locations static).
The first accessory you should get for your chinchilla cage are shelves.
The typical chinchilla cage will be of a wire mesh construction, and some will come with one of more wooden shelves fixed around it.
These are great for your chinchilla to jump to and from, and to sleep on away from the litter tray at the base of the cage.
But over time these fixed shelves may become very regimented and also quite chewed.
It is easy to add extra shelves, from simple sawn and planned planks.
Use new wood as your chinchilla will chew these shelves and old and particularly painted or stained wood may harm them.
Fix these shelves into the cage with small hooks that can hang over the wire mesh and enable the shelves to be easily moved around the cage for variety.
Next you should add a sleeping box for your chinchilla.
Although they will sleep on shelves (and often on the top of a sleeping box rather than inside it), a box gives your pet somewhere to hide away and feel safe, particularly if the cage is situated in a room that is generally noisy during the day.
A sand bath is also important as your chinchilla needs to regularly roll in the special fine sand in order to keep their fur in good condition and watching your chinchilla roll in their sand is a lovely sight.
There are various baths available, some that work well to contain the dust.
Alternatively you may want to only leave the sand in the cage for short period so that it becomes contaminated less quickly.
Your chinchilla will also need something to chew to keep their ever growing teeth short.
A simple breeze block in the bottom of the cage (or half a block to better fit your cage) should be perfect and will enable your chinchilla to grind their teeth, as well as giving them a different surface to sit on.
Finally add a multipurpose climbing and chewing accessory - a branch from a tree.
This should be quite thick so they do not chew through it straight away, and a diameter of a couple of inches is perfect.
A branch from a tree like apple is great as the wood is not harmful to your chinchilla.