What makes a chinchilla cage different to a hamster cage?

The biggest difference is size. Chinchillas need bigger, taller cages because they lover to jump. Their powerful back legs give a chinchilla a quite amazing power which can only really be appreciated when you see them leaping around from platform to platform. To accommodate this, you need to give your chinchilla a large cage in which to play (probably three times as tall as a hamster cage).

The other factor that you need to take acount of in a chinchilla cage is indestructibility, because chinchillas love to chew. Because their front teeth are continuously growing they need to gnaw on hard surfaces to grind the teeth down, and if their cage is made of plastic, or has wood elements, then expect them to chew on those.

For that reason most chinchilla cages are made of metal wire mesh with some wooden shelves internally.