This is extremely common because of chinchilla activity levels. To help avoid this do not buy a ferret cage. There are a lot of ingenious people out there in Chin-Land who make their own cages. Try to find a bottle that hangs from the cage in a metal hanger. If you have to get a plastic bottle, and it isn't protected by a metal hanger, the chin will eat through it quickly.
Chinchillas love to sit as high as they can be.
If that means sitting on top of a food bowl 1 inch off the ground, then they'll do it. The yucky result is chinchilla poo and pee in the food. They can't eat it, can't sit on it easily, and they can't stick their rear ends in it. Chinchillas will eat about one or two tablespoons of chinchilla pellets per day. Try Oxbow Hay Company.