What is the best food???

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Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
5
Location
Pennsylvania
We are getting 2 new chin babies on Saturday and I want the best for them. I am not an inexperienced owner, but not a pro yet either. I will take all the advice I can get and welcome it!

I have read and researched and seen so many different opinions on what they should have and shouldn't have that I think that I am more confused than when I got my first chin...

If I read no dried fruits and nuts or whatever then I see my friend is feeding hers just that and he's doing great... Makes no sense!

Thanks in advance for your help!
 

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The best food is a good quality pellet only food, like Oxbow, Mazuri, or Tradition, as well as plenty of hay. You are right in that you don't want to give chins fruits, or veggies either for that matter. They are too high in sugars and will lead to health issues like liver and kidney failure, diabetes, tooth decay, and obesity to name a few. Nuts and seeds are also bad because they are high in fat, which once again will over time lead to health issues. That food you linked aside from health issues, will also cause picky eating. The pellets are the food, the rest is junk food treats, so it's like giving a kid a bowl of Lucky Charms, they are likely going to eat the marshmallows and leave the cereal.

In addition to the no fruit, vegetables, nuts, or seeds, you also don't want to be feeding them any animal products (milk, meat, bone, eggs, hide, ect). Unlike most rodents they aren't designed to eat that kind of thing.

How old is your friend's chin? the average lifespan of a chin fed junk food is about 5-10 years, which is normal for a wild chin, but in captivity chins should live 15-20 years, some even longer. I think the oldest chin on record was around 30. So unless your friend's chin is in it's teens or 20s I wouldn't say they are doing great on it. The effects of junk food aren't always something that happens or is obvious right away, it can take years before you see the effects. It's kind of like someone smoking or drinking heavily, they may not die right away, but it doesn't mean it's healthy or that it's not doing damage that you can't easily see.

I think one of the biggest reasons that there is so much conflicting info about chinchillas is that they are still fairly new in the pet world, about 40 years. We are still learning the long term effects of things and what is truly best for chinchillas. People tend to stop doing research once they have had a pet for awhile, thinking they know it all by now. Same with big pet food companies (research is expensive) they do as little research as possible to sell a product and make money. However a lot of the info in books (and there for spread over the internet) is from about 50+ years ago when chins were first being breed in captivity. Rather then new info coming out in new books, with updated research and info, they are just copying the same outdated info into new books. For example I have a chinchilla book that was published in 2007, but looking closer it's based on data from 1956! A lot has been learned since then. It takes time to learn the long term effects of various diets on chins when they can live for 20+ years.
 
I appreciate you getting back to me.

Well, the friend's chin is probably just over a year maybe. I'm not sure...

I just want to do the best for my girls. (Don't even have names yet...) We've got them on the pellets that they have been on, and hay and purified water (not tap). They have had 1 little treat of an oat since they were so good in the car, but nothing else even though I want so badly to give them something every day.

Any other recommendations as far as hay or supplements or whatever?

Thanks again!
 
How old are your chins? My understanding is chinchillas under 6 months old should really only get grass hay and high quality pellets. The highly recommended brands I've heard are Oxbow and Mazuri.

After 6 months old they can have one treat a day such as a plain bite size shredded wheat, a pinch of oats, rose hips, or a plain cheerio. There are a few other safe treats I can't recall right now.
 
As far as hay, the primary hay should be the opposite of what the pellets are, so if the pellets are timothy based, feed alfalfa, if the pellets are alfalfa based (most are) feed timothy. In addition to the primary hay though, any grass hay is good, timothy is just the best balanced hay, but most chins love a variety. Mine get timothy, and a something else, like mountain, meadow, oat, orchard, or whatever I can find at the pet store. They also get alfalfa hay cubes.

Chinchillas don't really need any supplements unless there is a specific problem. The good quality pellets contain the nutrients that they hay may be missing, creating a balanced diet. Some things sold in pets stores like the salt and mineral blocks will actually do more harm then good.

As said though, no treats if your chin is under 6 months, they need all their belly room for good food not treats to grow. For young chins, better "treats" would be unique grass hay or pieces of hay (some chins really like specific parts of the hay like the fluffy bits) or wood chew sticks, both of those things can be given unlimited. Treats, once the chin is old enough really should be kept to a max of one a day, mine get treats a couple times a week, but new chew sticks every day. Some other treat ideas are certain herbs, Fuzzies Kingdom has a good list. In case you think a single treat is a really small amount, a chinchilla's stomach is only the size of the tip of a pinky finger. So if you compare the size of the treat to the tip of your finger, you should get the idea.

Oh one more thing, I advise going with sticks from one of the vendors on here, pet store bought chew sticks tend to be over priced, old, and so over processed so most chins don't actually like them. You can also get a wider variety of wood types on the vendor sites, along with chin safe toys, treats, and cage stuff.
 
Ok... The new babies are 3 months. Born in September.

This article is one that makes me angry & confused. http://pets.amerikanki.com/safe-unsafe-foods-chinchillas/amp-list/

I just want to do right by them. We don't give processed sticks, only organic, natural. We love Fuzzies Kingdom! But I wanted to make sure that was okay for the littles...

They were started on Manapro & Managro so if I don't have to switch I don't want to, just give other things to balance their diet & keep them entertained.

Thank you all again for the input! So appreciated!
 
Well, that article is not completely wrong, and does make some good points but is also confusing how it's written. Although chinchillas in the wild do eat a variety of seeds, fruits and nuts, it actually isn't healthiest diet for them, which is one reason why wild chins normally only live 5-10 years. A proper high quality pellet plus hay already is going to contain all the vitamins and minerals that a chin needs, minus the added fat and sugars that they don't. Personally I prefer just giving no fruits, as the article even says it's like candy, and with them being so small it's too easy to give too much. Also why give it when there are much safer healthier options? If you never give the chins the unsafe treats they will never know what they're missing so wont care.

I do agree on limiting the pellets to around a couple table spoons worth a day, but that is all most normally eat anyway, so it's not really an issue. It's only really an issue if the chin is a pellet hog and refuses to eat their hay, which should make up about 70% or more of their diet. As I said though, for hay if you are already feeding an alfalfa hay based food you want to feed a grass hay (alfalfa is a legume not a grass) to balance out the diet. It looks like the Manna rabbit foods are alfalfa based pellet, and both are acceptable for chinchillas, I would assume the Gro one is just until they are grown though (I don't personally feed it but I know others do). Alfalfa is high in calcium, too much calcium can cause bladder and kidney stones in some chins as adults. That's why you want grass hay instead of alfalfa, if you are already feeding alfalfa in the pellets. Though young growing chins can use the extra calcium so alfalfa hay is fine for them for now.

On another side note about hay, different types and cuts of hay require different ways of chewing it. So they each wear down the teeth differently, meaning variety is good to help encourage even tooth wear.

By processed wood sticks I meant, scrubbed cleaned, boiled (optional), and baked dry. You don't want to give fresh sticks to a chin, it can have stuff on it and/or in it that you can't see. They can also get moldy if not fully dried, which is obviously dangerous. What I meant by the pet store ones being over processed is they can sometimes be sterilized (with bleach or something else) and over cooked, making them safe, but possibly brittle and flavorless.

The treats from Fuzzies Kingdom would be for when they are a few months older, but are a way better option then most other treats. I don't personally buy from her since I live in Canada, but I definitely use the site as a reference and have chatted with her about natural treats, (she is Tanya on the forum here) she knows her stuff.
 
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