Piglet chins

Does anyone else have piggy chins? Gizmo will literally line the whole bottom of his cage with his hay. Instead of eating his food it's as if he likes to make a nest out of it. He'll kick it out of his open dish. I am pondering whether or not I should get a hay rack since so much hay goes to waste. I wish I could tell him there are a lot of starving chinchillas out there so that he doesn't waste his food. Is this normal behavior for him to make a nest out of his hay?

Yes, it is normal, at least here it is. I have two cages with 5 chins total and I see them all yanking the hay out of the rack, nibble a piece here and there and toss it aside, but mostly I feel like they just want to make a huge mess with it. I toss 80% of their hay I would estimate. I feed several different hays and have tried every hay on the market...two of them have driven me nuts for over 4 years now trying to find a hay they love to eat :/.

I never had a problem with hay everywhere with my chinnies. I would get mad at my girl though because she would pick up a pellet with her paw, bite half it off and chew on it, throw the remaining half of the pellet onto the floor, and then proceed to grab another pellet.

No matter what kind of hay I feed her or what vessel it is served in, Lily will always pull/dump all of her hay onto the floor of her cage within minutes of it being given to her.

mk94 said:

I never had a problem with hay everywhere with my chinnies. I would get mad at my girl though because she would pick up a pellet with her paw, bite half it off and chew on it, throw the remaining half of the pellet onto the floor, and then proceed to grab another pellet.

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LOL Tia does that constantly! She doesn't pull her hay though. She *loves* hay... but I think that may be because her previous owners only gave her cubes, not delicious loose hay.

Fleury, my sweetheart boy chin who I found outside is pretty good about actually eating his food. Now, Sidney Crosby, my little girl, is a freaking diva! She does the "eat a bite of pellet and throw it down only to get another one" routine and she also throws her hay EVERYWHERE!!! My fiance and I were just talking about how much hay we have to throw away everyday because she throws it all over the cage. She will dig through it, throw it, and sometimes eats it. She is ridiculous! Im just glad she isn't the only one!