Dried herbs as treats?

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering what your opinion is about certain herbs for chinchillas! Chamomile, lavender, hibiscus, peppermint, and other tea/potpourri herbs seem like they would have therapeutic qualities to them (they certainly do for humans) and I was wondering if they are safe for chins and in what quantity?

Also I've heard that adding certain things like this to their hay manger would be good as well because it would support foraging. Is this true? And/or would a little bowl, separate from their pellet bowl, be good to put these in mixed together as a treat?

Let me know your thoughts!

~Brian

I trust Tanya completely and have ordered herbs, etc. from her for a long time. Take a look at her website....
Www.fuzzieskingdom.com

As the above poster mentioned, fuzzies kingdom has great herbs. Also, Chinchilla City sells some herbs as well, like hibiscus and rose hips: www.chinchillacity.com

Personally, I'd put the herbs in a separate bowl, like a treat bowl. By mixing it in the hay or even pellets, then the chin is likely going to dig around to get the herbs out. Once the hay or pellets hits the cage floor, most chins won't touch it or will pee in it.

It'd be really cool if someone could get together a member approved list of these and dried flowers and stuff for chins. I would but I haven't used many herbs and don't know their effects- all I could really do is gather info from store sites. I know there's quite a few members who sell mixes or herbs for certain issues and some flowers just as treats, but a cumulative list of what, how much, and what their effects are on chins would be nice. It could also have agreed on chin safe treats- new members ask that a lot and a sticky of all the info would be nice to have to point to like the safe wood list there is.

I also agree about it being seperate from hay/pellets. Maybe spread it around the cage/hide in chew stick piles or in loofah toys for foraging fun? Pellet picking and pulling out hay just means wasted food here. As if it turns inedible not in the container.

I've been feeding Tanya's Broad Spectrum Supplement for about a year now and they all love it. Two of them popcorn and wall surf as soon as they see me coming with it. I usually feed them by hand, as I have one piglet in each cage that will devour all of it if given the opportunity. If the slower eater has gotten his/her allotted amount, I'll sprinkle the rest in with the pellets. Mine actually seem to eat more pellets to get to the good stuff that fell through to the bottom of the bowl.

That's interesting Laurie.
When I put herbs in their food they seem to waste the pellets to get the herbs that fell to the bottom.
I guess its just a trail and error thing (like everything with chins). Try it and see how your chins do. If it works, great. If not, a separate bowl might be needed.

Yeah, it sounds like it's chin-specific... or maybe mine are just abnormal. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. )

Like BooBoo said, it's a trial and error process. Figure out what works for you and go with that.