Help, my Chinchilla won't eat!

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Berlin

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I've just got a chinchilla almost a week ago and bought Carefresh chinchilla pellet food for him. He's completely uninterested in his food and only eats his timothy hay. He loves raisins (I don't feed him raisins too often cause I know its just a treat). But he needs to eat some real food. I'm worried about him, maybe I bought a brand of food chinchilla's find unappealing?

If your chinchilla has a healthy apitite, please tell me what brand you feed him/her and where I can get it? Preferably something I can pick up at the local petco/petsmart
 
I feed mine Mazuri, which you can get at Petsmart, but gets expensive after a while because of how little the bag is. I order mine from qualitymutationchinchillas.com and there are a few people on here that sell it as well. Petsmart also sells Oxbow chinchilla deluxe, another good food for your chin. And there are people that sell it for a very reasonable price on here,as well. Try one of these and see if they work.
 
I feed my girl Mazuri, for almost 8 years I think, I tried to change to Oxbow pellets, but she got soft poops, so I continue to use Mazuri.
 
I feed mine PAN-R which is hard to find unless you have a ranch supply/feed store near by, but my chins love it. Just FYI, though--it's not a bad thing if your chin loves to eat just Timothy hay. So long as he's not losing weight and seems active and healthy, timothy hay is fine. It will wear down his teeth better than pellets anyway.
 
I feed mazuri pellets... Just leave it in there and he'll start to eat once hes hungry...
I like buying it online because its pretty cheap and i just trust it more...

Edit: I just learned you need to put the ' in he'll or it comes out ****
 
As mentioned, you should be able to get Mazuri and/or Oxbow pellets at Petsmart. If you have a feed store nearby, you might also want to try something like Purina Rabbit Chow Show (PRCS - the PANR replacement) or Manna Pro Sho - both high-quality rabbit feeds that will be much more affordable than anything from a pet store.

I would avoid raisins altogether - they don't handle sugar well. Healthier alternatives are plain shredded wheat, oats (the old-fashioned kind), and plain cheerios - all in moderation, of course.

Also keep in mind that he's only been with you about a week - he's still adjusting to his new home, so it may take a bit for his appetite and normal activity to pick up. A good habit to get into at some point is weighing him regularly to make sure he's not losing weight, especially if you're concerned that he's not eating enough. If he's chowing down on his hay, that's definitely a good thing, so I wouldn't be overly concerned at this point, but it would be a good idea to look into a higher quality feed anyway.

Good luck and welcome to the forum!
 
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