Dumping Food?!?!?

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hermajesty

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I'm so glad this forum is back because I have a problem that I need help with so everyone put their thinking caps on! I have the two new chinnies... a father and son pair. They get along great. Every night however, the baby, who is 5 months, will go over to the food bowl and scoop the food out of it. Right now they are in the cage they have been in their whole lives because I am still waiting for their QC Mansion to arrive and I dont' want to put them in Louis' cage since he died in there and who knows what happened there and I am paranoid. So it is not like he is in a new place. So I gave him the coop cup which will be hhis new food dish in the new cage since it doesn't sit on the floor and he did the same thing. Any ideas as to why this is happeneing? do you think I need one of those feeders?
 
Are you in the process of switching them to a new brand of food? Sometimes chins will dig through the mixture looking for the food pellets from their original brand. A bunch of my chins did this when I switched from Tradition to Manna Pro. I have the J feeders and they still did it, so I don't know if switching the food container will help or not.
 
A feeder will probably make it worse- more food to dump! There are these parrot dishes with a hood that are ceramic, but that does not help much either. Have you tried putting the dish up high? So he can barely reach it?

Side note- what food are you using? My chins used to dump a lot of food when I used Mazuri, and now with PANR have no problems. Just a thought. Good luck!
 
Yes! I am in the process of switching of their food. So that's why! The mystery is solved! They were on purina I think (I think), but I have always had my chins on Mazuri, so I have slowly been changing them over. Hmmmmm. The cage they are in is two stories, with ledges and stuff, but it is not the greatest. I had moved the food dish to the top ledge a few nights ago, but on the ledge the food was tossed out from all parts of the cage, not just inside the cage, so I put it back to the second level.
 
I have a girl who is a dumper. Origionally I had put a small dish inside of a larger dish, that way what was thrown was saved. Now I have a higher dish so she cannot reach to dump. Worked like a charm!!!



Might be the food switch, but if not I would highly suggest trying it my way:thumbs:
 
If you can get one of those cups that attaches to the side of the cage it might be a good option to hang one an inch or so out from a shelf. They'll have to reach for the food, or perch on/in the dish, making it harder to dig out. Obviously, though, don't put it too far away.
 
That's what I tried...the kind that attaches to the side of the cage. It's called a coop cup I think. he perched on the side and scooped it all up. Pretty frusterating.
 
Ryu use to do the same thing he would jerk his bowl off the side of the cage n throw it BUT that was when he was mad about something SO I took the bowl off the side of the cage and have a heavy ceramic bowl in there and ever since i haven't had a problem
 
3chinsowner said:
:confused: Ugh! I'm having the same issue with my 2 boys. I also feed them Mazuri.
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I don't really want to hijack the thread by answering this, so sorry in advance.
How long have they been on the Mazuri? It could be that they don't like it anymore. I had a girl who did the same thing, pellets were either half eaten or dumped out of the bowl. Maybe it's time that you try a new food. Either that or it may not be fresh any longer. I wouldn't want to eat stale food. :D
 
Actually, they have only been on Mazuri for about 6 weeks, prior to that the breeder was giving them Nutrena bunny feed. But I only started noticing the wasted pellets in the last week or so. I got the bag of Mazuri from a member (buddie) here less than 2 months ago, so I don't think its because of the freshness.
 
Chip does that sometimes but he has been on Mazuri his whole life, it only happens once a week or so.
 
Sandi- did you get the Mazuri from me? If so, I know it's not a staleness factor as the bags of Mazuri I get are fresh from the mill. My feed store doesn't carry much Mazuri so only orders it as needed so every time I go get more bags it's never more than a month from the mill date.

I honestly just think chins are picky little buggers. In one of my cages, they only eat half the pellet and throw the other half of the pellet to the side. So it looks like they eat a lot, but they're only eating half the pellet :rolleyes:
 
alli713 said:
Sandi- did you get the Mazuri from me? If so, I know it's not a staleness factor as the bags of Mazuri I get are fresh from the mill. My feed store doesn't carry much Mazuri so only orders it as needed so every time I go get more bags it's never more than a month from the mill date.

I honestly just think chins are picky little buggers. In one of my cages, they only eat half the pellet and throw the other half of the pellet to the side. So it looks like they eat a lot, but they're only eating half the pellet :rolleyes:
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:wave: Hi Alli, yes I got the Mazuri from you, and I totally agree with you that its not a freshness issue with the pellets. After reading alot of posts on chinchillas and some of their behavior, I am starting to get convinced that it could just be my little boys being boys :halo: I'm going to stick with the Mazuri for now. But they know I'm watching them now ;)
 
I have 2 girls that are just flat out diggers! Bobo and GiGi dig their shavings around their cage and they also dig the food out of their dish and then eat it. Cage cleaning drives me nuts because after all my hard work the dig and rearrange. I fill their bowl everyday and by the end of the day the pellets will be scooped out and they're eating them. Those girlies are crazy!
 
My chin Chloe was doing that too. Turns out she was picking one pellet up and then dropping it without eating because she had tooth points and her mouth was hurting. I had to have her filed today for the first time.
 
I found that it is very common that chin dig out his food and spill over/ dig out some on the cage floor. You can control you feeding amount by feed less in the bowl. That will solve some waste. However, you can't expect chinchillla not waste some food. I think this is what they find it fun when digging out all pellet and find out the best. :D
 
I find the chins dump their food more often when the food has almost run out - at the bottom of the bag. I dunno, maybe it's just not as fresh?
 
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